I was in prison yesterday, visiting clients and potential clients. Between meetings, I sat in a professional visiting room, where so-called "contact" visits are allowed: in other words, I was able to shake my client’s hand; there was no barrier separating us. The door to my room was open, and I looked across a hall, and through a plexiglass window, out on row-upon-row of booths set up for ordinary visits. Each booth permitted an inmate to visit with folks sitting on the other side of a plexiglass window; the parties communicate by means of a telephone, and the booths are separated by...
April 27, 2011
The line really isn’t all that hard to recognize, but when it is crossed, it forces wonder about how often such transgressions occur. It would be so easy to do. Sixty-three-year old Charles Daum, a criminal defense lawyer in Washington, D.C., is accused of manufacturing evidence to assist a client at trial. Daum, a solo practitioner, and two private investigators, now face criminal charges.
Much though I am suspicious of the government -- indeed, most days it is fair to say that I hate this imperious abstraction and its capacity to destroy whatsoever stands in the way of its...
April 25, 2011
A cold rain passed over our fields yesterday; all was damp, and chilly. It was a good morning to sit by the fire and wonder whether the Spring would ever come. And then the rain stopped. Odysseus, one of our border collies, coaxed us out of the house. He was on to something. What pushed the windy rain across the land was warm air. All at once, it felt as though Spring had arrived. This morning, Easter Sunday, made it official: Another season has passed, and now begins another round of life-giving warmth.
Not a moment too soon, I say. This was a savage Winter. We walked our property...
April 24, 2011
Mark DuBois retired the other day. He did so without fanfare, simply walking away from state service and back into private practice. I am sorry to see him go. Although he was the state’s top cop for policing lawyers, and therefore at least a potential foe on any given day, he brought a measure of good sense and realism to the job of Chief Disciplinary Counsel. The Judicial Branch should avoid the temptation to replace him with a zealot, although I understand that may well be the desire on the part of judges eager to police the bar.
DuBois’s tenure was marked by swift and...
April 21, 2011
April 19, 2011
Criminal defense lawyers know an elemental truth: you cannot be in two places at once. But it sometimes happens that two calendars are called at the...
April 19, 2011
We stood in the well of the court, backs turned to the packed gallery. The man spoke of his pain, his sorrow, and his grief. "You have destroyed my...
April 16, 2011
The trial and death of Socrates stands alongside that of Jesus of Nazareth as a milestone in our civilization. What these deaths signify is far from...
April 14, 2011
I've missed the bright lights of the city, living as I do in the country. My main office is a couple short miles from where I live. The morning...
April 14, 2011
Connecticut lawmakers are missing an opportunity to save money, improve public safety and enhance public confidence in the courts. The legislation is...
April 7, 2011
The only real obstacle standing in the way of Connecticut’s abolishing the death penalty seems to be special pleading arising from the Cheshire...