"A conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged."
13th February 12
Origin unknown — what does this old phrase mean for Justice Breyer’s vote on criminal cases, now that he’s been mugged?
The Portia of our Chambers
adding an imaginative tone to what would otherwise be a dusty, dreary little clerks' office full of barristers, biscuits, and briefs.
21st February 12
And somehow, law enforcement questioning while in custody is not necessarily a custodial interrogation for Miranda purposes.
That's Putting it Mildly
26th December 11
- Judge: Mr. Rivera, I'm very sorry. I don't know how many days --
- Lawyer: I think close to a month.
- Judge: That's terrible.
- {Exchange between Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathryn Solorzano and the defense attorney representing Santiago Ibarra Rivera, a man wrongly incarcerated in the Dickensian Los Angeles County Jail. This is the second time Mr. Rivera has been jailed for a warrant issued to a different Santiago Rivera.}
22nd December 11
700 Applicants for 12 Openings
This article references hiring at the Santa Clara District Attorney’s office, but the story is the same in Los Angeles, where the Public Defender’s office just announced a whopping six openings — these, the first openings since I graduated from law school in 2008.
What does this mean for criminal justice in California, that there are so few openings for such necessary positions? On the one hand, we can hope that the people getting these positions are the best and brightest, such as the Harvard Law grad with the BigLaw background mentioned in the article. On the other hand, I know first hand that what the average case needs is not brilliance, but competence. To save the state of California real money, we need a legion of competent lawyers who can resolve cases justly and quickly — not half a dozen legal geniuses.
"All day the stars watch from long ago
my mother said I am going now
when you are alone you will be all right
whether or not you know you will know
look at the old house in the dawn rain
all the flowers are forms of water
the sun reminds them through a white cloud
touches the patchwork spread on the hill
the washed colors of the afterlife
that lived there long before you were born
see how they wake without a question
even though the whole world is burning"
20th December 11
W.S. Merwin | “Rain Light” | The New Yorker | March 3, 2008 (via evoketheforms)
(via newyorker)
29th November 11
Well, this was a thing that happened.
I was not in court myself this morning so I stayed home and watched the sentencing hearing on TV. I am preparing for a sentencing hearing of my own in January so I figure I could learn a few things, being a Lawyer Rookie and all.
WHAT I LEARNED.
1) Preparation, preparation, preparation. What makes you think you can ask for a cool hundred mil without so much as an itemized list of claims? Jackson was primed to make $100 million? Where are the contracts he signed? (Also, not to be a total jerk, but who’s to say he would’ve kept his contractual obligations? He was using an awful lot of painkillers for someone on the brink of a world tour.)
2) Don’t make the judge angry. I mean, really. Not be be all ~I know people~ or whatever, but, hey, I practice law in LA and I have appeared in front of Judge Pastor (pictured) quite a few times. He’s a good judge. He’s fair and impartial. He doesn’t take sides. Moreover, he’s deserving of respect. He doesn’t deserve the snark lobbed at him by Ol’ Southern Boy Chernoff. I honestly can’t imagine being that openly rude to a bench officer.
3) A recitation of the defendant’s good qualities really doesn’t mean much when he’s staring down a manslaughter charge. It would have been more effective if Chernoff had discussed the mitigating circumstances of the crime in question.
4) Prince, Paris and Blanket Jackson are thinking of starting a production company. When I think about the home movies I made with my brothers when I was their age — well. Not exactly Oscar-worthy, those.
And that’s about it, folks. Not sure if I shouldn’t’ve spent the morning in the office after all.
"Knox was a “luciferina” — a she-devil — capable of a special, female duplicity. She was “dirty on the inside.” Always, even from the defense lawyers, the closing arguments ended with appeals to God, in a medieval courtroom with a peeling fresco of the Madonna on the wall and a crucifix hanging above the judge."
4th October 11
Nina Burleigh in the Los Angeles Times.
"To an astonishing extent, unchecked violence, both deputy-on-inmate and inmate-upon-inmate, permeates Men’s Central Jail and Twin Towers jails, which are components of the Los Angeles County Jails, managed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department under the leadership of Sheriff Leroy Baca … The voluminous evidence I have reviewed cries out for an independent, far-reaching, and in-depth investgation by the Federal Government. The problem can no longer be ignored."
28th September 11
Thomas Parker, former Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Los Angeles Field Office, quoted in an ACLU report on the Los Angeles County jails.
"I personally did not kill your son, father and brother. I am innocent."
22nd September 11
Troy Davis on the occasion of his execution by the state of Georgia.
16th September 11
Thanks for the tip, NPR.
I still don’t know how something I scribbled in a hurry at 3am got so many notes in the space of a day? Shakespeare is clearly too awesome. I spelt “bated” wrong, awk :) Someone said this looks like a serial killer’s notebook, which made me laugh a lot. They’re not wrong, I’ve been a sleep deprived zombie lately.
"But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?"
16th September 11
Mark Twain (via jonos911)
Just something to think about as you commence your weekend hedonism.
(Source: ithinkol)
16th September 11
On Forgiveness
In this short interview between Mary Johnson and Oshea Isreal, Mrs. Johnson tells us how free she felt after she forgave Mr. Isreal for murdering her son, Laramiun Byrd.
For some, forgiveness at this level may be impossible, but I hope not. After losing a child — the worst imaginable pain one can suffer — why further burden your life with anger, blame and hatred?
As a criminal defense practitioner, I do not expect to meet many Mary Johnsons in my career. But I hope I can find a few. I hope there are crime victims and victims’ families who have learned to forgive and who want justice without vengeance.
StoryCorps is a program that travels throughout the country, capturing the stories that make up the American experience. I think these recordings are essential to understanding ourselves and to providing a record for future generations to understand us. The stories are archived with the Library of Congress. You can log on to their website and listen — most are quite short, only two minutes. You will be moved, you will learn to see the world in a different light.
I strongly encourage my readers to consider StoryCorps as a recipient of their charitable giving.
4th September 11
The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton
As I collect my thoughts for a post on the Alford plea entered by the “West Memphis Three,” this song keeps rattling around.
More to come.
