In one of his posts today, New York criminal defense lawyer Scott Greenfield writes about the error rate for drug-sniffing dogs: More to the point was the dog hits simply aren't anywhere nearly as worthy of credit as courts have held. Consider whether it would be equally acceptable for a cop to flip a coin in order to establish probable cause to search. For a dog whose … [Read more...] about Some Dog-Sniffing Math
The Chicago Code – Episode 2: Hog Butcher
I finally got around to watching the second episode of The Chicago Code last night. The opening titles and music were different, which confirms that the first episode was a true pilot, created long before the next episode. Otherwise, my impression is about the same: It's not great, but I could get used to it, and they do a great job of filming my home town. The story is still … [Read more...] about The Chicago Code – Episode 2: Hog Butcher
Scattershot 2011-02-14
Random shots around the web: Homeland Security can seize domain names? WTF? A little bit of crime facilitating speech (?) from Steve Graham (useful to the 420 crowd). More Venn diagram humor. Gang fight caught on video. Now matter how awful I think our criminal justice system is, I can always count on the crimlaw blogosphere to come up with new criminal justice horror … [Read more...] about Scattershot 2011-02-14
On the Blogging Gender Gap Kerfuffle
So a few days ago Mike Cernovich at Crime & Federalism addressed the (apparently common) question of why women are underrepresented in the legal blogosphere. Everyone gets very concerned for women, who apparently are being prevented from blogging. Who is preventing women from blogging? No one says. Well, it's "men," we are told. Mike calls bullshit on that. As evidence, he … [Read more...] about On the Blogging Gender Gap Kerfuffle
A Long Post About Flat-Fee Lawyering
I don't know what Houston criminal defense lawyer Mark Bennett's politics are, but over the past couple of months he's been experiencing a classic example of the sort of thing that turns people into libertarians: Out of the blue, the government--in the form of the State Bar of Texas--wants to outlaw his business model. He usually charges clients a flat fee, but now the … [Read more...] about A Long Post About Flat-Fee Lawyering