Blog Posts

There was much relief, and a dark, morbid sort of celebration, in New Haven the other day among those craving the death of Stephen Haves and Joshua Komisrajevsky, the villains in what will forever be known as "the Cheshire case." Both men were tried and convicted. Mr. Hayes has been sentenced to...

I’ve never met Eric Robert of South Dakota, but what I’ve read about him makes me wonder whether he is a little too sane for the rest of us. The only safe thing to do is to kill him and claim that we are doing justice. At least that is the course the state of South Dakota is taking....

I’ve never faced the prospect of going to prison. I’ve not sat with a lawyer and been offered a plea deal: Either take the five years the state is offering or go to trial. If you lose trial, you face decades in prison. I’ve never heard my lawyer say that the state’s case is...

A juror sent me the following note today with permission to publish it. The note describes her reaction upon learning the sentence the court imposed on a young man convicted of murder, a conviction for which she voted.
I have been interested in the criminal justice system all of my life....

It has been open season on Joshua Komisarjevsky since the day he was arrested in July 2007, and for good reason: There is little doubt that he slaughtered a mother and her two daughters in their home. He also beat the man of the house, Dr. William Petit, Jr., senseless. It is no wonder that many...

How did Jose Baez, the lawyer for Casey Anthony, win this most difficult of trials? The chattering class wants to know. Pundits from one end of the coast to another had her convicted and on her way to death row. They’re all hungover today, nursing a sense that something, they are not quite...

Now that the dust is settling in the Casey Anthony case, trial watchers are going to feel all dressed up with no place to go. I say head to Mangum, Oklahoma, and grab a seat in the Bobbi Parker trial. You will see one of the nation’s best trial lawyers, Garvin Isaacs of Oklahoma City,...

In the glory days, when Clarence Darrow argued from morning ‘til night, and crowds fought for a seat in the gallery, a criminal trial was both entertainment and constitutional convention. Folks fought for seats, to be present at the event, and to register their support for one side or the...

It’s time to put the potted-plant theory of the separation of powers doctrine to rest. Jack B. Weinstein, Senior United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York, is proof that it can be done. All it takes is a judiciary determined to take its role as judges...

“The man who gets angry at the right things and with the right people, and also in the right way and at the right time and for the right length of time, is commended,” Aristotle wrote. He was teaching about ethics, and the value of moderation. Aristotle would ask today whether we can...