During the past year, I've been surprised by the number of times jurors have requested read backs of testimony they just heard only a few days earlier in criminal cases. In some instances, it seems to take almost as long to listen to the testimony again as it did to try the case in the first instance.
I suspect that is because, in state criminal courts, we do not permit opening statements. As a result, jurors have no idea what is important once the evidence begins.
A better, more efficient, criminal justice system would permit opening statements. What would be the harm in letting...
September 18, 2014
Folks are sometimes surprised to see a black anarchist’s flag hanging in the corner of my law office. “Aren’t you a lawyer?,” they ask. “Don’t you believe in the rule of law?” Shouldn’t I be wearing a small American flag in the lapel of my suit, as is the fashion of some lawyers? The answers are yes, kind of, and no.
Anarchism gets a bad rap in the popular press. An anarchist doesn’t bathe, has no regard for the property or dignity of others, and is a threat to the social order. That’s a silly stereotype, but, truth be told, we...
September 13, 2014
I have a confession to make: I enjoy watching college and professional football. It’s the only thing I watch on television with any regularity. The speed and athleticism of the individual competitors is part of the attraction. So is the pageantry, the hype surrounding the game — it’s something even Fox can do. I also have my favorite teams, whom I root for as though my destiny were somehow at issue; we bleed maize and blue for the Michigan Wolverines at my place.
And I do not beat my wife; nor do I condone the behavior of those who beat...
September 9, 2014
I will miss United States Magistrate Judge Holly Fitzsimmons. She’s retiring effective April 2015, reportedly to spend more time writing the things of her own choosing, rather than crafting opinions about other people's struggles. She served with civility, being gracious even when the lawyers before her lacked grace. I know this because I was once so vexed by a series of evidentiary rulings that she made in a case of mine that I avoided her for years. When I next appeared before her, she was, as she always was, a calm and steadying voice.
Magistrate judges can do a...
August 29, 2014
August 27, 2014
Odds are you never heard about the killing of 20-year-old Dillon Taylor. He was shot to death in in Salt Lake City, Utah, just the other day. The man...
August 20, 2014
I couldn’t stop thinking about the allegory of the metals in Plato’s Republic as I read the op-ed piece in The Washington Post written...
August 19, 2014
Perhaps you missed the piece in today's Washington Post by Sunil Dutta, a member of the Los Angeles Police Department, and junior college instructor....
August 17, 2014
It is only a slight exaggeration to say that Michael Brown’s blood is on the gavel of the federal judiciary. In the past couple of decades, the...
August 14, 2014
"If you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you." I think about this line of Friedrich Nietszche's more often than I care...
August 13, 2014
Every time I hear a judge talk about sending people to prison as a means of promoting public respect for the law, I want to stop the proceedings and...