Anonymous blogger AHCL writes a critique of my mood: He's darker. More angry. More morose.. . . .Where he starts getting mean is in the comments. he argues that Kelly Siegler "bought" Steven Hotze's support. he states he thinks its "fair" for Kelly to pay for Chuck's sins (obviously not thinking that "mere presence" applies when it comes to politics). he notes that posters on his website

In my first Blog Against Theocracy 2008 post I discussed why little-r-religion -- people's religious beliefs, as opposed to big-R-Religion (the Church) -- is inevitably a part of criminal justice policy. Most churches have something to recommend them: they provide guidelines for how humans should behave in relation to each other. Don't murder, don't steal, don't adulter, don't bear false witness, don't covet. Love one another, turn

When I get a new magazine, the first thing I read is the letters to the editor. And when I find a new blog, the first thing I read is the comments. Sometimes I go to Simple Justice just to read the comments. One of the reasons I switched to WordPress was so that I could have a "recent comments" widget like Scott's. If you enjoy comments

From the "You Mean You're Not Supposed to Do That?" files: Lawyer held in contempt for simulating masturbation in court.

As my first post for Blog Against Theocracy 2008, I'd like to point out that there are implicit religious assumptions that underlie every position taken in every discussion of criminal justice policy. For example: One of the fundamental questions of criminal justice policy is why we punish people. There are five possible reasons to do so: To deter them (specific deterrence); To deter others (general deterrence); To

New York Criminal Defense Lawyer Scott Greenfield, who reads more blogs than I do, tells us about BAT08, the Blog Against Theocracy 2008 Blogswarm. The idea is to spend this Easter weekend talking about the principle "that the Government should keep out of religion, and Religion should keep out of the government." Regular readers know that I'm very interested in the role that religion plays, or should

. . . to fight your way to a real gun. I got to hear a few snippets of the Heller arguments today on NPR. In the intro, the reporter described a handgun as "the easiest method of self-defense." I expect some ignorance of firearms from Eastern intellectuals like NPR reporters and most Supreme Court justices, but I also expect a guy like John G. Roberts, Jr.

I've added a "judge" category to the "Who Are You?" poll. [poll=3]

Kelly Siegler is behind 4-1 in the informal poll I've conducted down at the courthouse this week of people whose continued employment doesn't depend on Kelly Siegler's election. • A former Harris County prosecutor (now a prosecutor elsewhere) who served in Judge Lykos's court would vote for Pat Lykos over Kelly Siegler, whom he describes as "nasty." • A young defense lawyer is planning a fundraiser for

Today is anonymous Connecticut public defender Gideon's birthday. Happy Birthday, Gideon. On Gideon's birthday last year, I wrote this post. It was five days later that I really got up a full head of steam and started blogging. 581 posts, 108,155 page loads, 68,549 unique visitors, 21,852 returning visitors, and 1,541 comments (the first of which was quash's April 1, 2007 "welcome to the blawgosphere") later, here