Posted on January 12, 2013 in Uncategorized

Recently a young man, by all accounts a brilliant hacker, took his own life. One of the young man's friends wrote a beautiful eulogy. He addressed what I would call the ethics of the suicide:

Because whatever problems Aaron was facing, killing himself didn't solve them. Whatever problems Aaron was facing, they will go unsolved forever. If he was lonely, he will never again be embraced by his friends. If he was despairing of the fight, he will never again rally his comrades with brilliant strategies and leadership. If he was sorrowing, he will never again be lifted from it.

I've written before of my general thoughts about suicide:

I respect suicide as the ultimate act of self-determination. We should be able to decide, without being second-guessed, when the pain and horror of existence are too great to endure. But suicide is the ultimate act of selfishness too, an abnegation of selflessness. What friends and loved ones mourn him deeply tonight, blaming themselves and wishing they had done something-anything-to stop him? Parents? Siblings? A wife and kids? A faithful hound? In escaping his own pain, how much pain did he bequeath to people who deserved it no more than he did?

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 Posted on January 11, 2013 in Uncategorized

I got a chance this week to speak to a class at South Texas College of Law about the criminal-defense contract. I shared my standard contract with them, and we had a wide-ranging discussion about getting hired, getting paid, and taking care of clients. One of the subjects that came up was turning down business: how do you know if you shouldn't take a case, and what do you do? I have developed, and I suspect that most criminal-defense lawyers develop, an intuitive sense for when we shouldn't take cases. I get myself in trouble when I ignore that intuition. So I listen to it.

(An aside: I also don't ignore my intuition when it tells me that I'm headed for a dangerous situation in real life. Paying attention to inarticulable messages of danger is one of the most important things people can do to keep themselves safe.)

I got a call from this morning from a guy who had been arrested. But the arrest was false, he explained, because of an earlier incident in which the police had arrested him and broken his arm. Clearly he was aggrieved; as I tried to extract a coherent narrative from him, I got the sense that he was unhinged and looking for a lawyer as a means of wreaking vengeance on those who had done him wrong. There had been one unfortunate incident after another, and even with prompting he was unable to explain the logical connections between the incidents and his immediate need for a lawyer. My "spidey sense" tingled. I told the caller: "I'm sorry. I can't help you with that."

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 Posted on January 10, 2013 in Uncategorized

Returning to the topic of the Enliven Project rape infographic:

Two Percent?

Sarah Beaulieu, trying to justify the infographic, assumes that only 2% of rape reports are false. This is, as it turns out, not only her assertion; it is also a meme.

Edward Greer of Brookline Massachusetts did some detective work to try to track down the meme's Patient Zero. In an article (PDF, via dinky_hawker on reddit) published at 33 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 947 (2000) Greer tracks the percentage (which is by "overwhelming consensus" recognized to be "empirical fact") back to "an illusion that sprang from a mimeoed handout in Susan Brownmiller's file." Brownmiller's assertion that no more than 2% of reported rapes are false is based entirely on the remarks of a judge, New York Appellate Division Justice Lawrence H. Cooke, "Before the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Jan. 16, 1974."

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 Posted on January 09, 2013 in Uncategorized

The lawyer representing three of the men charged with the gang rape and murder of a medical student aboard a moving bus in New Delhi has blamed the victims for the assault, saying he has never heard of a "respected lady" being raped in India.

(The Age.)

It would seem more outrageous if Sharma's clients weren't being railroaded in a system in which the bar association was trying to deny them counsel. But Sharma's argument, which would be extreme in the West, might play in India:

"This is the mentality which most Indian men are suffering from unfortunately," said Ranjana Kumari, director for the New Delhi-based Centre for Social Research. "That is the mindset that has been perpetrating this crime because they justify it indirectly, you asked for it so it is your responsibility."

I frankly don't see much distinction between the attitude, "the defendants are guilty, so they shouldn't have lawyers" and the attitude, "women who are raped were probably asking for it." The two views can and do coexist in conservative minds not only in India but in more advanced countries. They're just not as prevalent, and not as openly spoken, here.

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 Posted on January 08, 2013 in Uncategorized

You may have seen this graphic:

...which purports to show that for every 998 rapists, there are 100 rapes reported, thirty people tried, ten people jailed, and only two people falsely accused.

The numbers, particularly the last one-only two false accusations for every 100 true reports-are very interesting to me. Where did the illustrator get them? According to Sarah Beaulieu, who published it, "Statistics from Justice Department, National Crime Victimization Survey: 2006-2010 and FBI reports."

Sounds good.

But wait.

