16 lbs of weed await rightful owner June 29, 2007
Posted by Idta in : Law Enforcement , add a comment
Missing some pot? Call the lost and found in Belize.
“Anyone seeking to claim the valuable shipment, now housed at the San Pedro police station, is asked to please bring a valid I.D.”
Substituting one good quote for another June 28, 2007
Posted by Idta in : Quotes , 2comments I wanted to quote something funny a client said this afternoon, but that’s out of the question. Instead, I’ll quote Defending Those People discussing (on March 6, 2007) clients who don’t want to go to trial OR take a plea:
“Do I look like I have magic beans?”
Officer Accused of Choking Skateboarder June 28, 2007
Posted by Idta in : Law Enforcement , add a comment Well, Chicago police may not be punished for abuse, but this officer in Arkansas was placed on administrative leave (pending investigation).
Study: Police abuse goes unpunished June 27, 2007
Posted by Idta in : Law Enforcement , add a comment A recent academic study found that the Chicago Police Department should not be allowed to police itself.
‘If the [Chicago Police Department] investigated civilian crime in the same way it investigates police abuse, they’d never solve a case.
Sunstein says Ginsburg’s abortion dissent may yet prevail June 27, 2007
Posted by Idta in : Constitution , add a comment University of Chicago Professor Cass Sunstein says Justice Ginsburg’s dissent holds that equality, not privacy, is crucial in the abortion right. Sunstein argues that this is a stronger basis than privacy, and Justice Ginsburg’s view already has the support of four of the justices.
Federal judge criticizes mandatory minimum sentences June 27, 2007
Posted by Idta in : Criminal Law , add a commentFederal Judge Speaks Out Against Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
A federal judge in Utah told of the “bizarre” 55-year sentence he felt compelled to give a first-time offender convicted of selling marijuana.
Who’d have guessed Scooter Libby would grow up to be Hester Prynne? June 26, 2007
Posted by Idta in : MyBooks , add a comment“Peradventure the guilty one stands looking on at this sad spectacle, unknown of man, and forgetting that God sees him.”
— The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
When Hester Prynne’s adultery was exposed, she refused to identify her baby’s father (the cowardly Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale). Apparently torture was out of the question in those pre-enlightened times, long before Guantanamo.
In order to protect Rev. Dimmesdale, Hester bore the entire punishment alone. For her loyalty, Rev. Dimmesdale helped her receive the colonial-era version of a presidential pardon:
“The penalty [for adultery] is death. But, in their great mercy and tenderness of heart, they have doomed Mistress Prynne to stand only a space of three hours on the platform of the pillory, and then and thereafter, for the remainder of her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom.”
Further demonstrating his cowardly and selfish nature, Rev. Dimmesdale publicly ordered Hester to reveal the name of her accomplice:
“I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner …. What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him … to add hypocrisy to sin?”
—–
Like Hester Prynne, Scooter Libby took the blame in the Valerie Plame leak scandal while trying to protect more powerful accomplices. And like a modern-day Reverend Dimmesdale, the Bush Administration publicly pretended to want to expose the wrong-doers.
Answering the age-old question … with a question. June 26, 2007
Posted by Idta in : Quotes , add a comment I’ve only been at this a short while, and already I’ve lost count of how many times friends and acquaintances have asked me, “But what if you know they’re guilty? How can you defend them?”
Seen on Defending Those People:
“The question for the Christian lawyer is not, ‘How can you work to get a guilty person off?’ The real question is, ‘Will you stand by this person, this flawed and sinful human being, and speak a word on his behalf?‘ ”
The Scarlet Letter June 24, 2007
Posted by Idta in : Criminal Law, Law Enforcement, MyBooks , add a comment One of the best books I ever read for school was The Scarlet Letter. Although set in colonial times, the public’s angry reaction to the “light” sentence Hester Prynne received (i.e., having to wear a badge of shame for the rest of her life) seems pretty 21st-century.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book, the scarlet “A” stood for adultery. With today’s computerized law-enforcement databases, just being accused of a crime (even if never convicted) permanently brands a person as a potential wrong-doer. That’s why I use a scarlet “A” in the name of this blog.
P.S. Dale C. Carlson wrote a great book on today’s “electronic plantation,” with excellent advice for defense lawyers and their clients:
Arrest-Proof Yourself: An Ex-Cop Reveals How Easy It Is for Anyone to Get Arrested, How Even a Single Arrest Could Ruin Your Life, and What to Do If the Police Get in Your Face
Jury Duty stamp coming in September June 21, 2007
Posted by Idta in : Constitution, Criminal Law , add a comment If I could choose the postage stamps for my office, I’d pick these, which honor “a vital facet of American democracy.”
USPS - The 2007 Commemorative Stamp Program
Jury Duty
“[U]nder the U.S. Constitution, the American jury system guarantees citizens the right to a trial by a jury of their peers.
Generally, in criminal cases, 12 jurors stand between the accused and the power of the government. Unless the government convinces a jury of the accused person’s guilt — beyond a reasonable doubt — it may not deprive a citizen of life, liberty, or property. . . .
In the American colonies, juries showed their reluctance to convict under oppressive British laws. . . . The British retaliated against American juries by setting up special courts in which jury trials were not used. The Declaration of Independence contains a complaint against the British king ‘for depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury.’ ”
