When I read Christine Flowers' op-ed in the Herald yesterday supporting Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ newly proposed rules on how to handle campus sexual assault allegations, I couldn't help chuckling to myself. It's incredible how the Trump administration (and Republicans in general) have all of a sudden become the champions of due process rights and the "wrongly accused" in the [...]
In his biting piece on underfunded public defender offices, John Oliver excoriates our criminal justice system for giving lip service to the constitutional right to counsel. And once again, Florida is the punchline. I highly suggest watching the whole clip, but if you want to skip to the part about Florida, watch from 12:36. As he does with so [...]
Before this one, I had never been involved in a case that had been featured on “The First 48.” The more I learned about the case—and how the show insinuated itself directly into the homicide investigation—the more disgusted I became. During my cross-examination of Detective Bosch, I was literally flabbergasted at the things that I learned. Among them: the detectives [...]
If you haven’t caught it yet, I highly suggest taking the time to see the new film from Ken Burns documenting the wrongful convictions of five black and Latino teenagers who were arrested and charged with brutally attacking and raping a white female jogger in Central Park. News media swarmed the case, calling them a ”wolfpack.” [...]
Yes, innocent people do get convicted. Granted, the segment of the population that has the most contact with the criminal justice system is the criminal element. And the truth is that most people who are convicted are in fact guilty. But it’s the process by which these criminals are convicted that is of paramount importance to us all. As the [...]
I adopted Roxie 13 years ago from a PetSmart in Kentucky, in the summer of 2000—about a month before I started my firm. I had just left the Public Defender’s Office and was embarking on a new chapter in my life. Over the past 13 years, a lot has happened: I have become a boss, a homeowner, a husband, [...]
I am very happy for my client who received good news today: we won his appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. At trial this summer, I was able to convince the judge to dismiss the more serious count of the indictment, but I was not able to persuade her to dismiss the marriage fraud count. [...]
Over the weekend, I was quoted in a Miami Herald article about the reality TV show “First 48.” The article highlights some of the ways this “reality show”—which is supposed to document homicide investigations—has actually ended up hurting them. The problem with programs like “First 48” is that they compromise the integrity of [...]
