Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘juries’

Deaf persons on juries

Of course they (and blind people, mentally disabled people, and persons who do not speak English well) are perfectly entitled to sit as jurors, right? Isn’t it their right not to suffer discrimination? Well, maybe not, argues New York criminal defense lawyer Scott Greenfield. For starters, “Part of the determination of whether a witness is telling the truth comes from observation of a witness’ demeanor,” tone of voice, and so forth. The empanelment of a competent jury

is not an affront to the rights of the citizens to serve, but a debt owed by society to a defendant. The ability to determine the credibility of a witness requires the use of three out of five senses minimum, as well as the absence of numerous other deficits. This may be politically incorrect, but it beats living in a fantasyland.

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Microblog 2008-12-13

  • Holman Jenkins on auto bailout [WSJ] Bush’s willingness to use TARP helped the unions scuttle a reasonable deal with Corker; and why exactly did CEO Wagoner commit GM to the (dubious and self-injuring) position that buyers’d abandon the company in the event of a Chapter 11? [Hodak Value h/t Ted] So that’s what dragging Detroit down — domestic partner benefits [Brayton] And Ted wonders if it might be cheaper in the long run for the government just to buy a Senate seat from Gov. Blagojevich for every auto worker;
  • Where’d Gov. Blagojevich pick up idea it was OK to sell official acts for $$$? Can’t imagine [Ribstein] Who is Advisor B? [Byron York] Sing, Rod, sing! [Coleman] “Blago’s decision to let SEIU and not AFSCME organize Ill. child-care workers” Hmmm [Freedom-at-Work, NRTW] “How do they think Chi pols talk in private when muscling some guy for cash? Like Helen Mirren playing the queen?” [John Kass, Tribune] A look at AG Lisa Madigan [PoL] Illinois pols have shaken down hospitals before, state’s “certificate of need” (permission-to-build) law is one culprit [StateHouseCall]
  • J.K. Galbraith’s best bon mot: “bezzle” = inventory of unexposed embezzlement, revealed as tide of boom recedes [Cox, Breaking Views] Fascinating memoir of why Madoff had been giving off fishy smell for years [Tokyo Cassandra] So sleazy! “Many” investors put $ with Madoff because they suspected he was crooked — but cheating someone else [Blodget] “Madoff didn’t run one of these much-maligned, unregistered hedge funds. He was registered with the SEC. Here’s his latest 13-F, which looks perfectly normal.” [Weisenthal]
  • Daily downer for media folk [@themediaisdying h/t @amyfeldman] “Remember, America, you can’t wrap a fish in satellite radio” — P.J. O’Rourke wants bailout for print [The Australian]
  • Jurors’ political leanings predict whether they’re pro-plaintiff or defendant? Not as simple as that [Wisconsin Lawyer h/t @juryvox]
  • Asbestos rise in Madison County, Illinois could signal return to “old school” tactics [MC Record h/t @icjl]
  • Sue me harder, don’t stop now: competing Fla. fetish clubs feud in court, which’ll get whipped? [ABA Journal]
  • Russian patent office grants trademark for đŸ˜‰ emoticon, businessman asking royalties [BBC h/t @bodhi1 @mediadonis]
  • Arnold Kling: loan modification way oversold as remedy for housing ills [EconLog h/t @tedfrank]
  • Best line: “the goose was not our employee or our agent” [CKA Mediation h/t @vpynchon, earlier]

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Microblog 2008-11-25

  • Why real estate agents make you sign 1,000 silly forms [Christopher Fountain] Michigan requires acknowledgment that nearby farms “may generate noise, dust, odors” [Land Division Act h/t Sean Fosmire]
  • Albuquerque police take out want ad seeking snitches [AP]
  • “A prez must know S of S has no agenda other than his own” Chris Hitchens flays the Hillary pick [Slate]
  • Not all British nannies are charming: U.K. regulators may ban “happy hour” in bars [AP h/t Jeff Nolan]
  • As Georgia “sex offender” horror stories go, Wendy Whitaker case may outdo Genarlow Wilson’s [Below the Beltway; more on Wilson case]
  • U.K. juror polls her Facebook friends to help decide on case [AllFacebook h/t @lilyhill and @Rex7; Greenfield]
  • Looking for political conservatives on Twitter? Here’s a long list [Duane Lester, All American Blogger; and I have a comment on ways to use Twitter]
  • New page of auto-feeds from leading Canada & U.S. law & politics blogs [Wise Law Reader]
  • Bailout’s a lot bigger than you think, try $7.8 trillion with a “t” [John Carney]. Claim: with $ sunk since ’80, GM and Ford could have closed own plants and bought all shares of Honda, Toyota, Nissan and VW [David Yermack, WSJ via Cowen]. What if Citi gives up Mets naming rights? Gary’s Bail Bonds Stadium just doesn’t quite have the same ring to it [Ray Lehmann]
  • Australian class action could derail because overseas funders didn’t register as investment managers [The Australian h/t @SecuritiesD]

