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The videotaped and other reported incidents of wrongful killings and other misconduct by police keep pouring in. With this month’s police killings of Walter Scott (shot in the back) and Eric Harris (shot by a part-time cop claiming he meant only to tase Harris), we...

“You do not care about me or my case! I am going to get another criminal defense lawyer!” The foregoing question is a crossroads statement. A defensive and indignant lawyer might reply: “You ingrate!  I have been working my fingers to the bone for you, even...

At trial, cross-examining a runaway police officer can be dangerous. Ask the officer whether the alleged criminal incident was recorded by audio and/or video, and s/he might reply: “Recording was not necessary, seeing that officer A saw the defendant sell cocaine to a pedestrian, officer B...

When police operate in the shadows, the risk increases that they will abuse suspects’ rights. After all, power corrupts, including when a cop has a handgun, taser, blackjack, billyclub, handcuffs, a badge, and the power of arrest, and the suspect has none of those. Praised...

To my knowledge, when they were lawyers, no current Supreme Court justice prosecuted nor defended criminal cases in trial court, and none of them were police. Probably with few or no exceptions, the sitting justices’ law clerks are chosen not for previous law clerking experience...