Blog Posts

I tried, I really did, to write about something other than Hurricane Sandy, the Frankenstorm, the Storm of the Century, that was to drive us to our knees. But after this near miss with yet another apocalypse, I could think of little else. The end was nigh, and we’re still here. Isn’t...

Here’s a not-so-modest proposal that will reduce the prison population, improve the performance of the criminal justice system, and yield greater confidence in the administration of what we call, with no apparent sense of irony, "justice." Ready? Eliminate plea bargaining.
If...

In the end, the choice of whether to take a criminal case to trial or to enter into a plea agreement with the government belongs to the client, and to the client alone. There are times in which a client rejects his lawyer’s advice, goes to trial, and is badly hurt. Then there are times in...

What’s it going to take to correct an injustice committed 400 years ago? Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy says he is powerless to act. The Queen of England, whose government actually had jurisdiction over the scene of the atrocities, says she needs more information. It is dithering such...

Several years ago, I was approached about the prospect of becoming a federal judge. I confess, it appealed to me, at least for a couple of months. But then I realized that one consequence of appointment to this lifetime position would be the requirement that I behave like a judge. That’s...

Offer to pay a man cold hard cash to kill someone and you’ve struck a deal. But is it a contract? Suppose you pay your killer but he never performs. Do you get your money back?
The answer is a simple “no.” Although the agreement looks like a contract, it’s objective,...

Oh, me. Oh, my. Heads are spinning in Kennebunk, Maine. Townspeople are sniggering about just who is on the list of clients snagged when police arrested Wells resident Alexis Wright and charged her with prostitution, tax evasion and invasion of privacy. It turns out the 29-year-old fitness...

One editorialist at least had the courage to put it bluntly: Jerry Sandusky deserves 400 years in prison. The writer was outraged that the 68-year-old man received a sentence of only 30-60 years in prison after his conviction on 45 counts of child molestation. Sandusky is, so the writer contends,...

“That’s just hearsay.”
You hear that remark all the time. It conveys a sense of unreliability. The statement, so dismissed, just doesn’t count. You can’t bet on it.
Yet hearsay is everywhere, and we cannot live without it.
The definition of hearsay sounds...

Richard LaPointe is one very lucky man. It might strike you as odd to say that of a fellow serving what amounts to a life term for the rape and arson-murder of his wife’s 88-year-old grandmother. But, 20 years after a jury found him guilty as charged, he’s won the right to a new trial....