The defense has rested in the corruption trial of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich without letting the jury hear his testimony. Other people are discussing what it's fair to assume about Blagojevich's guilt based on his not testifying [be sure to read Scott Greenfield's scathing response in the comments below], but I'm wondering how we're hearing about so many details … [Read more...] about Who’s Talking In the Blago Camp?
Legal
What To Do About Innocence?
There's been round-the-blawgosphere turmoil about Lee v. Lampert, in which the 9th Circuit basically said that the AEDPA's time limits for filing a habeas petition still apply even though pretty much everyone agrees that the defendant is actually innocent. That is, Lee is innocent, but he just didn't submit the paperwork on time. There's plenty of coverage by Gideon, … [Read more...] about What To Do About Innocence?
A Tale of Two Cities
I haven't been writing as much as I'd like to lately, but fortunately, there's plenty of other good stuff to read. Mirriam Seddiq has a terrific article about what she's learned practicing criminal law in several different jurisdictions. Her description of Baltimore (and the Baltimore police) is priceless. … [Read more...] about A Tale of Two Cities
Trial Lawyers and the Winner’s Curse
Chances are, you don't enjoy movies as much as you think you will. That's because movie tickets present us consumers with a tricky problem of incomplete knowledge. We want to buy tickets to movies we'll enjoy, but the only sure way to know how much we'll enjoy a movie is to watch it, and we can't do that unless we've already bought a ticket. So we try to make an educated guess. … [Read more...] about Trial Lawyers and the Winner’s Curse
The METDI Defense
Jeff Gamso has a fascinating post about the probabilities behind a DNA match. If you do felony criminal law (from either side of the aisle) and I tell you the number is 6.17 quadrillion, you probably assume that I'm talking about DNA. The number will reflect just how unlikely it is that the DNA in the whatever left at the scene could have come from anyone other than the … [Read more...] about The METDI Defense