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Death penalty cases are won or lost during jury selection

By: Monday December 29, 2014 3:00 pm

(photo: Marcin Wichary/flickr)

Most death penalty lawyers will tell you that a death penalty case is won (i.e., LWOP) or lost (i.e., death sentence) during jury selection. That is because we have seen and done it all and have generally mastered the art of trying cases so that we know to a reasonable certainty whether the jury will convict or acquit the client.

Today we are going to learn about and discuss jury selection in a federal death penalty trial. As you will soon discover, jury selection is more aptly described as deselection. Each side attempts to get rid of the prospective jurors they do not want by challenging them for cause or by peremptory challenge.

1) Challenge for Cause: No limit to the number of challenges, but you have to satisfy the judge that the prospective juror whom you challenge cannot fairly and impartially try the case or follow the court’s instructions. Your challenge will be denied, if you fail to convince the judge.

2) Peremptory Challenge: Each side gets 20 challenges. You don’t have to give a reason to support your challenge, but you cannot use your challenges to exclude prospective jurors solely on the basis of race, gender or religion. For example, the prosecution cannot use peremptory challenges to exclude Muslims. They would have to genuinely have other reasons or the challenge would be denied. The defense has a pending motion to increase the number of peremptory challenges to 30 per side because of extensive pretrial publicity. The government opposes the motion and it will likely be denied since the rule is quite specific about 20.

 

Head of New York City Police Union Notoriously Hostile to Reform

By: Monday December 29, 2014 2:00 pm

Screen capture from press conference with NYCPBA President Patrick Lynch

Opposition against New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio by police officers is still high after the deaths of two New York Police Department officers on Dec. 20.

NYPD Commissioner William Bratton believes tensions are as high as in the 1970s, when the crime rate soared along with the deaths of police officers.

The night officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were killed by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who later committed suicide, de Blasio spoke at Woodhull Hospital where NYPD cops turned their backs to him before he spoke. It symbolized the divide between the NYPD and de Blasio.

Indeed, the decision of Patrick J. Lynch, the head of the police union in NYC, to blame protesters for having blood on their hands shows the response of the NYPD in general. De Blasio as well was blamedfor having blood on his hands too because he did not stand with the NYPD in response to the protests against police brutality when they first began.

Lynch was criticized for his inflammatory comments; in fact, he could be described as “completely nuts” as journalist J.K. Trotter writes.

Still, Lynch’s history, and the history of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, is one where they go against the status quo when it is not in their favor.

In March 2012, for example, Lynch criticized a plan to provide more power to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which is not very effective to begin with, in holding officers accountable. He said the CCRB had a “predisposition that police officers are always wrong.”

Offering such powers to the CCRB was also offered in 2010 by then-Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Lynch criticized it as “stunt” to “placate the usual police critics.”

But even in terms of getting it wrong, Lynch disregards the facts and prefers to side with officers. For instance, on Feb. 4, 1999, Amadou Diallo, an immigrant from Guinea, was shot 41 times after four officers assumed he had a gun. He held a wallet. The officers were found not guilty.

At the time, Lynch condemned the decision of the ACLU in running a full-page ad in The New York Times criticizing the four officers for using excessive force. Moreover, Lynch believed the four officers would be acquitted in a fair trial. Lynch said, after the trial finished, the not guilty verdict was what he expected and he did not believe race was a factor.

Kenneth Boss, one of the four involved in the murder of Diallo, had his gun revoked after the shooting, but it was reinstated in 2012. Lynch called the decision “appropriate and long overdue.”

With a shooting like Diallo, and the countless others killed by officers, there would be a need to address the “bad cops.” Indeed, Police Commissioner William Bratton pledged in October to remove officers who were “poisoning the well.” Lynch’s response was more of cautious than siding with Bratton:

Police officers are entitled, like anyone else, to due process.  It is our job to ensure that every officer who is accused has the same opportunity to defend him or herself as any other American.  We have defended police officers from rush to judgments in the past, we are defending them today and we will continue to defend them long into the future.

Even when reforms are brought up that are not necessarily harmful for the NYPD, the PBA is hostile to it. In 2011, some NYPD officers insulted people at the West Indian Parade in New York City online with comments such as “savages” and “filth.” There was outrage after it was discovered.

Sky Stubbornly Refuses to Fall in Colorado

By: Monday December 29, 2014 1:00 pm

I’ve spent every Christmas for the past decade in Colorado with my grandparents, and this year I noticed it was still the same beautiful state it has always been, even though recreational marijuana has now legally been for sale for a full year. The closest thing to the sky falling was a holiday snow storm, giving us a wonderful white Christmas.

Besides seeing a few adult-use marijuana stores, which were mostly tucked away in basement locations, Colorado seemed basically the same as it has in years past. It hadn’t become a lawless wasteland or a place overrun with drugged out zombies. It was effectively the same great state, except now the small segment of adults who choose to consume marijuana have some regulated stores where they can legally buy it and pay taxes on it.

When I asked my grandparents about legal marijuana, they told me it has had basically zero impact on their lives. This is probably why a recent SurveyUSA poll found that if Amendment 64 was put back on the ballot the residents of Colorado would vote for it again.

Elsewhere in the country our states are still spending billions of dollars arresting hundreds of thousands of people for marijuana to effectively prevent their states from being more like Colorado, yet things are going very well in Colorado. In fact, Americans are voting with their feet for Colorado. It currently is the fourth fastest-growing state in the country.

Media Claims Afghanistan War Ends But War Continues

By: Monday December 29, 2014 11:00 am

Its one thing for the press to get spun, its another to knowingly transmit misleading statements. — James Risen (@JamesRisen) December 28, 2014 Yesterday the media declared that the war in Afghanistan is over. This will, no doubt, be a great surprise to the troops still stationed in Afghanistan who have been ordered by President [...]

Senator Mark Udall: Disclose the Full Torture Report

By: Monday December 29, 2014 10:35 am

As a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, I am proud to re-post this appeal from our group for Senator Mark Udall to release the full text of the Senate Torture Report. Senator Mark Udall has called for the full release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on torture. However, as a still-sitting member [...]

Patriots’ First Amendment Fail Over “The Interview”

By: Monday December 29, 2014 9:00 am

A handful of ragtag, plucky patriots defended their own misguided understanding of free speech by seeing the Seth Rogen-James Franco assassination bro-movie The Interview on our most American of holidays, Christmas. God Bless The Interview At the Austin Alamo Drafthouse (Remember the Alamo!) a few, proud moviegoers stood before the film ran to sing Lee [...]

The Roundup

By: Monday December 29, 2014 7:00 am

It’s Monday morning! International Politics Overall – Gareth Porter: “Why Obama Won’t Reach a Deal With Iran” – An AirAsia flight was reported as missing on Saturday night and the plane was not found so far Middle East – Due to the constant warfare in Syria, the country will face a serious problem in terms of food security [...]

Over Easy: Fukushima Update

By: Monday December 29, 2014 5:00 am

Good Morning All! Sure isn’t very Xmas like here. Low 40′s predicted today and no snow. I can live with the no snow, but it sure seems warmer and dryer than when I was a kid. The unit #2 concrete work isn’t going as planned. Part of the problem may be that the bottom of [...]

“Let’s declare victory and go home”

By: Monday December 29, 2014 1:30 am

I’d say better delusional this way than the other…but you are still choosing your own fantasy. The war in Afghanistan, fought for 13 bloody years and still raging, came to a formal end Sunday with a quiet flag-lowering ceremony in Kabul that marked the transition of the fighting from U.S.-led combat troops to the country’s [...]

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