Blog Posts

I doubt there was much celebrating on Connecticut’s death row today, where 11 condemned men sat, some for decades, awaiting execution. Not one of them will ever be free again. The quick release of a relatively painless death by lethal ejection will be denied them. Now, they await the fate...

A good friend called the other day. I was unable to take her case due to a conflict. Who would I call if I needed help? she asked.
That is a tough question. The state is awash in lawyers, and a new crop is released on the public every year. Who would I choose?
Of course, the vast...

The numbers are hard to believe, even if the source of them, The Washington Post, is highly credible. As of August 10, 2015, 598 people have been shot and killed by police officers in the United States during 2015 alone. That’s an average of almost 2.7 people killed each and every...

There is a school of thought that holds there is no such thing as bad publicity for trial lawyers. Thus all manner of lawyers blog, tweet, and otherwise dive in front of any media that will get their name in print. But how low will a lawyer go to capture the front page of the New York...

Law students are taught that there are four factors a judge should consider when a criminal defendant is sentenced: specific deterrence, general deterrence, rehabilitation and retribution. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is now proposing addition of a fifth factor: future criminality.
Buckle...

The other day, I shared a podium with state Senator Gary Winfield-Holder and several others at the Courtland-Wilson Library in New Haven. The topic was “Have You Ever Been Pulled Over for a Traffic Stop?” Panelists, including New Haven Assistant Police Chief Anthony Campbell, were each...

I’m tempted to think that Harper Lee kept her silence all these years because she knew a deeper truth: Atticus Finch was a racist before he was a saint, and Scout never really came of age. Ms. Lee, it turns out, grew wealthy off the wages of this nation’s original sin, selling easy...

Only once have I had to take the witness stand to plead the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, and that was after I felt compelled to betray a client on death row. You see, I came into the possession of plans for a violent escape from the Northern Correctional Institution in...

I will always be bothered by the case of State v. Gregg Madigosky. The former Southbury resident was convicted in 2006 of the 2003 murder his wife. A psychiatrist testified that he was out of his mind at the time he killed her. Jurors rejected the psychiatric testimony. He was sentenced to 50 years...

Remind me next time I get a little ticked off about something a judge has done not to send an email to would-be supporters describing how one might sit outside the jurist's home, concealed, and fire a shot into a bedroom.
It just might get me arrested for breach of the peace; it ought not get...