Criminal Law

Slowing Down

Posted on October 22, 2009
Sheesh. That was an oddly intense week. After the funeral, I found out that CT was looking at snow with accumulation, which just isn't something that mixes well with motorcycles. So I left asap, motoring south. I got as far...

Random Beauty and Death

Posted on October 16, 2009
This may be one of the strangest visits to New England that I've ever had. In the good news category, I finally (finally) visited an old friend after too many years and met her husband. They seem to be doing...

Looking Scruffy While Mountain Biking at Valley Falls

Posted on October 13, 2009
 

Turning

Posted on October 13, 2009
Well, everything is changed about. I had planned to take a vacation in Miami - maybe chill out, do some small projects, hang out with some local folks whom I never see (for no good reason). Instead I got a...

To access blog feed reader register for free. (You will also learn about new ways to read and access the freshest law blogs.)

Poem

Posted on September 29, 2009
Fireworks Acrid, aflame, again, air all back bark, billowing black blooms, bottle bulbs, burn burst but cheer: clear cold come cores dark down; dozen drifting, each encouraging. Fall feeds fiery flash from growing hastily, hiss holds ignite in in into...

Itchy

Posted on September 03, 2009
Some months you just feel like you're spoiling for a fight. Anyway, to flesh out my facebook updates with the blog, on the same day as my last post, I did indeed go to one of the jails. It was...

Busy Busy

Posted on August 16, 2009
Well, my transition from my old felony division to the new is done, although not as smoothly as I'd have liked - the 14hr days trying to cover two divisions with full caseloads, only one of which I knew anything...

A small break

Posted on August 07, 2009
I took two days off because I sorely needed a break. Which is good, because there has been much wackiness associated with work. Since then it's been interesting. I went to a fund raising dance party. I also went to...

Relic Reliquary - A randomly sent link.

Posted on August 02, 2009
17 Relics. That's awesome! Thank you random e-mailer! Yeah, I was an alternative music college DJ - how cliche. Never fined by the FCC though (a fucking Miracle, I assure you - though 'sword and I probably put some gray...

The Week in Review

Posted on August 01, 2009
Sorta kinda. The days blend nowadays - and last night I ended up blended, at a local yuppie bar with some friends from work. There's something to be said for head-clearing fun. Actually quite a lot. This morning finds me...

And the Trials keep coming. . .

Posted on July 26, 2009
Well, after spending my first couple of months bitching about no-trial-dom, I am now swamped. Officially. Early on, I could have pulled the trigger on one case, but made the right call to depose a witness I had not yet...

Thwarted

Posted on July 26, 2009
I like to think of myself as a thwarter, not a thwartee. An important philosophical distinction, I think. In this case though, trash on the roadways got the best of me in the form of a punctured rear tire at...

Window into the human

Posted on July 26, 2009
Yep. It really does say something about us. This link Not Safe For Work takes you to the latest 50 images posted to Live Journal. http://www.fuzzysquid.com/LJ.php Or maybe it just says something about Live Journal. Still. It's worth pondering.

Denial, Perspective, Jail House Lawyering

Posted on July 18, 2009
This is not so much a complaint about my clients, but rather, an observation. I'm continually struck by how many people think the criminal justice system is an equity court. That means people think that things go "on the whole"...

Working the Weekend

Posted on July 18, 2009
Whew. That was a week. Although for the first time in two months I didn't actually have to be in court for two of the four days I'm pretty much categorically not supposed to be in court (ugh - parse...

New Lows?

Posted on July 16, 2009
Today I got the number of a very attractive lady - in the county jail.

Poem

Posted on July 12, 2009
Advocating the Use of the English Language as a Vehicle for Poetic Expression The days? awash in catchy lyrics ? snippets of song, the well-turned-whichever about which we know nothing, but that we can graft it onto ourselves. Though not...

Achin' to be

Posted on July 11, 2009
Today is a day of nothing much at all. Yea!! I really can't be pulled into projects as they're all waiting on this or that thing. So, it's me, grits, eggs, salt, pepper, coffee. There's also El Gato Perfecto and....

"You are truly an evil legal genius."

Posted on July 07, 2009
Or so claims a more Sr. attorney following an MJOA win on our latest trial case. This one was kind of interesting. It featured a witness disclosed just before trial, a mid voir dire deposition, a most completely boneheaded sidebar...

4th (july/post-hiatus-post)

Posted on July 04, 2009
Well, the July 4th weekend has arrived, and thusfar it's been quite nice - dinner with The Mayor and family, unexpected work productivity (yeah, yeah) and a hike/ride, sadly gatorless, in the 'glades. Also, excellent random conversations with a jeweler...