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Microblog 2008-11-03

  • Could AIG really have been THAT stupid in risk analysis? [Carney, more, Salmon] #
  • Unexpected: NY Gov. Paterson appears before Congress and quotes Ayn Rand [Damon Root, Reason “Hit and Run”] #
  • “I don’t know what Prop 3 is, but I’m voting against it because there were kids in that ad.” [@daveweigel quoting another] #
  • Operatic: Terry Teachout and Leontyne Price among the Supreme Court justices [About Last Night] #
  • Already a good blog out there on your topic? Don’t let that stop you [O’Keefe] #
  • Obama Warns He May Cease To Exist Unless America Believes In Him [The Onion] #
  • “The majesty of our jury system: remember, she made it past 2 sides’ voir dire” [@tedfrank on Anchorage Daily News coverage of Stevens trial juror] #

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Microblog 2008-10-30

  • Days of “Clean up your room or I’ll drop you off in Nebraska” threat may be numbered [NY Times; earlier] #
  • Bigger jury verdicts during the holidays? A bit of legal folklore is disproved (at least if you posit that the cases docketed at that time of year are a random selection) [Point of Law] #
  • NY budgeters, dependent on Wall Street tax revenue, built a public sector house of cards [McMahon/City Journal] #
  • Funniest Photoshop: “Toto, I have a feeling we are not in Alaska anymore” [Zincavage] #
  • Why they call it Euro-sclerosis [Coyote] #

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The LAPD 3 and jury fallibility

The Ninth Circuit has upheld a jury’s $15 million award to three Los Angeles Police Department officers who said they were wrongly arrested and made scapegoats in the notorious Rampart evidence-faking scandal. Two of the three officers who will share in the award were in fact convicted by a jury of obstruction of justice in an earlier case arising from the scandal, but the judge later concluded that she had committed an error at trial and set aside the verdict; the case was not reprosecuted. Which jury erred: the first, the second, or are there theories on which both might be accounted right? (Maura Dolan, “Federal appeals court upholds $15-million civil award for Rampart police officers”, Los Angeles Times, Jul. 15; Metropolitan News-Enterprise).

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Detroit Free Press on Fieger acquittal

Detroit’s liberal newspaper voice, which supports extending campaign finance law, has this to say in an editorial:

…There is no doubt that Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger completely subverted [the aims of campaign law] when he essentially laundered through employees of his law firm hefty contributions to the 2004 presidential campaign of John Edwards.

But can you make a federal case out of it? A U.S. District Court jury didn’t think so, refusing Monday to convict Fieger and law partner Vernon (Ven) Johnson of doing anything illegal. So congratulations to Fieger for gaming the system and then beating it.

But that doesn’t make what he did right. …

…the system ought to have some integrity, and the limits established by law ought to be enforced. Fieger got around them by being clever, pleading ignorance, then getting a jury to see it his way. It certainly helped that the local U.S. attorney’s office had been frighteningly aggressive in its pursuit of Fieger, and that he had the cash to hire an attorney who reputedly has never lost a case. Yes, money matters in criminal justice at least as much as it does in politics.

No doubt, Fieger’s acquittal gives a little more mettle to other fat cats who want to skirt the law. It’s a victory for him, but a step back for the political process.

Fieger himself has tried to put out the line that it is only because of some mean old plot against politically active trial lawyers that he was ever prosecuted at all. If the Free Press editorial is any indication, it doesn’t look as he’s getting very far with that line. More here and here.

Further: Scott Greenfield, and Freep reporter Dawson Bell (unless your name is Geoffrey Fieger, don’t try to get away with doing what he did: “It’s still a crime.”). Ted in comments adds: “And let’s not forget the all-too-typical and appalling sight of the defendant partying with the jurors he snookered.” Per the account in the Free Press, “Champagne sat on ice at each table” in the Greektown establishment. “A stocked bar was in the corner.” Earlier on post-trial juror fraternization with winning disputants and their lawyers here, here, etc.

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Jurors’ trauma

First you get hauled in by compulsory process, then you start having to look at the emergency room photos: “North Carolina is considering allowing jurors access to counseling services to cope with post-traumatic stress that can occur after exposure to graphic images and disturbing testimony during a trial.” (Molly McDonough, “Jurors ‘Haunted’ By Time in Courtroom,” ABA Journal, May 16).

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