Blog Posts

"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," Jesus is reported to have said. Somehow, I don’t think he foresaw just how much a threat the truth could be in the courtrooms of the United States. Why knowing the truth just got one juror fined $500 in the New Jersey...

Michelle Alexander writes in this morning’s New York Times about mass incarceration and plea bargaining. She wonders what would happen if defendants everywhere organized and refused to bargain. That would collapse the criminal justice system, wouldn’t it? Imagine prosecutors having to...

Lawyers who tell war stories are tedious bores. I mean, we all have stories to tell, right? What makes your story so special that I should stop what I am doing to listen to it? Yet we can’t help telling these tales. The truth of the matter is, a lawyer lives a privileged sort of life. We get...

I have an assignment for an aspiring historian: Locate the moment in American history when ordinary people began to fear one another more than they feared the potential of government to abuse its power. I am sure the moment exists. I see signs of it everywhere. Consider the case of how a national...

I’ve often wished that the general public could see what goes on behind closed doors in the criminal courts. All that is generally reported is the damning accusations against a defendant. The press accepts the state’s claims as the controlling narrative. The fight to make sure a client...

Before he left for Los Angeles and a Christmas party at the Ritz-Carlton, Gov. Dannel Malloy dropped a bomb: State workers applied for, and received, disaster benefits to which they were not otherwise entitled in the wake of Hurricane Irene. He was spitting fire and brimstone at a Sunday afternoon...

I will never forget a late afternoon chat I once had with now-Justice Sonya Sotomayor when she was sitting on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Had I considered becoming a federal judge? I ought to, she said. The Obama administration was looking for criminal defense and...

Here’s the closing argument I would like to see Jeremiah Donovan give on behalf of Joshua Komisarjevsky. Something tells me he won’t.
"Four years ago, a family in Cheshire was destroyed and all of us awoke to a living nightmare. I doubt there is a person in Connecticut who is...

A pre-dawn telephone call usually means one thing: federal agents have just come storm-trooping through someone’s home, making an arrest before the Sun comes up. A rattled mother, lover or spouse is usually making the call. They are terrified and upset. What happens next? they want to...

I operate on what I call the first-date rule when it comes to potential clients. It cost me a client the other day. I am blaming an unlikely matchmaker.
The first-date rule operates in the following manner: A client is referred to you. You meet the client, or speak with them on the...