Well, that was interesting.

Posted on June 30, 2009
Got pulled into a trial, last minute, as the second chair when another APD was not able to be there. I was tagged with the Voir Dire, which, of course, I love to do. Except it was on a life...

Whiter the Blog Goeth. . .

Posted on June 28, 2009
Well, what can I say? I haven't been blogging. It's been so long, the TypePad interface has completely changed from the last time I logged in. And the reason I'm back? Oh, a combination of guilt and boredom, I'd say....

It's good to ride a Vulcan.

Posted on April 12, 2009
Friend sent me this - I seldom if ever repost stuff, but I thought this was funny. Top Ten Reasons Why Harley Riders Don't Wave Back 10. Afraid it will invalidate warranty. 9. Leather and studs make it too heavy...

Mmmm. Greasy.

Posted on March 01, 2009

More Things (including one of the same) that I like about Miami

Posted on January 02, 2009

Vacation (Why I like Miami)

Posted on December 16, 2008
Which is sort of a working vacation, but at least I should be able to get my life back on track - all those little things which have fallen through the cracks are getting attended to. In lieu of serious...

Why I have not been Blawging

Posted on November 09, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/us/09defender.html?_r=1&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin***Right now I'm in the Juvenile Division, where the stakes are pretty high; high in the sense that trial outcomes will often do much to shape the future of the children I representby placing all kinds of burdens on their...

The Daring Rescue of Shining Black Bess

Posted on October 18, 2008
Bess is safely home again due to an epic day. The day began late last night with another carb drain/ jump attempt. When that didn?t work, I took the battery to a leaving-the-office=party for a truly impressive public defender. At...

Day of Unexpected Victories, Month of Unexpected Surprises.

Posted on October 17, 2008
The Red Sox have brought the ALCS to 2-3, with their second victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.I won on a series of 4 cases, through different means, including my first felony (Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer.) **Life in...

All Good Things Come to an End

Posted on September 27, 2008
In this case, my stint in the county court. I was transferred to the Juvenile court division of my office, and my first day will be on Monday. In attempts to figure out "what's going on" in most large organizations,...

Trial Prep for the Upcoming Week

Posted on September 21, 2008
Sponsored by Alabama Jack's in Key Largo. Conch fritters. Ummmm. Also sponsored by Battlestar Galactica's Season 4. I just finished it today. Clearly the weakest of all 4 seasons, it lost its way at several points, substituting emotional confrontations (usually...

Not a Pretty Picture - Hanna, Ike, Josephine

Posted on September 03, 2008

Ruling on PD's Excessive Caseloads

Posted on September 03, 2008
The Circuit court decision addressing the Miami Public Defender's motion to appoint other counsel in unappointed non-capital felony cases just came down. I'll refrain from a detailed analysis except to note (out of strictly personal curiosity, not official office policy)...

?Well, I?m back,? he said.

Posted on September 02, 2008
Apologies to those who check in on the blog to see what I?m up to, but it?s been a busy time for me. When last I wrote, it was mid July. Since then I engaged in a frantic apt. search,...

Bad Day. Sit Day. Sit.

Posted on June 21, 2008
The night seemed to start well, despite the fact I had a sweet potential apartment snatched from under me. I spent the early evening hanging out with an (equally) opinionated cyclist grrrl who was a blast. The fact that I...

Justice in Jeopardy

Posted on June 15, 2008
ABC news is reporting on our local crisis, as well as the financial problems facing public defenders in Kentucky and Minnesota. Defense attorneys tend to get a bad rap from the angry public. Public defenders, at least in my own...

Bumper Stickers

Posted on June 07, 2008
are only of use in speaking to others while you are killing the planet. Spoke Cards are much better instead. This is mine at the moment.

Stupidity/Compassion

Posted on June 06, 2008
A bright guy I ain't. Any evidence to the contrary. The way I see it, any kind of bright guy wouldn't have made such a hash of his future, in terms of what he values v. what he does not....

Breaking News

Posted on June 03, 2008
Well, I'm sorry I haven't written in recently. Things have been rather busy. How busy? Kind of crazily so. I've had a couple of trials since I last wrote, and went down to Key West for a much needed breather...

Bullet Proof

Posted on May 18, 2008
Blogging's fallen by the wayside this week, as sometimes it will. I have much doings to relate in an abbreviated manner, but not any significant news just now. For example, in the bullet proof category, I put new kevlar tires...

New England Humor

Posted on May 11, 2008
Yes, it does exist, in its gently straight faced way.

