Anthony Graves and Nicole Casarez on Reasonable Doubt on HMS. Streaming here.

A commenter asked recently why I hadn't written about the Joe Amendola circus. I haven't felt inspired because, like Scott Greenfield says, "It's not that being critical of Joe Amendola is the sort of thing any criminal defense lawyer wants to do." But "It's just that it can't be helped." Greenfield writes in Amendola, The Tactician: As for Joe Amendola, he's a complete disaster, a laughingstock, at crisis

Only the dumb need apply! « Kelly Case Law Firm One of my closest friends is a police officer in New York. During the horror of 9/11, he was trapped on the island and worked for the next 5 days from his station less than 2 blocks from the World Trade Center. I could not reach him for over a week and was greatly relieved when he

The mainstream media would have you believe that all American politics come down to a single spectrum: from liberalism on the left to conservatism on the right: That spectrum gives the simpleminded something to argue about—Republicans each trying to convince the other that they are the more conservative, and Democrats trying to convince each other that they are the more moderate. It also permits politicians to avoid

On NPR the other day, I heard a snippet of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's interview with Barbara Walters. With his little lisp, he makes a fascinating villain. If they ever make a film version of the Arab Spring, I know the perfect guy to cast as Assad:

"It boggles the mind that neither side knew about this during trial," Ellis said. "Both sides in this case were spectacularly incompetent." (Chron.) That's Judge Mark Kent Ellis of the 351st District Court commenting, on the record, on the performance of "defense lawyer" Ronald Ray, Sr. and an as-yet-unidentified prosecutor. Not just incompetent but spectacularly incompetent. Both Ronald Ray, Sr. and the DA's Office had the same

A couple of people have emailed to ask me my opinion of this story: Crystal Cox, Oregon Blogger, Isn't a Journalist, Concludes U.S. Court--Imposes $2.5 Million Judgement on Her That's the headline from the Seattle Weekly blog. And while the two parts are true (ignoring the woeful parallelism), it implies a causal connection that does not exist. The $2.5 million was a judgment for Cox's defamation of

While not confirming some of the details, the TSA said a preliminary review shows officers followed the agency's procedures in both cases. Of course they did, you raging imbeciles. When Ms. Sherman and Ms. Zimmerman complained publicly about the humiliation you handed them when they were trying to go about their lawful business, they were not complaining that your employees ("officers"? don't make me laugh) didn't follow

Now that Congress has repealed the Fifth Amendment, can you please join me in recognizing that this country is on a rocket-sled to totalitarianism? Some senators think that indefinite detention without due process of Americans arrested in America was allowed before the passage of the NDAA (and that's just their interpretation of the law that they allow us to know about). Do you trust the government with

Murray Newman, in Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center: The Legality of D.I.V.E.R.T. writes: The 14th Court of Appeals ruled that the Defendant was not entitled to a different judge than Judge Harmon, because Judge Harmon was correctly following the law when he refused to participate in DIVERT's pre-trial diversion program. They pointed out that Judge Harmon was, in fact, following the law and considering