Legal

There was an interesting criminal case out of Fairfax, Virginia the other day, involving a young lady named Sandra Mendez Ortega who stole some jewelry from Lisa Copeland while cleaning her house. The Washington Post lays out the events this way: The case began with Copeland’s discovery in September 2016 that her engagement and wedding rings were missing from the … [Read more...] about Just Consequences

Oh my God! They're going after Squawk!It all started back in May, when Appellate Squawk (who somewhat disappointingly turns out not to be a bird with legal superpowers but a human female working for the New York Legal Aid Society) published a post poking mild fun at her office's training about the importance of asking clients to clarify their gender. Here's a … [Read more...] about Free the Squawk!

Over at Fault Lines, Andrew Fleischman has a post about the idea of letting a jury determine actual innocence. It's an interesting post -- worth a read -- but when I read the headline I thought of something a bit different.Criminal defense attorneys complain about the difficulty of getting a jury to understand the degree of proof necessary for a criminal conviction. They … [Read more...] about A Verdict of Innocence?

I was going to write an overview of the technical issues involved in the FBI's demand that Apple help them break into the iPhone 5C that was being used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, but it soon became apparent that the issues were too complex for easy summary, and the story keeps changing as more details leak out.On the other hand, I would like to respond to a … [Read more...] about A Brief Response to Cy Vance About Apple and the FBI

I've been blogging about criminal justice issues for a long time now, and I like to think I know a few things (for an amateur observer) but every once in a while I am amazed to discover that some seemingly normal part of the criminal justice system is, on further examination, inexplicably perverse.This time it started with Ken Womble's post at Fault Lines about risks faced … [Read more...] about Pretrial Detention and Why It’s Like That