So I was Wrong

Posted on May 11, 2008
Which happens often. The trick is to not fear being wrong, for without risk, there's no growth, no tension that causes you to examine. So, talking, reading, thinking, writing, doing and being newly is the mandate. Not obsessively, of course,...

Glass Heart Uncracked

Posted on May 10, 2008
And so I finish my first courtroom stint with a whimper, not a bang, as nothing has gone to trial recently, nor have any of my specially researched issues come up - and so the caselaw and arguments sit dormant,...

Wasted Wishes

Posted on May 08, 2008
So I got back on the bike, twice, and tooled around the keys. It was just enough to get my metabolism back up and let me know exactly how much this two month long coughing/sickness jag had taken out of...

Judicium Interruptus

Posted on May 01, 2008
These last minute Nolle Prossequi are just killing me. . .and I had the double-barreled testimonial hearsay exclusion arguments (State and Federal Constitution) locked and loaded. I don't even think the state knew - they just knew I wanted to...

The Samely Different (a post in which the author of the blog touches on past, present, and future, in his usual rambling quasi-autobiographical way.)

Posted on April 29, 2008
Well, some email has rolled in, given the tenor of the next-to-last post. So, I thought I?d sit down and try to see what?s changed with me in the past year or so. First though, I have some BIG news...

Luck is the Residue of Design

Posted on April 24, 2008
Sometimes you think you'll have good arguments - sometimes those arguments get shot down one after another after another. So it pays to lay some arguments here and there and then touch on them in close, because you never know...

Hit by the Trial/Good News Truck

Posted on April 20, 2008
That'll teach me to be frivolous in my posting. (Snort.) In any event, after trial on Mon./Tues., I really didn't expect anything to go the rest of the week. Which means, of course, that I ended up in trial on...

MJOA

Posted on April 15, 2008
It's fun to win at the M-J-O-A. It's fun to win at the M-J-O-A. (To the tune of YMCA by the Village People.) Yes, once again the state crumbles in the "bringing it" department, with some gentle help by the...

Addition to Jorge Luis Borges' "Book of Imaginary Beings"

Posted on April 12, 2008
The Ethical Prosecutor In American Cosmology (TV) the Ethical Prosecutor is often seen hard at work on every channel battling the Evil One, usually a murderer or child molester/murderer or some educated liberal. Unencumbered with the uncertainty of not-knowing if...

Dinner

Posted on April 12, 2008
And of course, it never hurts to have the option of taking a break from court-thoughts with a friend (and wine and dinner on the water). This was the view on Thursday night from her building's patio. Just another ho-hum...

Not Much News, but Much Blinking

Posted on April 12, 2008
It's been a long hard week of nothing much at all. Most of the week's energy was spent being a backup on a colleague's trial involving a former client of mine. But not really. It's kind of complicated to explain,...

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Posted on April 06, 2008
Well, it was a mildly busy weekend of getting things in order. First off, I slept for 14 hours. That's a goodness. Lungs are also less frothy, so that's a goodness as well. I'm such a malingerer. ** I went...

But it's a good kind of tired. . .

Posted on April 02, 2008
Sunday - prep. Monday - trial day, 37 cases, all KNP/CTS except for 2. State tries to get us to go on (arguably) our weakest case. Really really tries. I mean like really really really tries to the point that...

Welcome Back (again) Recidivists

Posted on March 27, 2008
Some clients you know you'll see again. You hope you won't, but you know you will. And, in a division with as rich a history as ours, sometimes our division alumni will reminisce about certain clients, with the attendant speculative...

Trial

Posted on March 24, 2008
After a couple of weeks of not going to trial, we got another win, but this time we didn't need the jury, nor did we need MJOAs. Instead we got a nolle pross during the state's direct. Here's how it...

Kevlar - Bullet/Road Proof Easters are Needed

Posted on March 23, 2008
Don't ride in Miami without Kevlar - I blew out a tire/tube cornering on Sheldon Bike. Looks like I got some glass clean through the tire and tube this time. Took about a second - Ffft Ffft Ffft grumble grumble...

Sheldon Bike

Posted on March 22, 2008
This is how you recycle a Peugeot wanna-be-fixed gear. First of all you take off the wheels with the beach cruiser hub (which can't brake for a damn). Then you hammer apart all the stuck components, imagining you are wielding...

Damn it.

Posted on March 21, 2008
Sheldon Brown died. Sheldon was a man who rode bicycles. A lot. And thought. A lot. And decided to share what he knew. On an epic scale - with no renumeration but your satisfied curiosity. I'm not sure how one...

Notes

Posted on March 19, 2008
Observation: if you are part of a crew of prostitutes, perhaps it would be not a very fine idea to show up (with friends) dressed as prostitutes in support of your friend who is charged with prostitution - let alone...

