Murder

Non-Sequiturs: 10.16.12

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* Now they’re telling people NOT to go the highest-ranked law school possible? Does not compute… [The Careerist]

* If Thelma and Louise had made it to their 70′s, they might look like this. By that I mean, running men over with their car for insurance money. [FindLaw]

* “Hello, 911? Someone stole all my marijuana plants. Mm-hmm, yes, yes I do. You’ll send an officer over to help? Great, thank you!” [The Consumerist]

* Buying a judge a bottle of wine and offering to settle your dispute privately doesn’t mean what this lawyer thought it meant. What does it actually mean? Sanctions. [South Florida Lawyer]

* The overall SCOTUS docket is decreasing in size, but the number of IP cases is going up. I am smartphone, hear me roar. [SCOTUSblog]

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Non-Sequiturs: 10.11.12

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*James Henderson, former senior counsel at the American Center for Law & Justice, is no longer with the ACLJ — and there are interesting theories as to why. [Metro Weekly]

* Part one of an epic story about a Texan’s wrongful murder conviction, written by Pamela Colloff, one of the best investigative reporters in the state, if not the country. Get a drink and a comfy chair; you won’t want to get up for a while. [Texas Monthly]

* Chief Judge Alex Kozinski is going to be in pictures — or a picture, at least. Check out Atlas Shrugged: Part II, which hits theaters tomorrow. [Atlas Shrugged]

* Our tipster provided a nifty blurb for this article: “This has everything. Bumbling Frenchmen dependent on a heroic (albeit opportunistic) American to save the day? Check. Twenty-first century application of 19th century maritime law? Check. Overblown invocation of piracy? Check.” [San Francisco Chronicle]

* San Franciscans, come see David Lat speak at U.C. Hastings on Monday. It’s free and open to the public! Heck, I’ll probably go too. [Legally Speaking]

* You gotta admit, trying to get rich off claims about the death of an imaginary cat (and/or parrot) is a pretty imaginative way to commit insurance fraud. [Seattle Weekly]

* Colorado Bar Exam results are out. Congratulations to those who passed. [Colorado Supreme Court]

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Quote of the Day: Who Are You Again? Why Are You Here?

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Drew Peterson

The filing should be stricken. It’s absolute insanity. It’s bizarre beyond belief. It’s so unbelievable, I don’t know what to say. I’m speechless.

– Joel Brodsky, lead attorney for convicted murderer Drew Peterson, responding to attorney John Paul Carroll’s motion for a new trial. Carroll has not been involved in the case thus far, except as a consultant to advise Peterson about his pension rights.

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Non-Sequiturs: 10.02.12

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* A case of alleged murder by legal form. Christ, this sounds like a bad Twilight Zone episode. [Lake Expo]

* A novel reason why teenagers should still refrain from posting party pictures on Facebook, future job concerns be damned. [ABA Journal]

* Kirkland & Ellis donated $5 million to the Northwestern University Law School. I think some celebratory key jangling is in order. [Northwestern News Center]

* Con law nerds, you can now check out the audio from the Supreme Court’s announcement of its ruling in the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. the Obamacare case. [Oyez]

* What do the naked Kate Middleton pictures mean for modern privacy law? Other than the fact that all famous people should just become nevernudes, obviously. [LinkedIn]

* A judge blocked the controversial Pennsylvania Voter ID law, at least until election season ends. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Although law school application rates are falling across most of the country, application numbers have spiked at the extraordinarily prestigious Kansas University School of Law. Wait, what? [LJWorld]

* Oh lord, here we go again. Samsung sued Apple for patent infringement in the iPhone 5. Let’s begin round #72,354. Ding! [CNET]

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Quote of the Day: Judges Aren’t Robots, You Know

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Judge Susan Graber

All of us as judges have had life experiences that could be said to affect our perception of the cases that come before us. Some of us have served as prosecutors and others have not; some have experienced discrimination as women or minorities and others have not; some are intensely religious and others are not, and our religions vary…. These life experiences do not disqualify us from serving as judges on cases in which the issues or the facts are in some indirect way related to our personal experiences.

– Judges Marsha S. Berzon and Richard Tallman, in an elegantly written Ninth Circuit order explaining why Judge Susan P. Graber does not need to recuse herself from a capital murder case because her father was murdered 40 years ago.

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This Federal Judge Wants Shorter Legal Opinions; We Heartily Concur

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Let’s see. How many completely unrelated topics can you fit into one federal appeals court ruling? How about a lead defense attorney who drank a quart of vodka during every day of a capital murder trial, a concurring opinion criticizing the majority opinion — not about the case itself, but simply on the ruling’s length — aaaand let’s throw in a Mark Twain quote for good measure.

That should do it! Introducing the ruling in Holsey v. Warden. It’s quite the odd duck, so let’s take a look…

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Lawyer of the Day: Miami PD Posts Pictures of Client’s Underwear on Facebook, Causes Mistrial

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Standing trial for allegedly stabbing your significant other to death is not where anyone wants to be. Being unable to afford your own atttorney adds a whole new layer of stress to the whole “on trial for murder” issue. Now, add to the mix a public defender who takes a photo of the underwear your family brought you to wear during trial and posts it to Facebook.

Bienvenido a Miami!

Oh yeah, we should mention that the lawyer here is a woman, and the murder defendant is a man. And the underpants were leopard print.

CHECK YOU ineffective assistance of counsel….

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An Interview With Oscar-Winner Errol Morris, Author of ‘A Wilderness of Error’

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In his new book, Academy Award-winner Errol Morris has taken on one of the highest-profile murder case of the last 50 years.

Morris, known for The Fog of War, his documentary about Robert S. McNamara, just published his second book — A Wilderness of Error: The Trials of Jeffrey MacDonald (affiliate link) — a revival of the story of a young Army doctor convicted in 1979 of murdering his pregnant wife and two children.

Americans of a certain age (i.e., older than me) almost certainly remember MacDonald, whose story was told and endlessly picked apart on television, in Fatal Vision by Joe McGinniss, and The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm. But Morris’s new book is perhaps the first serious investigative look at the idea that MacDonald may very well be innocent.

Morris’s book, which has already garnered positive reviews in the New York Times and the Atlantic, is at once a thrilling true crime story and challenging philosophical look at the tricky nature of facts and the importance of narrative in the American legal system.

Let’s hear more about the book and chat with Morris….

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Quote of the Day: 21st Century Gender Dysphoria Man

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Michelle Kosilek and Justice Ginsburg: separated at birth?

In this case, Kosilek has proven that he still has a severe gender identity disorder. Although female hormones have helped somewhat, he continues to suffer intense mental anguish because of his sincere and enduring belief that he is a female trapped in male body.

That anguish alone constitutes a serious medical need. It also places him at high risk of killing himself if his major mental illness is not adequately treated.

– Chief Judge Mark Wolf (D. Mass.), in today’s landmark ruling ordering Massachusetts to pay for convicted murderer Michelle (formerly Robert) Kosilek’s sex reassignment surgery.

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Did This Alleged Murderer Get Some Help From a ‘Little Buddy’?

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Mr. Plum in the observatory with the … Little Buddy?

Well, this is chilling. We’ve heard a lot recently about the privacy implications of warrantless wire tapping. But this is the first we’ve heard of a murder allegedly committed with the help of a GPS device designed to help parents keep track of their children.

A man is currently facing trial for allegedly shooting his wife’s lover after following her with a Little Buddy GPS device.

And to think, normal people feel bad after occasionally creeping around an ex’s Facebook profile….

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