Why Spy for Cuba?
While watching The News Hour on PBS the other night, I was struck by how perplexed journalists are about the possible motives of Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers, the septuagenarian Washington, D.C., couple...
View ArticleThe Inside Dope on Snitching
In Chicago during the late 1980s, the U.S. attorney was prosecuting a ruthless, religiously inspired gang called the El Rukns. Federal prosecutors were so dependent on incarcerated gang leaders to make...
View ArticleProblem-Solving (and Award-Winning) Courts
"Problem-solving" courts — only a small percentage of the national total — have become increasingly effective due to their ability to rehabilitate low-level offenders (mostly drug offenders) while...
View ArticleA Mind of Crime
Kent Kiehl, a prominent neuroscientist hired to study an admitted murderer named Brian Dugan, had already been under cross-examination in the hushed, wood-paneled suburban Chicago courtroom for more...
View ArticleCourt Decision Could Lead FCC to Redefine Internet
A federal appeals court in D.C. earlier this week threw up a roadblock to the Federal Communications Commission's plans for the future of the Internet in America. The details of the case were...
View Article'Courts and Kids' Argues for Equal School Funding
More than 50 years after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education, the nation's schools are still plagued by inequalities, yet the High Court today declines to...
View ArticlePublic Defenders as Effective as Private Attorneys
Perhaps it’s time for someone to come to the defense of public defenders. A newly published look at Chicago-area courts finds that, when you consider the actual outcomes of judicial hearings, these...
View ArticleJudges' Decisions More Lenient After Lunch
In addition to showing up on time and not wearing loud ties, criminal defense attorneys would do well to think about the care and feeding of the judges who hear their clients' cases. A hungry, tired...
View ArticleA Perennial Epicenter, Now for Same-Sex Marriage
On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District upheld Chief Judge Vaughn Walker’s 2010 decision that California’s Proposition 8, banning all same-sex marriages, was unconstitutional. Does...
View ArticleBias in the Court
On November 14, 1978, a Texas jury found Thomas Barefoot guilty of the murder of Bell County police officer Carl Levin. Based on the gravity of the crime and the testimony of two psychiatrists who...
View ArticleThe Unique Needs of Veterans in the Legal System
There is evidence the combination of addiction-treatment programs and frequent court appearances involved in the drug court system can effectively reduce prison populations and save taxpayer money. It...
View ArticleThe Emotions That Prosecutors Elicit to Make Jurors Vote Guilty
In May, an off-duty British Army soldier named Lee Rigby was murdered, in broad daylight, in what is likely the most incredibly brazen and baffling act of violence the neighborhood of Woolwich, London,...
View ArticleDouble Jeopardy Isn’t What You Think It Is—and It Won’t Save Amanda Knox
The murder is one of the most infamous in recent memory: In 2007 Brit Meredith Kercher, a college student studying abroad in Italy, was found dead in her house in Perugia after her American roommate...
View ArticleRemembering the Drug Court Revolution
“In the late 1980s, the war on drugs was in full swing,” said Justice Policy Institute Director Tim Murray, speaking before an audience in a Miami courthouse on a recent Friday morning. “It was in any...
View ArticleGrant All Americans Their Day in Court
Dear President Obama, One issue I believe your administration ought to address is that of access to justice by ordinary citizens. As you are no doubt aware by virtue of your legal training, the...
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