Even Though

Posted on March 12, 2008
this blog's author is not one of the Hard Drinking Librarians (tm) of which the Scoplaw was a founding member back in our days of yore, I think they make the cut. Therefore, the link. Which is both recommendation and...

In News of the Weird

Posted on March 12, 2008
a prosecutor asked me if he could read my hallway interview notes with the officers from our impending (as in one hour away) trial case, because, you know, it was really busy this morning and he didn't have a chance...

Cough-cough

Posted on March 10, 2008
Another jury win. Cough.

Walking Wounded

Posted on March 06, 2008
Another week, another trial, another win. (Yea!) But I'm sick again. Meh. Thank god the jury came back early - I have felt a little delirious since 6pm. Seems I'm being treated to round two of the the high fever,...

Greatest Hits

Posted on March 03, 2008
A few people have randomly asked me about poetry lately. I think my fav. publication credit is one in which I did not appear with Bill Knott.

Reason #1342 in my Dislike of Fossil Fuel Driven Transportation

Posted on March 02, 2008
Alternative titles to this post could have been: Another Day, Another Grease Tat Why I Shave My Legs Pavement Surfing 101 But, anyway, reason 1342 would be oil, on the road, literally. Which'd result in a drop-'n-slide and yet another...

(pause)

Posted on February 27, 2008
I think this is mid-week or something. I've been in trial 3 days running (basically 12+hr days) and tomorrow is a trial day. We lost the first, which was disappointing on many levels, but there's an appeal there - so...

New Addition to my Neighborhood

Posted on February 21, 2008
A fishbowl.

Roman Holiday

Posted on February 14, 2008
We're in that rare group of PDs who actively hope for trial. Didn't happen this week, but in our cases set for trial, no one took anything worse than credit-time-served. At one point we were down to two clients whom...

New Highs and Lows

Posted on February 11, 2008
Appointed as back-up counsel to a pro se defendant today. It was painful - I could have done so much with it instead of grinding my teeth and muttering most of the time. All in all our pro se didn't...

Posting Frenzy

Posted on February 10, 2008
Yes, it's time for another westlaw break. I'm singing badly along with Texas, thinking of Glasgow and Columbia. So it's a far-traveling pause. The muse of caselaw still smiles on me though. Should be an interesting week. Although I'm not...

To PD or not to PD?

Posted on February 10, 2008
Heard an interesting argument for IDing yourself as a PD to a jury. Assume that juries think criminal defense attorneys are liars, but PDs are simply incompetent (perhaps not even lawyers). You can prove yourself competent to a jury by...

Favorite Cover Songs

Posted on February 10, 2008
I was asked about cover songs and appropriation of lyrics/lines. Yeah, we can go all high lit. on this issue, but I'm more curious about reader's fav. cover songs (e-mails welcome for all you shy ones.) What are they? Why...

Friends Don't Let Friends Go Pro Se

Posted on February 10, 2008
Because, as rumor has it, these are some of the legal strategies lurking out there, waiting to be sprung on unsuspecting judges and prosecutors. . . Oral Motion to Dismiss at arraignment because This is Some Fucked Up Shit Yo....

Bad Art - even fine wine isn't enough to counter it.

Posted on February 09, 2008
Yes, it's the second Sat. of the month - so I'll again be strolling about the design district for the local galleries "art-walk." Both halves of that final word word must be construed liberally. Still, there's usually dollar beers and...

And that's what we call the Bill of Rights. . .

Posted on February 05, 2008
Got the 4th motion today - the state promptly nolle prossed the case, so no jury trial. Either I'm more tired than I thought or the state's argument didn't make any sense. I mean, usually I can frame the state's...

Meh.

Posted on February 04, 2008
Today I *almost* got a 4th amendment suppression motion granted on our only trial case that remained. The judge has reserved ruling pending some further research. (It's actually a very interesting issue, which I will surely fail to elucidate here,...

Situated

Posted on February 03, 2008
The PD's office here gives a month's paid leave for those of us who need to take the winter bar exam (I don't). Which is pretty awesome. Unfortunately, it also means people getting shuffled about to fill gaps. Well, I...

Yeah, this is me.

Posted on January 27, 2008
I am newly in love with a very bad film, Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter. Find it. Watch it. Seriously. But not all that Seriously. As Wiki says, this film deals with Jesus' modern-day struggle to protect the lesbians of Ottawa,...

Confusion or Clarity?

Posted on January 27, 2008
Interesting week/weekend thusfar. My brain feels full. I just got back from a poetry festival ? I saw, but ultimately missed (as in did not meet up with) several old faces, the director of the festival excepted. With the beard...

