The Heartburn and Learn seminar on Voire Dire, given by Voire Dire Jedi Master Gene "Obi Wan" Zenobi will commence today at 12:00 noon in Judge Beth Bloom's courtroom on the sixth floor. (6-1??) So run down to Au Bon Pain, grab a soup, take a purple Nexium, and come learn the proper way to select a jury.
Too many lawyers think that voire dire is an opportunity to pre-try their case. Amateurs (or federal lawyers). Voire Dire is NOT about that. Voire Dire, when practiced properly, is an opportunity to learn about the jurors so you can make an intelligent decision. Voire dire is the most important part of any jury trial- except in Federal Court, where the legal system is unfortunately broken because Congress and Federal Judges have taken that very most important part of a trial lawyer's craft and trashed it under a twenty question or so questionnaire that tells the lawyers very little about the jurors.
LUGER OUSTED
Senator Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) a voice of moderation and reason in the senate for over thirty five years lost the Republican primary to Ricgard Mourdock (Tea Party-Fanatic) on Tuesday night. Luger's loss is further evidence that the Republican party has lost its soul, not to mention the remaining members have lost their mind.
OH SHOOT
In Cook County, Chicago, they shoot lawyers who say sh*t in court. From the ATL blog, the story of one over worked, under paid, thesaurus deprived PD.
See You Court, never cursing.
When you see something that is not right, not fair, find a way to get in the way and cause trouble. Congressman John Lewis
JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG
WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM. Winner of the prestigious Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award.
38 comments:
a segment from L. Pitts yesterday raises questions for us:
America is now the greatest jailer on Earth. Prison overcrowding is a growing problem; we literally cannot build facilities fast enough. As CBS News recently reported, the United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, but about 25 percent of its prisoners. As CNN recently reported, at 760 prisoners per 100,000 citizens, the United States jails its people at a rate seven to 10 times higher than most any other developed nation.
Either Americans are much more crime prone than, say, the Japanese or the British or this “reform” is insane. Worse, in a system of punishment followed by punishment, the insanity does not end with locking up our citizens in obscene numbers. No, after we set them “free,” we deny them re-entry into the mainstream of society with laws barring them from jobs, housing, loans, voting, schooling. How can you fix your life — why even try? — if you are denied the reward that should follow, i.e., the dignity of full citizenship? We close doors of advancement and opportunity to ex-felons, then wonder why so many end up walking back through the door to prison.
Once upon a time, there was an ideal that held that once a person had paid his “debt to society,” he was owed a second chance. That seems to have gone the way of vinyl albums and 69-cent gas. But our new ideal — punishment and then punishment — is short-sighted and unsustainable.
The Barrister
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/08/2789863/a-pertinent-question-amid-us-justice.html#storylink=cpy
KUDOS to
Madeline Acosta and Anthony Valiente for beating Mom & Son ASAs in State v Gainer.
DS
Mom and son team are a strange combination. I beat mom very badly once. She's over the top.
do you ticket lawyers have jury selection?
If a lawyer is present in a courtroom for the sole purpose of intimidating the judge, can someone tell me why that isn't a violation of the Florida Rules of Professional Conduct?
4-3.5 (a)or (c) anyone?
Nevermind, I did my homework he's from the CABA, big deal who that makes him, Joel Brown.From your comment it seems like your implying that he missuses his position to intimidate or improperly influence Judges, that's not anything the I.G. or the DOJ or JQC or C.J. or the A.G. office couldn't handle. Or have that specific Judge conjure her base of support. I do not like when someone tries to be an inconspicuous tyrant for selfish reasons. Tell you what Im gonna keep my eyes and ears open. My good friends over at the (AFl-CIO), (AFSCME), who happen to be presidents of Miami Chapters don't appreciate people like that.
No. We hire hacks like you for that while we cash the thousands of 69 dollar checks we get every month.
12:18 In the 2012 Edition of the West Law Criminal Laws and Rules it does not list it in the table of Contents. ???
12:18 - How do you prove that the lawyer is in the courtroom for the sole purpose of intimidating the judge? Unless his actions are overt, does he not have a right to be there to watch his friend and colleague in action? Doesn't the public have access to the courts?
The Knicks have had a stretcher in their locker room for three out of the four games in the series--let's end the series and make it four out of five.
Who says the sole purpose of him being there is to intimidate the judge?
If the State has their county court chief camped out in a judge's courtroom to let her know they are watching her and waiting to see what she does next, isnt that intimidation?
What about the state ensuring that a MADD representative is sitting in the front row to make sure the judge knows people are watching and news sound bites are moments away?
Hector and any other lawyer or person for that matter, can sit in any courtroom he likes.
The case wont be won or lost based on who is sitting in the gallery.
Freakin' relax.
Judges are always whining about elections.They think that they are entitled to their jobs in perpetuity, nothwithstanding their "secret" little problems .Whether its incompetence,laziness;drinking on the job;leaving early to pick up your kids or having sex in the REGJB parking lot.Many in the legal community know what you do and your actions have consequences.
that doesnt even make sense you dumbass
Like when Michael Corelone brought Frankie Pantangeli's brother in from Sicily and sat him in the gallery at the hearings.
Cicc', a porta!
Classic!
Gene did a nice job on the seminar today but, I felt like it was the Zen of jury selection seminar since he never really discussed the law that applies to jury selection.
Which one of the comments is this directed toward? So many to choose from.
He coulda been big here. Coulda had his own family.
THE REVIEWS ARE IN on the Voire Dire lecture:
1) Now I know what I did wrong in that West Palm Beach Case last month. Roy Black
2) Going to change my entire strategy after today. Bill Matthewman.
3) Makes me want to get to court and try a case.
Carlos Martinez.
