Lyndhurst, New Jersey (from the New Jersey Lawyer, the weekly newspaper of the New Jersey State Bar Association): Lyndhurst is gathering feedback on a proposal to require background and fingerprint checks of all ice-cream truck and other food-on-wheels vendors as a way to protect children. 'Most of the people who come to an ice-cream truck are kids,' says Mayor Richard DiLascio. 'A parent might not always be

Here I mentioned "Yes Mode," which is what master cross-examination teacher (and Chicago Federal Public Defender) Terry MacCarthy calls it when, on cross-examination, the lawyer asks only questions that he knows will lead to a "yes answer;" Terry would say that once a person is in "yes mode" it's difficult for her to say "no." When teaching cross-examination to students, I used to describe "Yes Mode" as

In the May 7, 2007 New Yorker's Annals of Law column, Jeffrey Toobin writes about "The CSI Effect", focusing on the hair and fiber analysis performed at the NYPD crime lab. In what I consider the highlight of the column, Arizona State professor of law and psychology Michael J. Saks says: There are really two kinds of forensic science. The first is very straightforward. It says, "We

I designed these limited-edition window stickers. 4" X 4" on vinyl. $5.00 each from HCCLA. (It's for a worthy cause.) Email sales at HCCLA dot org.

Andrew Papke, serving two consecutive 20-year sentences for intoxication manslaughter, has a very moving article, I Know Why the Caged Bird Screams, about the Texas prison and parole system, in the Texas Observer this week.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. -Albert Einstein

Yesterday Gideon blogged here about trial lawyers trying to help the government defeat their (former) clients' habeas claims. "Occasionally," he writes, I will try habeas corpus cases. Some of them will be challenges to pleas, enforcement of plea agreements and then the usual ineffective assistance claims. What really grinds my gears is the lack of co-operation from trial counsel. It seems as though there is a certain

Last week Texas's Waco Court of Appeals issued an opinion in Peña v. State holding that a defendant does not have to show bad faith to establish a due-course-of-law violation when the State destroys potentially exculpatory evidence. In doing so, the Waco Court (an intermediate appellate court with criminal and civil jurisdiction) applied the Texas Constitution's Due Course of Law Clause to give more protection than the

I like to write my pleadings in plain English. My goal is generally to write motions (and proposed orders) so that Lynn Hughes would not find reason to mark them up (which he tends to do). For example, a Motion to Y: {Style of Case} {Title of Motion} Judge X,Please Y because Z.Thank you, Mark Bennett.An attorney-and-counselor-at-law (someone who calls himself ". . . Esq.") might begin:

"Gideon" at a public defender brings us The Client Manifesto -- five things that clients should require of their lawyers: Has the state made any offers to me?Will I get credit for my pre-sentence confinement?Discuss your testimonyWill I be eligible for parole?Have you filed my appeal?He asks for more; here are another 5, off the top of my head: How might this affect my driver's license? Other