One of the key challenges about sexual assault statistics is that it's nearly impossible to gather accurate and consistent data about incidence and prevalence. This infographic doesn't do a perfect job, but it combines data from several sources, both domestic and international.* * * * *For those of you who have asked, here is the background on the stats we used:

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 Posted on January 08, 2013 in Uncategorized

Vinod Kumar Anand and Manohar Lal Sharma have stepped up to defend three of the six men accused of gang rape in Delhi.

Here is Sharma:

(I suspect-I hope-that "I agree that they are facing the allegation of rape, but if it is true or false I am yet to prove it." is a mistranslation.)

Here's a little more about these two characters. Sharma, especially, sounds like a troublemaker (or possibly a madman-it's hard to tell from 10,000 miles away).

Meanwhile, a friend-a US lawyer from India-writes:

The whole situation is quite the microcosm of Indian society in a way: the ineffectual criminal justice system, the loud protests by thousands that will go nowhere, politicians who promise too much and deliver nothing and the lawyers that bend over backwards to ensure that nothing gets in the way of "justice" – justice that's predetermined.I saw the link in your post to an article that reported on the "presumption of innocence" being applicable in the Indian penal system. My experience, unfortunately, has been just the opposite. Actually, even that's wrong. To say that that there is an Indian justice system of any form is wrong. The penal code is an absolute mess, there are no reliable procedural rules and money will always trump everything else.The justice system, as its used in India, is rarely more than another tool of oppression against the very poor and the very unfortunate. Reformers are marginalized and largely ignored – or worse, thought of as a joke.In principle, the "boycott" by the lawyers' groups is despicable, but in reality nothing more than showmanship and to some extent a desire for self-preservation. It won't be the first time someone's been killed for taking on an unpopular defense. The country's collective mind just doesn't have the same sense of respect for the justice system and frankly, given its history, rightly so.I would love to see this incident serve as a catalyst for all sorts of penal system reforms, but I don't see it happening.

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 Posted on January 07, 2013 in Uncategorized

Today I got word that I passed the Texas Board of Legal Specialization exam in criminal law, which I took in Austin last year. I am now a board-certified criminal-defense lawyer.

What does mean? Well, my dad videotaped the induction ceremony, and I put it up here so you could get a feel for board certification.

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 Posted on January 06, 2013 in Uncategorized

I am reminded, when I hear of lawyers shirking their difficult duties and sticking to the easy work, of the first few lines of Rudyard Kipling's Gunga Din:

YOU may talk o' gin an' beer When you're quartered safe out ‘ere, An' you're sent to penny-fights an' Aldershot it; But if it comes to slaughter You will do your work on water,An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots of ‘im that's got it.

Now in Injia's sunny clime, where I used to serve my time...going to high school, the eleven lawyers on the executive board of the Bar Association in the Delhi district of Saket have vowed not to represent the six men charged with a recent gang-rape and murder. The bar association that these indubitably illustrious pendejos run has also appealed to its 7,000 members (there are six court districts in Delhi, which has a population of almost 17,000,000, so the Saket district, covering south and southeast Delhi, could easily have a population greater than that of Houston) to refrain from representing the accused.

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 Posted on January 06, 2013 in Uncategorized

Obama's advisers have calculated that the longer they wait, the more distance there is from the Newtown massacre and the greater the risk that the bipartisan political will to tackle gun violence will dissipate.At the White House meeting, Stanek said, "the vice president indicated that there was a very short timeline for him to get back to the president with his recommendations because the American public has a short memory.

Washington Post, White House weighs broad gun-control agenda in wake of Newtown shootings.

In other words, "they're probably not going to go for this if we give them a chance to think about it, so pass a law now before they sober up." Screw you, Joe Biden.

Even if you, reader, think more gun regulations are needed, this ought to give you pause. Making laws in a hurry based on transitory passions is a Bad Idea. Remember the "Patriot" Act?

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 Posted on January 05, 2013 in Uncategorized

"[Judge Belinda] Hill confirmed Tuesday that she will leave the bench in the new year to work as Anderson's first assistant." Houston Chronicle, 11 December 2012.

Yet, I have learned, almost four weeks later Judge Hill is still on the bench, still hearing felony cases, still making calls that affect the lives of people being prosecuted by the DA's Office to which she is affianced.

Did she not think this would be a problem?

Judge Hill is said to have plans to remain on the bench until someone else is appointed. From one perspective this might be seen as dedication to the job she was elected to do. From another perspective it might be seen as grossly improper: she has already committed to be taking the DA's paycheck, which would give any reasonable person reason to question her impartiality.

Perhaps Judge Hill could, with Spocklike detachment, keep calling the balls and strikes, but a judge's duty includes the avoidance of even the appearance of impropriety.

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