Criminal Law

Shine the light on cops throughout the day.

Posted on February 12, 2008
Here's another example why people should shine the light of day on police abuse with their cameraphones, and why strong legal protections need to be in place for videotaping, photographing, and recording police. This abortion of justice by this now-suspended cop took place in broad daylight near Baltimore's Inner Harbor, which ordinarily is swarming with visitors, working people, and car traffic throughout daylight hours...

Six September 11 suspects to have military death penalty trials.

Posted on February 11, 2008
  In a secret military commission tribunal system where military-employed criminal defense lawyers are encouraged to pretend to defend, United States military prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against six September 11 suspects who are held in Guantanamo, Cuba...

Tom Lantos leaves the planet.

Posted on February 11, 2008
   Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.)  When it comes to politicians, I ordinarily have looked at the glass as more than half empty than the other way around. Until the age of fourteen or so (born in 1963), I was optimistic that Nixon was an abberration and that the political system could be made better than in Nixon's image...

Randazza returns with a vengeance.

Posted on February 10, 2008
  Image from Library of Congress's website. Sometimes I am too spare in praising others. Of course, when I do praise, I clearly mean it.   Two or three years ago -- through the First Amendment Lawyers Association's listserv -- I met Marc Randazza, a First Amendment lawyer in Florida who blogs expletives more often than I, because, like I, he often gets fed up with all the times that other people urinate on others' rights...

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Toking photo keeps Amy Winehouse from the Grammys?

Posted on February 10, 2008
Image from public domain. Tonight will air portions of the fiftieth Grammy awards. I say portions, because the annual awards are notorious for going off-camera and offstage for giving awards for high quality music that draws limited mass appeal.  However, being wildly popular does not automatically guarantee a Grammy stage spot for non-United States citizens suspected of committing drug crimes, even if the suspected activity is as minor as smoking marijuana...

Michael Maggio leaves the planet.

Posted on February 10, 2008
Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). Today, Michael Maggio passed away. The world is all the poorer for it.  In 1987 during my second year of law school, I was obsessing over how to overlap my goal of doing good with my law degree while not being relegated too long by my earnings to living in a group house and eating only rice and beans for dinner; of course, many honorable pursuits do not enable living much more luxuriously than with rice and beans...

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