1) How to talk to a lawyer. In general very good advice. As to how much information to give your Criminal defense attorney, unless your attorney asks you to tell it all to him answer the attorney's specific questions. Oh, and . . . if you know your attorney is waiting at his office for you to come by and talk to him - go to your attorney's office and talk to him. I hate phone interviews. I want to see you, watch your body language, see you clothes, etc. Believe it or not, all of these things can be very important for your defense.
2) From Orin and Waddling Thunder - Do law professors need practical experience? I remember one professor telling me that it was considered bad to have actual experience if you were looking for a law professor position because you were considered "contaminated" and probably no longer theoretical enough (my summary of a longer conversation). All I know is that the people teaching criminal law and any class which teaches constitutional law that touches upon criminal procedure should know that of which they speak. Theory and courtroom reality are entirely different things and those who might need to actually practice in the courtroom need to know the difference (I am now shivering as I suppress painful memories of some of my early courtroom arguments).
3) Teaching the law of rape. Maybe ya'll can make constructive comments. My criminal law class covered murder for 80% of the class and the entire course leaned heavily on the Model Penal Code. And, boy, that was oh so helpful when I started defending people charged with grand larcenies and B&E's in a common law State.
4) Indiana Public Defender gets a not guilty verdict.
5) 400 hours at the DOJ as "pro bono publico?" Ummm . . . I'm gonna pass on the snide comments. It's just too easy.
6) Johnnie Cochran has passed on. I cannot comment on the man personally but it does seem like he was a heck of lawyer.
7) What do you know, Public Defender Dude is getting fan mail. Sadly, it looks kinda familiar.
8) Firing 43 prosecutors in one fell swoop. Not a bad day. ;-) Of course, it looks like he might have to hire them all back.
9) Should you retain your license to deal firearms if you leave 31 weapons - including machine guns and firearms - in your unlocked car so they can be stolen?
10) Should someone be allowed a lesser term of incarceration because he is an important research scientist?
11) Stay away from the police if you are trying to get to the hospital for a birth.
12) The guy who killed his officers with a grenade in Iraq tried to escape. He was a no-go at this station.
BTW SoCalLaw has a really nice new format.
13) Living in the closet of a teenage girl and then writing her letters from jail. ick.
14) Mr. DA honors us with another post. Yeesh, his office sounds busy.
15) FBI at work. Because nobody would think someone hid something in a crawl space.
16) Can a juror's blog taint a trial?
17) The defendant from Crawford pled (that's right pled, not pleaded) guilty anyway.
18) Okay, this is just sick - and it doesn't beat the alcohol breath test either.
19) "There is too much law as it is. Most of it better left unread." I agree with the sentiment but not generally a fan of the book.
BTW: I want to thank Mike for helping out over here at the beginning of the last week. He did it without even being cajoled into it which shows he's good people. Go read his blog. He seems able to keep things over there always at a high quality. If only I could figure out how to do that . . .
20) At least these guys aren't drinking bleach to beat the test. I about fell over the first time I heard someone had done that.
21) Client control: ( 'klI-&nt k&n-'trOl ) 1. A term generally a part of a prosecutor's vocabulary which means to get your client to do what the prosecutor wants him to do. Generally, this means to force your client to plead guilty. However, it may also have other meanings. 2. A term defense attorneys joke about because they know that no matter how rational or heated their discussions are with their clients a number of clients will display traits such as free will, stubbornness, or lack of foresight. As well, there is always that possibility that the client may truly believe in all that patriotic "right to trial," "presumed innocent," and "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" silliness we feed our children in their civics courses.
3 comments:
The Model Penal Code was bashed over my head daily, and it is meaningless crap. I am glad you mentioned that.
item #12 is perfectly said. when were you in the army?
Brian - Studying the MPC might have helped if I were practicing in a State which has adopted it. However, Virginia is never going to adopt it. I mean, if it wasn't thought of by Jefferson it must not be worth a darn. Right?
So Cal - The only problem is that now you've got me thinking about redesigning my site. So if people come by tomorrow and the site is pink & green with little ponies running across the screen they'll know whom to blame . . .
Nate - I served from 1987 to 1993. Then I figured I'd given the Army enough chances to send me somewhere "to make the other guy a martyr for his country" and got out to go to college and law school.
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