Word of a new trial for Michael Skakel, a distant member of the Kennedy clan, spread quickly through the Connecticut bar. Some folks gloated over the fact that Mickey Sherman, his lawyer, had been so thoroughly laid to waste by Judge Thomas Bishop’s 136-page decision ordering the trial, a devastating critique that found Sherman’s representation of Skakel so throughly incompetent that it called into question the reliability of the conviction. “Icky Mickey,” some muttered.
Other lawyers, especially those on the criminal defense side of the aisle, those foxhole...
November 1, 2013
Those skeptical about the efficacy of habeas corpus petitions in the State of Connecticut will be watching the Michael Skakel case carefully. Judge Thomas Bishop just granted the writ, a rare enough event, finding that the trial performance of Skakel’s lawyer, Mickey Sherman, was deficient as a matter of law. A new trial has been ordered for Skakel.
The decision is a devastating indictment of Sherman.
“The defense of a serious felony prosecution,” Judge Bishop wrote, “requires attention to detail, an energetic investigation and a coherent plan of...
October 24, 2013
Keep an eye on the case of State v. Lishan Wang, soon to be argued in the Connecticut Supreme Court. It has the potential to force significant and fundamental changes in the state’s criminal justice system.
Dr. Wang, 47, is charged with murdering Dr. Vanjinder Toor in 2010. The two men were former colleagues, then Dr. Wang’s medical career hit the skids, and he blamed Dr. Toor for forcing him out of medicine. The shooting, police and prosecutors believe, evened the score, a classic revenge killing.
The case is before the Supreme Court even though there has yet to be a...
October 24, 2013
It’s hard to understand why some folks are outraged by the decision of the Connecticut Board of Pardon and Parole to grant clemency to Bonnie Jean Foreshaw. It’s not as though she was given a mere slap on the wrist after her conviction for the shooting death of a pregnant woman. Ms. Foreshaw has been behind bars more than 27 years for the killing. In November, she will walk out the door a free woman, having served far less than the 45 years to which she was sentenced.
For once, I see hope, and I am filled with wonder.
Ms. Foreshaw killed a...
October 17, 2013
October 4, 2013
Should juries know about plea bargains rejected by those accused of crimes? We currently shield jurors from such knowledge. In most jurisdictions,...
September 25, 2013
We call trials a search for the truth, but the fact remains that what juries see at trial is often only the tip of the iceberg. Just beneath the...
September 20, 2013
Against my better judgment, I’ve once again wandered into the family courts in yet another post-judgment war about who gets to raise a...
September 19, 2013
First a note of warning: This is a column that will make you happy never to have attended law school, and it might very well make your head hurt, an...
September 12, 2013
Reason is, and always has been, and shall forever remain, the slave of the passions. And no passion inflames the heart quite like sympathy. We love...
September 6, 2013
I don’t recall how many years ago it was that I pulled the plug on my participation on the federal Criminal Justice Act panel, but I do recall...