Blog Posts

I am persuaded that a significant percentage of trials are won or lost based on how well lawyers manage jury notes. It is a difficult business, reading these particular tea leaves. A note can mislead. The question tonight is whether a note sent out late Friday by the jury in State v. Hayes...

Closing arguments in the case of State v. Hayes will be anticlimactic . The moral drama has been driven from the room. It was never disputed that Mr. Hayes behaved like a merciless savage in July 2007 when he helped destroy a family and drove a stave into the heart of the American dream. By God,...

Habeas corpus is sort of like magna carta: it’s the smattering of Latin that all lawyers know. Recite these words in public, and even non-lawyers know something important is at stake. In essence, a habeas corpus petition asserts that a prisoner is being held illegally. The writ is...

My wife keeps calling today to inquire whether I have voted. "No," I answer. I don't think I am going to this year. All of the candidates look like a bunch of phonies. I can't figure out what they are talking about most of the time.
"You need to consider the lesser of two evils," she...

While most jurors stared dumbstruck at the evidence in the case of State v. Hayes, at least one could not take her eyes off one of the hunks keeping peace in the courtroom. Gosh, you know how it is: A man in uniform just melts some jurors' hearts: Even when the case is about the rape, murder and...

I will be on the witness stand today, an unusual role for me. My usual perch in a courtroom is in the well of the court, putting questions to police officers, doctors, witnesses of all kinds. It is easy to rattle just about any witness. The ones you worry about are the practiced, unflappable...

Let me see if I get this: The New Haven Police Department wants the assistance of a public relations firm to improve its image? If this is the best the new chief, Frank Limon, can do, he ought to be sent back to Illinois with a foot print or two emblazoned on his hind quarter. You just can't expect...

I used to think we got the law enforcement we deserve. But then I realized that we the people have very little to say in the matter. The truth is, we get the law enforcement federal judges think we deserve. Here's the real question: What did we do to deserve these judges?
A revolution has...

Salvatore Vitale cried in court the other day, The New York Times reports. The former hitman for the Bonanno crime family was being sentenced by United States District Judge Nicholas Garaufis. Call it pay day for Mr. Vitale. He was sentenced to time served, seven years, despite his self-confessed...

Just how badly do federal prosecutors want to prosecute Waterbury State's Attorney John Connelly? Pretty badly; the vision of Connelly in handcuffs haunts the heartless corridors of the New Haven office of the Justice Department. It's the sort of vision that makes FBI agents do crazy and...