I wasn't under any illusions about what the sentence would be. My client was convicted of shooting a man in a drive-by shooting, killing him almost instantly. There were other charges pending, charges involving other shootings. The maximum sentence for murder was 60 years. We expected the full monty.
The judge did not disappoint; even the prosecution performed on cue, calling my client a coward. The victim's mother urged the maximum, even more—100 years would not be enough, she said.
Sixty years it was, when all was said and done.
What a ridiculous farce.
I asked...
April 23, 2015
Would a different defense have spared Aaron Hernandez a life sentence? I suspect his lawyers are wondering, especially after jurors told the media they were shocked to hear the defense say in closing arguments that Hernandez was present at the scene of the murder of Odin Lloyd.
But the defense conceded in opening statements that Hernandez was present when Odin Lloyd’s was killed; it never made any secret of the fact that “mere presence” was the former football star’s defense. Defense efforts will now be directed at the appellate courts.
The former New...
April 22, 2015
Richard Lapointe looked dazed, even confused, when he walked out of Superior Court in Hartford last week. It was the first time in 26 years his feet hit civilian pavement. He was supposed to die behind bars.
apointe’s long walk to freedom illustrates the complexity of the criminal justice system.
Bernice Martin was murdered in March 1987. She was raped, then stabbed, then suffocated, and her Manchester apartment set afire to hide the killer’s tracks. She was 88 years old at the time of her death. She lived a short walk from the home Lapointe and her granddaughter,...
April 22, 2015
The Supreme Court's decision to overturn Richard Lapointe's 1992 murder conviction has me rethinking the Stations of the Cross. I'm not referring to Jesus' journey on the day he was crucified. I'm thinking of the more mundane trail of tears the families of those convicted of crimes walk.
Before Lapointe, it went something like this:
"I'm sorry to hear your husband/son/lover was convicted at trial. It will be very hard to undo that, if it can be undone at all.
"First, you can take a direct appeal. All of the words spoken at trial and the various pieces of paper, whether...
April 11, 2015
April 10, 2015
Criminal defense lawyers console themselves about the self-destructive course some clients take by saying such things as: “You can lead a...
April 9, 2015
Now that the show trial is over, the real trial begins.
Now the United States of America will seek to convince a jury of 12 that Dzhokhar...
April 1, 2015
Do black lives matter? Do cops’s lives matter? The answer to both questions is obvious: yes. That’s what makes the arrest of a fifteen...
March 31, 2015
Looking for a realistic portrayal of the practice of law in a small firm? Then you had better call Saul, as in Saul Goodman, the fictional creation...
March 26, 2015
I just lost a tough case and, as in any loss, I am bitter about it. My client faces 60 years for the shooting of a rival gang member in...
March 25, 2015
What if just about everything we think we know about the war on drugs is wrong?
Start, for example, with the oft-repeated proposition that the...