@usflaw prof. mama. writer. lawyer. zealous advocate, always. I think and write about crime, justice, love, work & family.
San Francisco
Joined November 2013
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"If Syed’s freedom is cause for celebration, it is also cause for shame. He was not released because the American criminal justice system is fair. He was released despite its brokenness and corruption."
My thoughts:
nymag.com/intelligencer/2022…
Lara Bazelon retweeted
I’ve also torn apart Simon’s claims in his recent TV project that a police detective took his own life in a series of articles thesuiterfiles.com/post/thre…
Lara Bazelon retweeted
Westmoreland DA accused of history of misconduct during murder appeal in case in which prosecution had sought the death penalty. triblive.com/local/valley-ne… @TribLIVE @RichCholodofsky @larabazelon @padp_org @Atlantic_Ctr #Pennsylvania
For @NYMag, I wrote about #MenendezBrothers parole hearing, which could be the trial they never had, and the chance that they could walk free as early as October. nymag.com/intelligencer/arti…
The hearing will pit the brothers' account that they killed bc they believed they had no way out after Lyle threatening to expose his father's abuse against the DA's argument that they are "lying murderers" who shot their parents for money and no other reason.
@CAgovernor has said that if the Board finds them suitable for release, he will make a final decision by Labor Day. Whether Lyle and Erik leave prison may turn on whether the legal system as evolved as much as society has when it comes to the question of their culpability.
For @nymag I wrote about the Menendez Brothers, the near-extinction of progressive prosecutors, and the impact on them and tens of thousands of violent offenders who no longer belong in prison. nymag.com/intelligencer/arti…
1/5: If, as predicted, embattled DA incumbents lose in Los Angeles and Alameda counties (pop 10M+ collectively) that spells the end of the progressive prosecutor experiment in CA, at least for now. Some thoughts:
4/5: Continuing to lock them up--at the cost of a Yale tuition + a Tesla per year (h/t @BrendonWoodsPD)--makes no sense from a public safety or a financial perspective. Nor does it serve many of the victims who get lumped together as retributionists above all else, but are not.
The comments to this tweet tell you everything you need to know about the contagion of innocence-denying
and The Trump Effect. DNA proves someone else did it? They’re still guilty! False confessions from kids the police browbeat are common. Not a thing! It’s sad and ugly.
When the Central Park 5 were falsely charged with raping a white woman, Trump took out ads calling for their execution. They were exonerated long ago but Trump continues. At the presid'l debate he said they pled guilty (no) and the victim died (also no). Now they're suing him.
You might ask, why call out this particular awfulness when Trump spews vitriol, lies, and bad faith as often as most of us breathe? Bc every time someone with a platform innocence-denies it sets back the vital and necessary reforms we need to get at the underlying problem.
1/5: In a wrongful conviction case where a man was about to be put to death, a wild turn of events. The Republican dominated legislature in TX stopped the clock with hours to go by subpoenaing the condemned man to appear before them to testify about his innocence.
4/5: there is a terrible brokenness to a legal system that delivers results like this--consistently. It is the result of decades of indifference to changes in science, to the reality of newly discovered evidence, to the moral horror of the state committing murder.