Dominique Strauss-Kahn was all smiles yesterday as he strolled out of a Manhattan courtroom, the conditions of his pre-trial confinement reduced to the vanishing point. Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan District Attorney, all but conceded that there are reasons to doubt the complaining witness’ tale of rape. “Our office’s commitment is to the truth and the facts,” he said.
This is a garden variety sort of sexual assault case pitting claims of a plutocrat’s lust against the allegations of a gold-digging immigrant. Strauss-Kahn claims there was...
July 2, 2011
Tim Moynahan has been practicing law longer than many readers of this post have been alive. He's a hero of mine, and so I asked him to read my new book, Taking Back the Courts. Here is his take. I hope it inspires you to read the book, which available at Amazon.com.
"One of Norm Pattis’ heroes, Clarence Darrow remarked, “Inside every lawyer is a wreck of a poet.”Read this book! It possesses the lyricism of a sensitive and learned intellect, the unembellished integrity of a seeker of fundamental fairness and equality before the bar of justice and it heartily...
July 1, 2011
James “Whitey” Bulger a hero? Not really. Not ever. He stands accused of murdering 19 people, and has a list of charges longer than Pinocchio’s nose at tax time. But Bulger’s name can go down in the annals of law enforcement right next to former Senator Frank Church’s, whose committee, in the 1970s, stunned the nation with tales of law enforcement misconduct regarding the CIA and FBI and domestic dissent. Bulger’s legacy can be the light shed on confidential informants, a tool used routinely as part of an arsenal of deception the Government uses in the...
June 30, 2011
I learned many years ago never to reject a gift given by a prosecutor. So yesterday, after a jury was selected and we were about to begin evidence in a statutory rape case, I tried to keep my mouth shut when the prosecution announced it was dropping the case against my client.
Yeah, that’s right. Dropping. As in no mandatory prison sentence, no felony conviction, no registration as a sex offender, no treatment as a sex offender as a condition of probation. My client walked out of the Danbury courtroom and into the arms of his family a free man. Period. No questions...
June 29, 2011
June 28, 2011
The federal government might have James “Whitey” Bulger, 81, in custody, but Bulger, an alleged former crime boss accused of...
June 28, 2011
Among the many rules of thumb a criminal defense lawyer consults in the day-to-day practice of law is the following: Delay always favors the defense....
June 26, 2011
In the glory days, when Clarence Darrow argued from morning ‘til night, and crowds fought for a seat in the gallery, a criminal trial was both...
June 23, 2011
Paul Gilding doesn’t mince any words. Things are going to get bad. Very bad. What will be required is a mobilization of social resources, a...
June 22, 2011
I got a chance yesterday to see what freedom looks like: freedom is a man still dressed in his orange prison jump suit springing from the passenger...
June 19, 2011
In the blood-sport that is capital litigation, ends often justify the means. The fight to save a client’s life can yield conduct that lawyers...