Nathaniel Downes at the highly liberal Addicting Info thinks he's found shocking evidence of jury tampering in the Zimmerman trial: The image of a murder trial jury often times gives the image from 12 Angry Men, a group holed up, cut off from contact from the outside world, with the weight of life or death hanging over their heads as they decide the fate of the person on … [Read more...] about Horrors of the Zimmerman Jury
Snowden Drops the Other Shoe
When Edward Snowden first started revealing to journalist Glenn Greenwald how the NSA has secretly been spying on all of us, he made a point of differentiating himself from Bradley Manning: Snowden said that he admires both Ellsberg and Manning, but argues that there is one important distinction between himself and the army private, whose trial coincidentally began the week … [Read more...] about Snowden Drops the Other Shoe
A Modest Proposal for Preventing Prosecutors From Overcharging
Scott Greenfield and Gideon have been kicking Glenn Reynolds around the schoolyard because of his ideas for combating overcharging by prosecutors who pile on charges they know they can't prove. Broadly speaking, Scott and Gid think most of Reynolds's ideas are silly or dangerous, and they are annoyed that his ideas get so much attention just because he's a well-known blogger … [Read more...] about A Modest Proposal for Preventing Prosecutors From Overcharging
Suspicions About the SORNA Challenge
Apparently something called the National Institute of Justice is offering prizes for whoever comes up with exciting and innovative ways to study cost and effectiveness of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). The appellatesquawk quotes from the breathless email announcement: NIJ CHALLENGE: COST-BENEFIT OF SEX OFFENDER REGISTRATION LAWAre you up for … [Read more...] about Suspicions About the SORNA Challenge
Nothing to Say About the Zimmerman Trial
I've written very little about George Zimmerman's killing of Trayvon Martin, and I have nothing to say about the trial. It's a lethal-force incident, with a claim of self-defense, and in years of reading about such incidents, I've learned a few important lessons:(1) These cases are very fact-specific: Guilt or innocence can turn on just a few details, and it will be hard to … [Read more...] about Nothing to Say About the Zimmerman Trial