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
The federal government might have James “Whitey” Bulger, 81, in custody, but Bulger, an alleged former crime boss accused of racketeering and involvement in 19 murders, has the FBI right were he has always had it: by the short hairs. It remains to be seen whether the feds will come to regret taking him off its Most Wanted list. Bulger was less a danger to society, and to the FBI, living quietly in Santa Monica than he is in custody. Yesterday, he had no incentive to fight back. Today, he has every reason to do so. So here’s a question for the Justice Department: How much...
June 28, 2011
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...
June 17, 2011
Earlier this year, I asked Robert Fogelnest, past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, to read a draft of my new book,...
June 17, 2011
Anthony Weiner lacks inhibitions. Now he lacks a job. Time now for the next question: Are we out of our minds?
The seven-term former...