The economic slowdown has finally trickled down to street lawyers. Clients now struggle to pay even modest fees. There is little by way of easy credit, and even less in home equity. As for credit card advances, well, good luck. But trouble keeps coming, and folks need lawyers. Lawyers also need work. It is a recipe for disaster.
I tried a habeas corpus case last week. Among the claims were that trial counsel failed to conduct a meaningful investigation of the allegations against the client, who was charged with possessing cocaine with the intent to sell. The case started with the...
January 22, 2011
I saw another of the law’s dismal and predictable set pieces last week. As always, a trial court blessed the mess and called it justice. When will the courts begin to hold police officers to the same standards to which other witnesses are held?
A client was arrested and charged with possession of narcotics with the intent to sell. Officers handcuffed him, took him to a police station, and then started questioning him. At the end of several hours, the client signed his life away, writing a confession that led the officers to get a search warrant for another location where drugs and cash...
January 21, 2011
I was born mid-way through the baby boom, that great torrent of folks tumbling from the womb between the end of the Second World War and the mid-1960s. I was too young to be drafted to serve in Vietnam, but old enough to be terrified by the prospect. Riots erupted in my hometown of Detroit, and elsewere throughout the nation. It was hard to distinguish between the storm and stress of adolescence and the forces that seemed to tear at the country. But what I remember best about the era were the assassinations. They seemed to teach an important lesson: Charisma kills.
Martin Luther King,...
January 17, 2011
Let me see if I get this straight: Jared Loughner is an unhinged loner, a madman who, inspired by voices only he could hear, erupted in a destructive rampage, killing a child, a federal judge and attempting to kill a Congresswoman. Hence, we need to be more civil in our political discourse. Let’s work together to feel better about the world.
I am not quite sure who is nuttier: Jared Loughner, or the politicians spewing this nonsense. If Loughner was so insane, civility doesn’t matter. We could have sung Kumbaya in unison every night at nine; the voices in Jared’s head...
January 16, 2011
January 15, 2011
The end came swiftly: Yesterday, Waterbury State's Attorney John Connelly resigned, ending a 30-year career as one of Connecticut's most colorful and...
January 13, 2011
It seems paradoxical to suggest that we need to fight for the right to die. We owe nature a death. Most of us spend the better part of our lives...
January 11, 2011
The rhetoricat bobbing and weaving responding to the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a federal judge and more than a dozen others, has...
January 10, 2011
Congress opened its most recent session by engaging in a symbolic reading of the United Constitution. A few days later, one of its members, Gabrielle...
January 9, 2011
Who is to blame for the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords? Press accounts make it clear a lone gunman pulled the trigger, wounding...
January 8, 2011
The next set of gun sights focused on Tuscon won't be posted by Sarah Palin's interest group. No, the next party to set its sights on Tuscon will be...