There is a moralistic tinge to the practice of criminal law that makes no sense. We shroud the misdeeds and allegations that land a person in criminal court in terms of choice, responsibility and just desserts. That seems to miss the point. There is a grim necessity to a good deal of what goes on in the criminal justice system. It is hard to face, so we pretend that things could be otherwise. Ferdinand von Schirach harbors no such illusions.
Schirach is a criminal defense lawyer in Germany. He is also an exceptional writer. His first book, Crime, was published in German in 2009; it was...
April 22, 2012
I want to write a love letter, but every effort I make to do so seems wrong. My fingers hit keys and the keys fall flat. I can’t seem to find a way to move from what I think and feel to words that won’t be taken the wrong way. It is so much easier to give offense than it is to open arms or shed a tear. So let me say it, and be done with the stumbling: I am writing a love letter to a United States District Judge.
That might strike some of you as newsworthy in an of itself. If so, you don’t know the man. And you don’t know the dignity and grace with which he...
April 19, 2012
I usually enjoy arguing in appellate courts, and one of my favorites is the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The federal appellate courts are, for most people, the most powerful courts in the land. Yes, the Supreme Court is the top of the pyramid, but that court agrees to hear so few cases that for almost everyone else the last stop on justice’s train, at least in so far as federal claims are concerned, is a federal appellate court.
I was in the Second Circuit this morning on the Occupy New Haven case, appearing before a three-judge panel on our motion for a...
April 17, 2012
There is no way of knowing what will happen in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Tuesday, April 17, 2012, when the motion for a stay pending appeal in the Occupy New Haven case is argued. All that is certain is the time and place: 500 Pearl Street, 9th floor at 10:00 a.m. The court could decide right then and there to dissolve or continue the stay, ruling from the bench, as lawyers say. Or the court could issue a written opinion some time later.
I am betting on a quick decision. I suspect by the time the three-judge panel takes the bench, a decision will...
April 16, 2012
April 15, 2012
I spent some of the unhappiest years of my life pretending to be something I was not: You see, I was a member of an editorial board. I earned my...
April 12, 2012
“You’re a lawyer?” The man looked at me with disdain, his paunch creeping out from beneath his bulletproof vest. I had just pulled...
April 11, 2012
New Haven's Mayor John DeStefano will be on the Chaz and AJ show on WPLR 99.1 FM on Thursday at 7:30 a.m. His mission? To explain why he did not look...
April 11, 2012
New Haven’s Mayor John DeStefano took to the air waves this morning to defend the City’s actions yesterday on the New Haven Green....
April 5, 2012
I stood in a public place yesterday and watched two tearful parents say goodbye to an American hero. The young man was leaving for a year. Odds are,...
April 1, 2012
I saw the White Devil the other day, and it terrified and saddened me. He was reflected in the look of wariness and suspicion in a young man’s...