Blog Posts

Despite the fact that I spend as much time as I can in courtrooms, I still enjoy reading fiction about the law and lawyering. I worry always about what I am missing as I stand in the middle of someone else’s storm. Legal fiction provides perspective, and, frankly, entertainment.
Why is...

A lawyer representing himself, the saying goes, has a fool for a client. So what of a physician who decides to represent himself in a high-stakes criminal case? Is he, too, a fool?
Dr. Lishan Wang is charged with murder. He is alleged to have shot to death another physician, Dr. Vajinder Pal...

I've noticed a certain uneasiness in the chambers of several judges. They don't like talking about plea bargaining in any public way. Indeed, in one case, the state prepared a draft of a waiver a client was going to sign as a condition of entering a plea. The state included the term "plea bargain"...

One of the best scenes in “The Wizard of Oz” is when Toto, Dorothy’s dog, pulls back the curtain on the Great Oz, exposing a terrified man hiding behind his fearful machinery. One lesson: Appearances are deceiving.
I thought of that scene the other day as I read the...

Jerad and Amanda Miller thought the revolution had begun, so they shot a couple of police officers at a pizzeria and then walked over to a local Walmart to announce it. An armed shopper shot Jerad, so Amanda killed the shopper. When police closed in on the couple, Jerad was shot dead and Amanda...

I've never understood why some criminal defense lawyers feel the need to make a great public display about how they only represent those whom they believe are truly innocent. There's a self-indulgent, almost moralistic quality to such declarations that render the lawyers untrustworthy. And hence my...

I have no idea whether Phil Mickelson, one of the world's premier golfers and three-time winner of the Masters golf tournament, is guilty of insider trading. But the mere fact that we are talking about it tarnishes his reputation. And why are we talking about it? The FBI has made public sport of...

Oh, Dannell, what a disappointment you are. The governor's been pumping the judiciary full of geriatric pals, positioning them for $100,000 a year pensions after serving a few short years on the bench. When lawmakers tried to put an end to the practice, the governor's men tucked an amendment onto...

Twenty or so years ago, I wrote one of the most difficult legal briefs of my career: The task was to compare and contrast the nature of the crimes and the character of the defendants for all the capital cases — those involving a potential penalty of death — in the state of Connecticut,...

Here’s a thought experiment: Pretend for the moment that Elliot Rodger had not gone on a killing spree in California. Put it out of your mind, to the extent that you can. Then watch his last YouTube performance. It’s about seven minutes long.
Up until the point he started talking...