In Ohio, it is June 24, 2008
In Ohio, the clock hasn’t moved past June 24, 2008. The residents of that state have been reliving that one day for the last 5+ years. Or at least that’s the only explanation for this bill proposed by...
View ArticleTX man thinks he’s better than the TN public defender system
First, in Texas, a man was charged with multiple murders and the prosecutor is deciding whether to seek the death penalty. In that case, his lawyer is a kid named Maverick Ray1. Mark Bennett has this...
View ArticleIn Colorado, you’re a victim only if you support the death penalty
Colorado, which apparently still has the death penalty, is currently trying Edward Montour for the beating death of Eric Autobee, a correctional guard. Montour was serving a life sentence for another...
View ArticleVirginia prosecutors will do just about anything to execute Justin Wolfe...
While everyone is enjoying that ridiculous lawyer ad, Justin Wolfe spent 10 years on death row, convicted of a murder-for-hire and sentenced to death. After the state courts upheld his conviction and...
View ArticleTwo updates
Updates to two recent stories: SCOTUS denied review of the outrageous Virginia prosecutorial misconduct, leaving prosecutor Paul Ebert free to intimidate and lie his way to another death sentence for...
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The persecution of justice (updated)
One of the more important things I write about here at ‘a public defender’ is the notion that “Justice” is a complicated concept. It is not limited to what you are fed through your televisions and it...
View ArticleDeath penalty in CT still alive
Pardon the pun, but the state’s abolition of the death penalty in 2012 was always an incomplete measure, in part because of the 10 or so men on death row who weren’t pardoned by abolition and because...
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Cruel and unusual: the new lows we hit in our thirst for blood (updated)
The death penalty is a disgusting, cruel and barbaric business. It is nothing more than a manifestation of our basest instinct for revenge, wrapped in primal anger and fear. It is the worst of us. In...
View ArticleOn lethal injections: academia vs. reality
The Wood botched execution in Arizona and others elsewhere have shocked many and rightly so. But it’s also opened up an interesting debate in the legal world. On the one hand, you have academics...
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Things from Ferguson that even you can’t ignore (updated)
A picture of Officer Friendly in Ferguson: My, what a big gun you have. Now here’s what happens if you want to record Officer Friendly: (via @rdevro) What happens to people who try to record the...
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Impossibility is not a defense
The law, you will have guessed by now, is not concerned much with the English language and its precise definitions. A fall-back answer that’s almost always right, when it comes to the law, is that...
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Ferguson: the no-Constitution zone
[The following is my latest column for the CT Law Tribune, to be published this week.] To give the police greater power than a magistrate is to take a long step down the totalitarian path. Perhaps such...
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The consequences of a “confrontation” with cops
That’s Mark Maher, a resident of Windsor, CT. Well, that’s him after Enfield Police Officer Matthew Worden got done teaching him a lesson. Naturally, Maher was then charged with interfering with an...
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Anything you don’t say will be used against you
Everyone knows the familiar refrain: “you have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you…” Now, if you’re in California, you might have to add a new phrase to that:...
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Unethical for lawyers to make clients forgo claims against them
From the “You Don’t Say” chronicles, a still-groundbreaking opinion1 [PDF] from the KY Supreme Court this week has ruled it unethical for plea agreements between the prosecution and the defense to...
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AQA: A conversation about the Fourth Amendment
Dan Klau – lawyer, blogger and Connecticut resident – and I engaged in a lengthy back and forth conversation last week on the importance of the Fourth Amendment, searches and seizures, the recent CT...
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A shocker in Maryland
I was shocked to read the story of Delvon King, 25 year old pro-se defendant in Maryland, who was facing gun charges and about to represent himself at trial. Here’s what happened: King began jury...
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Dash cam exonerates another man; reveals cops’ thuggery
Nothing that I can write will replace the impact of watching this 4 minute video, produced by ABC News 7 of a Bloomfield, NJ police department’s arrest of Marcus Jeter: Particularly rich were the...
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Man. Black. Guilty.
seems legit “Tall”, “bald-headed” and “black male” are apparently the only identifiers of Charles Belk, who spent 6 hours in police custody last week because he fit the description of a bank robber. He...
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List week: an experiment doomed to fail
I am dubbing next week list week here at APD. Which means everything I post will be in the form of list, to keep up with changing stupidity levels and shortening attention spans. If you have things you...
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