In the News

1) This trial started in my local courthouse today. I didn't get a chance to go watch but rumor has it that the evidence in it may even be weaker than the article suggests. All of which has got to make the prosecutors nervous since the defense attorney involved is probably the best criminal defense lawyer in the Commonwealth.

2) In further Virginia news, the Legislature is trying to make youths dress in a more dowdyish style. I can agree as to not allowing guys to wear pants that hang down to their knees (judging from my clients that style is fading anyway) but I'll miss the low cut female jeans. Question: would the low cut jeans be legal if there was nothing under them?

3) Silly crime stories, including:

[S]everal years ago, Ketchikan police pulled over a young man and found pot in his car. The man said he had just purchased the car and that the pot must have belonged to the previous owner. The police told him to "tell it to the judge" (the previous owner).

4) A Justice in Ohio pled guilty to DUI. From the video tape:

[S]he insisted she could drive safely and repeatedly asked Stidham to let her go.

"My God, you know I decide all these cases in your favor," she said. "And my golly, look what you're doing to me."

5) Not to be outdone, "[a] Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice hid a small pocketknife in his carry-on bag after airport screeners told him it could not be carried on the flight."

6) Jury trials are expensive, long, require extra preparation, and often actually insert 12 people into the process who really believe in the words "innocent until proven guilty" and "proof beyond a reasonable doubt." Obviously, they must be done away with. Shameful.

7) Taken to the hospital, a suspect escapes in his underwear. Who says Virginia doesn't have mild winters?