Legal

Over at a public defender, Gideon has posted his second attempt to create a jury instruction for the meaning of "reasonable doubt," based on feedback he got from his first attempt, which has a lot of interesting comments.The discussion is far too technical for me to contribute to, for reasons that Scott Greenfield spells out when describing an attempt he was involved … [Read more...] about Return to the Planet of Reasonable Doubt

Professor Jonathan Oberman from the Cardozo School of Law has a great opinion piece in the New York Law Journal about the two lawyers who were forced to resign as a result of the Bronx Defenders' "Hands Up" kerfuffle. These lawyers are smart, committed and hardworking, and have earned their clients', their community's, and this city's trust as a consequence of their dedication … [Read more...] about Reviewing the Charges Against the Bronx Defenders

I've been trying to understand why grand jury secrecy works the way it does, and there are parts of it that just don't make sense to me. At a fundamental level, the idea of the government telling people there's stuff they can never, ever talk about just doesn't seem right. Our right to free speech isn't absolute, but there usually has to be a pretty good reason for an … [Read more...] about Why Are Grand Juries So Secret?

The Bronx Defenders, a non-profit law firm in New York, are taking some heat because two of their lawyers, Kumar Rao and Ryan Napoli, acted in a few scenes of a rap video which were filmed in the firm's offices. The song, "Hands Up," is not my kind of music, but if you want to watch it, here it is:http://youtu.be/BV_FizTIxM4Just looking at the freeze frame should give … [Read more...] about Je Suis Bronx Defenders

Matt Brown, a criminal defense lawyer in Tempe, Arizona, has noticed that a lot of local lawyers have websites that get the law on concealed weapons wrong. Every single lawyer website I visited had misstated the law. Fortunately, the law has become more permissive, so nobody who believes what they read on the lawyers' websites will think it's legal to do something that will … [Read more...] about DUI Lawyers and Faith In Websites