Quite a few people have asked us about self defense, lately. Must be something in the water. Whatever the reason, it’s a question that a lot of people seem to be asking, so we figured we’d save ourselves from repeating the same conversation over and over, and just post the...
The short answer is yes. Yes, it is. One of the lovely ironies of criminal defense is that most of the things we fight for are conservative values — individual liberties, constitutional rights, defending actual people from the insane might of the State — even though the defense attorneys themselves...
This’ll be quick, because we’re pretty busy working on a wiretap case, which is always time-consuming if done right. But as our mind’s on that topic anyway, we thought we’d quickly point out that the latest round of insider-trading cases is again largely derived from wiretaps. Here’s a roundup over...
Last week, the House passed a bill that would prevent the federal government from prosecuting Guantanamo detainees in civilian courts (by cutting off the funds to do so). The Senate is now considering it as part of the 1,900-page omnibus spending bill. This is largely seen as a reaction to...
In today’s environment, where law schools are churning out way more lawyers than the market really wants, plenty of law students and recent grads are wondering if it’s really worth it. We’re asked this question, in various forms, all the time. And we see it asked every day on various...
A quick link to start your Monday morning. The exam question is either incredibly trite, or incredibly profound. Enjoy.
Last year, we posted an analysis of capital punishment as practiced in the U.S., and concluded that it ought to be scrapped. Not for the usual “killing is wrong” or “what about the innocent” reasons, but because as practiced it fails to serve the purposes of punishment. It doesn’t deter...
Now that Julian Assange has been arrested in the U.K., his fight for the moment is to prevent extradition to Sweden, which wants to arrest him for questioning about allegations of sexual misconduct. But given the comparative laxity of any punitive measures Sweden might impose even in the worst case...
Plenty of us are familiar with the basic skills of cross-examination: Always lead, Don’t ask that one last question that lets the witness deny the conclusion you want to draw, Don’t ask a question if you’re not pretty sure of the answer, Don’t let the witness explain, Take it...
The Northern California Innocence Project at Santa Clara University School of Law has released a troubling study of prosecutorial misconduct in California. The report, “Preventable Error: A Report on Prosecutorial Misconduct in California 1997-2009,” opens by pointing out that of course the majority of prosecutors behave ethically, but then it...
So everyone from the Washington Post to Fark is reporting gleefully about the recent acquittal of a Northern Virginia man charged with failing to stop for a school bus picking up kids. The defense attorney is getting kudos for pointing out that the law, when rewritten 40 years ago,...
Every defense attorney has their own favorite metaphor for what we do. Some talk of it like a street fight, envisioning a slugfest with the cops or the court or DA (or all three). Others speak as if it’s a poker game (with the other side usually holding all the...
On our main website, we wrote a brief primer on international law, mostly for our own enjoyment. (The same reason why we write this blog, actually.) To our constant amazement, it gets cited heavily around the internet, and has been on the syllabus of at least a couple law school...
The feds are really ramping up their insider-trading enforcement. But instead of going after real insiders, they’re going after consultants and investors who use them. This is a big risk for the feds, and they could lose big. It started a year ago, when the feds indicted a bunch...
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