The Ventris Interview and a Nomination for the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court’s decision in Kansas v. Ventris is one of the strangest things I’ve seen from them in a long time. I’m not a lawyer, but as I understand the law, it has been normal procedure for many...
View ArticleLawyer as Juror in a Murder Trial
Illinois’s own Jeremy Richey does some actual journalism and interviews California civil attorney Brian Pedigo about his experience as a juror for a murder trial. He talks about deliberations, and what...
View ArticleEminently Ignorant
I’m probably being unfair, but it seems like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is a bit of a dumbass. (Or maybe, as fair Jennifer says, we should have listened to Anita Hill.) That’s really the...
View ArticleThe Greatest Criminal Defense Blogger In Chicago
The other day I was once again lamenting the state of Chicago criminal defense bloggers—which is, basically, as I’ve complained before, that there aren’t any—when I had a shocking revelation: There is,...
View ArticleStill Searching For That Elusive Chicago Criminal Defense Blogger
I’m continuing my search for a half-way decent Chicago-themed criminal defense blog. The standard isn’t that high. I’m not looking for a national-quality crimlaw blogger with a huge following and tons...
View ArticleAdventures In Avvo – Take 1
After a recent episode of Raising the Bar, I’ve been wondering if some do-gooder could go around bailing indigent people out of jail so they can go home to their families even though they don’t have...
View ArticleAdventures In Avvo – Take 2
Out of some curiosity about how bail works, I posted a question on Avvo Answers. The first answer I got was a clean miss by an out-of-state lawyer. Now Illinois’s own Jeremy Richey has stepped up. To...
View ArticleAdventures In Avvo – Take 3
I’ve been posting about my attempt to get an answer to a simple question using Avvo Answers. In Take 1, an out-of-state lawyer provided a wrong answer. In Take 2, our own Jeremy Richey provided a good...
View ArticleAdventures In Avvo – Take 4
I gave Avvo Answers—Avvo’s forum for lawyers to answer questions for free—a test drive a couple weeks ago with a test question about bailing someone out, and the result was a bit confusing, but I...
View ArticleThe Cyber Revolution Reaches the Ninth Circuit
The Ninth Circuit just decided United States v. Comprehensive Drug Testing which includes some very important new rules for seizing data on people’s computers. Or so I’m told by folks like Scott...
View ArticleBlawg Review at Popehat
Popehat has Blawg Review #233 today, and the theme is based on the story of Joshua Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico. If you haven’t heard of Emperor Norton before, it’s a...
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Blawg Review #238: Celebrating the International Day of Tolerance … and the...
“We tend to idealize tolerance, then wonder why we find ourselves infested with losers and nut cases. — Patrick Nielsen Hayden “I have seen gross intolerance shown in support of tolerance.” — Coleridge...
View ArticleKeeping the Jury in the Dark
I’m guessing that most of you are neither lawyers nor career criminals, which means that, like me, your most significant role in the criminal justice system is probably going to be juror. As Norm...
View ArticleProfitable DUI Punishment in South Carolina
South Carolina criminal defense lawyer Bobby Frederick has an excellent example today of the scourge of profitable punishment: Law enforcement agencies receive grants based on the number of DUI arrests...
View ArticleFuck Ed Jagels
Radley Balko bids farewell to Kern County California D.A. Ed Jagels: You’d be hard pressed to find a law enforcement official anywhere in the country who better embodies the worst excesses of America’s...
View ArticleAdventures in Avvo: Scene 2 – Take 1
This post at D.A. Confidential includes a link to a list of “The 6 Most Badass Skills You Can Learn in Under a Week.” Skill number 4 is lock picking, and the article refers to a Lock Picking School In...
View ArticleAdventures in Avvo: Scene 2 – Take 2
Yesterday I started another one of my Avvo Answers experiments, in which I asked the free advice service the following question: Is it legal to own lock picks in Illinois? Chicago, IL And it it’s...
View ArticleExplain or Clam Up?
Scott Greenfield has a couple of interesting items up over at Simple Justice. First of all, there’s the case of the Jew with suspicious objects on board a plane, as originally reported in the New York...
View ArticleA Lockpicking Answer
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I’m fascinated by the idea of lock picking, but I wondered if it was actually legal to own lock picks here in Illinois. So I posted a question in Avvo Answers, an...
View Article“We Are All Not Guilty of Something…”
As you may have noticed, I love reading criminal defense blogs, and now there’s a new one I’m looking forward to. Actually it’s one of the oldest crimlaw blogs on the web, but it’s getting some new...
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