Appellate Law

Odds and Ends

By S. COTUS

• Wait A Second points to the Social Value in Borat.  A Borat suit dismissed.  The guy who is angry because he was shown running away from Borat loses in the in SDNY.  The court writes:

  The movie challenges its viewers to confront, not only the bizarre and offensive Borat character himself, but the equally bizarre and offensive reactions he elicits from "average" Americans. Indeed, its message lies in that juxtaposition and the implicit accusation that "the time will come when it will disgust you to look in a mirror." Such clearly falls within the wide scope of what New York courts have held to be a matter of public interest. Lemerond v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26947 (S.D.N.Y. March 31, 2008). 

Remember this next time you want to tell someone to shut up while they do a Borat impersonation. 

Here are the documents:

1. Summons
2. Original Complaint
3. Complaint in Federal Court
4. Complaint #2 in Federal Court
5. Memorandum of Law in Support of Motion to Dismiss
6. Plaintiff?s Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Motion to Dismiss
7. Defendant?s Memorandum of Law In further Support of Motion to Dismiss
8. Memorandum and Opinion Dismissing Case

• ACS points to this interview in Reason with Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins.  It includes these lines

reason: You talk about the mindset of winning convictions at all costs. The legendary law-and-order Dallas prosecutor Henry Wade, who held the job you now hold for many, many years, embodied that philosophy. He?s known to have actually boasted about convicting innocent people?that convincing a jury to put an innocent man in jail proved his prowess as a prosecutor.

Watkins: Oh yeah, it was a badge of honor at the time?to knowingly convict someone that wasn?t guilty. It?s widely known among defense attorneys and prosecutors from that era. We had to come in clean out all the remnants of that older way of thinking.

Okay, we all know that Henry Wade would brag about convicting innocent people.  This is the way Texas works.  Texans liked it that way.  It was their culture.

What I wonder is why out-of-state prosecutors never put too much effort into disavowing Wade's action.  In fact, many seem to admire the guy.

Full post as published by Appellate Law and Practice on April 08, 2008 (boomark / email).