Jean Marbella has a good column in the Sun regarding trial of two brothers accused of torching a pit bull in West Baltimore in 2009: Somehow, I feel It’s come to this: The rest of us turn our backs on these neighborhoods, and the blue-light camera is the only one still looking. … No similar urgency for justice swells up…
Tag: courts
LA Jury
My mom just got off of an L.A. jury. It happened to be the same courtroom as the OJ Simpson trial. The accused was pulled over in South L.A. for a traffic violation and had an outstanding warrant (for what, naturally, she doesn’t know). Search incident to arrest found cocaine. Seems open and shut… but not for a city jury.…
In the Windy City, Blowing People Away
One easy way to tell if people have no relation to the criminal justice system is if they believe it actually works… you know, works as in guilty people get convicted after a fair trial, innocent people walk free, and victims feel like justice has been served. If you believe that, you watch too much TV. The Chicago Sun-Timesis looking…
A technicality?
It’s not easy to separate emotion from constitutional issues. Ronell Wilson killed two NYPD detectives in 2003 and was found guilty and sentence to death by a federal jury. Good. Now, in 2010, an appeals court struck down the sentence (but not the conviction… the bastard did it). It’s easy for cops and conservatives to bitch about “liberal” courts letting…
Five years in jail before trial
And then you’re found not-guilty. After being behind bars for five years. Now granted, as the guy’s lawyer says, “Ikoli was carrying an unloaded gun” and “there’s an awful lot to not like about what he did.” But he was not guilty of murder and acquitted by a jury. His friend, who he was with, plead guilty at the start…
Speaking for the Defense?
I don’t talk much about the death penalty. It’s not my passion. On one hand I think it’s wrong to kill. On the other I have very little sympathy for those put to death (except for the innocent ones, ‘course). But get a load of this (found here): Regardless of what you think about the death penalty, regardless of whether…
Anonymous tips don’t give police probable cause
Not to stop drivers. Nor to search pedestrians. David Savage reports in the L.A. Times.
Time Served
Perhaps nothing speaks better to our broken justice system than the fact that people–guilty and innocent alike–are held in jail for more than year beforetrial. Lise Olsen reports in the Houston Chronicle: Though the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to a speedy trial, at least 500 county inmates [out of 11,500] have been locked up for more than a year…
Man Burned at Burning Man Assumed Risk of Being Burned by Burning Man
Sometimes the courts actual make the right decision. It seems that if you go to Burning Man and get burned by the actual burning man by walking in fire, you can’t sue. Fair enough. Lowering the Bar brought this important legal decision to my attention. I went to burning man once. There’s some incredibly cool art and ideas there (and…