Way back when I started my blog I think there were maybe two blogs dealing with criminal law: Crimlaw and Talk Left (which even then was evolving into a political blog). At the time most of the interesting blogs seemed to be done by clerks or students. Of course, over the years things evolved. There are now quite a few criminal law professors and defense attorneys in the blawgosphere. However, there is still one group you don't see too many of: prosecutors. Having worked here for a little less than a year, I think I can see why that is. It's interesting how much of the work I do is prospective in nature or touches on political areas (there's lots of politics in a county with a county government, an independent city, and 5 independent towns). All of this is basically off limits, for fairly obvious reasons.
I am in the unique position of having been hired by a Commonwealth Attorney who had full knowledge of CrimLaw and being retained by a Commonwealth Attorney who also has full knowledge and, while I don't think he reads this very often, has said he will not interfere with CrimLaw. I appreciate the trust. However, I doubt that I would have started this if I had been employed in a prosecutor's office at the time. The prospect of having a "macaca" moment would have probably loomed too large.
With all this in mind, I thought I'd look set out a list of current prosecutors whom I know to be blogging:
Brian Patton - Author: Brian Patton - Mostly a political blog, but Brian's a brand spanking new prosecutor now. Welcome to the other side of the bench.
Seeking Justice - Author: Tom McKenna - Politics, Religion, and the Law. May be dead or dying since Tom has not posted in almost a month.
Judging Crimes - Author: Joel Jacobsen - The point of view of a government appellate lawyer. Technically, he works for the Attorney General, but it's still criminal law advocacy from this side of the bench so I include him.
Issues and Holdings in New Mexico Law - Author: Kirk Chavez - A fairly new blawg which is concentrating on the holdings of New Mexico appellate courts. Well written.
If anybody knows of any others leave me a comment or drop me an e-mail.
5 comments:
Hi, Ken- Check my Underdog blogroll under prosecutors and cops, for:
Dallas Sidebar
Fayette, KY, prosecutor
Prosecutor Bull. Board
Take care. Jon
mister da - although he hasn't posted since February.
Thanks, I didn't include Mr. DA because I think he's given up the ghost and, while I admit I'd not caught it before, Dallas Sidebar seems to be heading the same direction.
I always was somewhat amazed by the Fayette County website. Still, is it me or does the site appear to have calmed down some? there's just not the rhetoric about judges or PD's that I seem to remeber was a staple of the site. I'm not willing to list this one as a blog by an active prosecutor because it seems to be something the office has tasked the interns to do.
Yeah, that's sad about Mister DA. His was one of the first blogs I followed and despite our differing viewpoints, I always enjoyed it.
Hi Ken its been a while.
I wouldn't give up too soon. I stopped posting for almost 3 months recently just had writers block.
Patterico is a political blog written by a prosecutor.
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