During the past 30 days, an average of three people were shot to death by police officers each day in the United States. It was a particularly bloody month. For all of 2015, the average number of people shot to death by police officer was 2.7 per day.
As if that were not bad enough, as of the end of August, more than 80 police officers were killed in the line of duty, 23 by non-accidental gunfire. In the past several days, at least two officers were shot to death, one in Houston for no obvious reason other than he wore the uniform and badge of a law enforcement officer, the other...
September 3, 2015
I’m all for civility at the bar, don’t get me wrong. Fighting with words doesn’t bring out the best in people. Lawyers ought to make a special effort to leave the conflicts on the record, where they matter. What goes on in the hallways is a different matter.
So I was surprised the other day when I was on the cusp of dropping a few expletives in the doorway to a courtroom. I share this story because I think there is a difference between civility and passive-aggressive whining.
Hartford’s criminal...
September 2, 2015
Every defendant has a mother, of this much I am certain. If there were justice, I am nearly as certain, many of these mothers, rather than the defendants themselves, would be behind bars.
Harsh words for mothers, you say?
Come. Take a walk on the wild side. Let me show you a thing or two, and see if you still think me too bold.
A man in his 30s is accused of beating his girlfriend senseless. She’s suffered a traumatic brain injury. She stands by her claim the defendant assaulted her while enraged. In fact, the defendant has previously been accused of violence toward...
August 26, 2015
I'm not sure how much money was spent on the renovations to the Elm Street courthouse in New Haven, but it wasn't enough. Sure, the courthouse looks pretty, although there are those embarrassing holes drilled in the stairs approaching the front door where contractors miscalculated where to sink the railings. Athena's got holes in her robe.
But inside, where it matters, plenty was left undone.
The courthouse is home to Geographical Area 23, the criminal court serving New Haven, East Haven and a few other surrounding towns. It's an accused's first stop in the criminal justice...
August 26, 2015
August 20, 2015
My first instinct was to shrug the call off, to regard it as unnecessary alarmism. But the caller was a lawyer I respect, and would turn to in a...
August 20, 2015
I’ve heard lawyers say that trials are won or lost during jury selection. To that end, the well-heeled spend tens of thousands of dollars on...
August 13, 2015
I doubt there was much celebrating on Connecticut’s death row today, where 11 condemned men sat, some for decades, awaiting execution. Not one...
August 13, 2015
A good friend called the other day. I was unable to take her case due to a conflict. Who would I call if I needed help? she asked.
That is a...
August 11, 2015
The numbers are hard to believe, even if the source of them, The Washington Post, is highly credible. As of August 10, 2015, 598 people...
August 9, 2015
There is a school of thought that holds there is no such thing as bad publicity for trial lawyers. Thus all manner of lawyers blog,...