Peter (Alleged Victim) and Paul (possible Co-Defendant)

Posted on January 23, 2008
I loved my free Monday - I went into work (but not court) and got a lot of things in order. Yes, it says a lot about my life or relative lack of one, I know. Still, there's probably not...

Shorthand

Posted on January 21, 2008
A lot of people have asked what living in Miami is like. Here's my advice. Fast forward through a few episodes of Miami Vice with the sound off. Then watch a few episodes of Dexter - which is surprisingly right...

Getting Away From It All

Posted on January 20, 2008
The great thing about living in Miami is that after a kind of stressful week, I can just hop on my bike and be on the beach in a half hour. Or less if I'm just chilling on the bay....

And on. . .

Posted on January 15, 2008
Second NG jury trial tonight - that's 2 in 24hrs. And tomorrow is a trial day. More when I surface for air. I did get a nice compliment though. The state attorney said I make his heart race every time...

The Trial Wheel

Posted on January 14, 2008
Got to go with my old clinic partner who was pressed into service following our slightly nutso setting of 61 cases for trial and the splintering of our division to judges who could take our trial cases. (We literally had...

Supposed to be working late tonight. . .

Posted on January 13, 2008
but an old friend sent me a new song he wrote. I've played it about 12 times now. Echoes of everything - but mostly humid nights in Providence. Which is doubly appropriate as the TLF and I had dinner on...

Body, following Mind, shuts down. Or is it the other way?

Posted on January 13, 2008
Shutting down. This sort of thing has happened to me in the past - last week, as soon as I heard my second trial case was not going to go for lack of a jury, I got very very sleepy....

Teddy bears, candy canes, and all that shit.

Posted on January 13, 2008
Tonight I'm just filled, more so than usual, with my own particular helpless rage. It's the kind of rage that stems from a strong suspicion that something bad is going down and that someone I love is being made a...

Lawer-talkin (schweetness the second)

Posted on January 09, 2008
I got an iPhone for a holiday gift. And then I talked my way out of my Verizon contract and its termination fee. Yep. It can be done. (Pause for applause) I'd like to thank Gary Peller and his first...

The Schweetness

Posted on January 09, 2008
OK - the prime sweetness in my recent life: MJOA1 granted. For non-lawyers, a motion for a judgment of acquittal occurs when the state rests their case. You turn to the judge and say "this just isn't enough." As you...

Sniff. Sniff. Is that. . .respect?

Posted on January 06, 2008
Hmm. Could be. I won a Rodney for "Best Blog by a Male PD" and was the runner up for "Best Writing." That's pretty damn cool - people read the blog, and some seem to like it. And that's about...

Poem

Posted on January 01, 2008
I Burn Her Letters in an old tin bucket labeled, Flint's High Quality Axle Grease, and work my way through a box of blue-tipped kitchen matches and six Newcastles. It does no good. The 22 pager this time goes first,...

Various and Sundry

Posted on January 01, 2008
Well, time for another long rambling missive of self-memorialization, because, honestly, the lack of sleep does strange things to long term memory formation and sequencing. Hopefully it will be at least a passingly entertaining read, as I have a couple...

Poem

Posted on December 28, 2007
My Sister of Dust and Mortars I spend a day saying your name without saying it. I arrange some keepsakes on a shelf. Stone. Pressed flower. Photograph. Photograph. Pressed flower. Stone. Each a phoneme to build You-In-Absence. As though I...

Crazy Plan First Concocted Somewhere in GA, circa 2003, Comes to Fruition

Posted on December 18, 2007
Hmm. Am I filling out an order to have an AIDS test given in jail? Or perhaps a clever Order to Grant a Motion to Vacate? Speedy Trial Demand? Transportation Order? Notice of Expiration? Motion to Dismiss? Nope - that'd...

Moving Quickly, Moving Slowly

Posted on December 13, 2007
Friends will be glad to note I have actually adhered to being on vacation - yesterday I did a pick-up century (112 miles) up, down, a bit past, and around Key Largo. I took Card Sound Road instead of Route...

Bone Tired But Pleased

Posted on December 09, 2007
Technically I'm on vacation. That means I came in on vacation day one for a true dogfight of a trial, in which the jury ended up splitting the baby. I'd say more, but, as is mostly the case, things are...

How to Survive Trial Prep

Posted on December 02, 2007
Actually I love trial prep - it's kind of perverse, I know, yet I confess that I love knocking the ideas about, hunting down leads, bringing strategies together, honing stuff. But one needs a break sometimes. Anyway, it's rare that...