4) Dis was bullsheeeeet. But I like eeeet.
the worst thing i can imagine is "depositing a thousand 69 checks" and thinking i was an attorney. except for being seemingly proud of it. 2 thousand of those, big guy, and that's one month's retainer in The Show.
what a joke
Rump, why is the State so fucking stingy? Anyone?
American Minority - let me put it more bluntantly. No one fucking cares for your two cents (or bad grammar) on EVERY subject. You are uninformed about the grand scheme of the criminal justice system in Miami-Dade County, as well as the players.
You lack life experience in the legal field, so your opinion is almost (not entirely) worthless. I don't care if you had tea with Justice Roberts, or his eventual replacement Judge Milt.
How many jury trials have you first chaired? How many life felonies have been your sole responsibility? There are people who are on this blog that are handling cases that have been actively litigated since before you began law school. If we wanted your in depth thoughts on everything we'd ask for your twitter handle so we could follow you.
As an aside, either Al, Bill, Hector, or Adam Kaufman/his family posted that this arrest was political and that the investigation was botched. The officers going after the white jewish person screams politics. Puh-lease.
The trial master is in awe of the 80k bearded wonder.
Rump,Capt,DS,BTDT, I was at B&N having a discussion and this question arose. Why is Charles Mansion alive and eligible for parole and Stanley"Tookie"Williams was executed. Then the Bauldus report/study came up. Anyone want to weigh in with an intelligent or realistic response?
Today I advised President Obasma on how to state he supported gay marriage. Shot some hoops with him. Then lunch with my homeboy Eric Holder, and meetings with no less than 30 congressmen and Senators. This evening, private dinner with Justices Thomas, Scalia and Ginsburg, not to mention Chief Justice-Designate Hirsch. Then some late night Skype with Prime Minister Cameron, Chancellor Merkel and President Putin.
Awe I have a fan, I'm blushing, how admirable.While those are a list of people that I would certainly be obliged to meet.I have only met a few on your itinerary. I have met the potus at UM before he was the potus, I've met a few state and congressional Sen. and Reps.,I have a picture with Alex Sink and former Pres. Bill Clinton. Kendrick Meek was my District's congressman for years I can not count the number of times we have talked, we both like fishing btw, I wish I could show you the pictures of the Large Mouth Bass we have caught on (Culprit 7" rubber worms),I met Bill Clinton at Miami-Dade College he also signed his book titled "My Life" and I talk to former Gov. Bob Grahm every other Sunday I see him at Joseph A. Banks, and we have become cordial he is a gentlemen, everyone I've met thus far has been.What is odd is that I like to meet and talk to hardcore Republicans, sometimes, to see what makes there brains tick. Sometimes we agree on things sometimes we don't, but we have discussions about unions versus non union and how they say unions drive up the cost of diong business, that gets tricky because it's profit V work conditions, and I refer to Clarence Darrow who fought for the Mine Workers in the early 1900's and helped form a lot of Unions after working for the Chicago Rail Car Corporations.
To be honest with you I started out volunteering for the FDP, phone banking and canvassing is how I met people, and it just grew over the years and that is what sparked my fire. I am planning to go to the next inauguration. When I go I stay at the Double Tree in Sterling VA. I have a friend in D.C. who is a Beautiful young Lobbyist by the name of Whitney Warrick, who picks me up form Dulles Int. Airport and briefs me on everything happening in the Capitol, then we go and have drinks in Downtown D.C. at Park Place on 14st, what a wonderful place,Park Place on 14stree is very pupular I met a brother(that means another Black Guy) who happend to be an Election Law Attorney form Atlanta named Clifford Tatum of(ELCLS)Election Consulting and Legal Services, who had flew in from Atlanta just to party for the weekend, then the beauty and I went to Ben's Chilli Bowl I did not like Ben's, but next door to Ben's was a theater where she suggested we go see Esmeralda Spalding, it was a nice venue. So to make a long story short that's a piece of my life.
Most would say I'm a gregarious person, but your entitled to form your own biased opinion.
I actually disagree with the Presidents decision today I am a die hard Dem, but I do believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am okay with civil unions between the same sex, that is my opinion. I have gay friends from High school and college and they know my position and I am not homophobic at all.As a matter of fact one of my gay friends is the Administrative Assistant at the VA Hospoital, he also served in the Airforce.
I think the President actually should have waited until after the election to announce his standing on gay marriage, from my understanding only 10% of America is gay. I don't see how that is substantial support to the Pres.
BTW, I couldn't play hoops with the Pres. if he invited me. I'm the only other person besides Woody Harrelson who "Cant Jump". I'm black and athletic, but I have no vertical man, none whatsoever. OMG, does that mean I have a little Thomas Jefferson in me too???
BTW, Anonymous ASA, go fuck yourself with a condom.We don't need any more of (You's). If I told you who my Uncle was, the Top Investigator at SAO, before you were in Law School your mouth would drop, again go fuck yourself with a condom asshole or go run after some possession cases whatever you do prick, get of my (stiffy) its for cougars and beautiful women only.
AM............Re: Charles Manson. Manson WAS sentenced to death in 1971. California's SC abolished the dealth penalty (they said it was cruel and unusual punishment) in 1972. All inmates (including Manson) sentenced to death had their sentences commuted to life. CA didn't reinstate the death penalty until 1977.
BTDT
if the original punishment was death, when they reinstated the death penalty, how come it wouldn't apply to those who had already been sentenced to death?
if abolishing the death penalty was retroactive to people who had already been sentenced, shouldn't the reinstatement be retroactive too?
BTDT Your exactly right, 10:14am Now you hit the bulls eye, way wasn't the sentences reconverted back to death. More disturbing he is eligible to be in free society after have been convicted and given a death sentence. Stanley "Tookie" Williams at least abdicated his life style and advocated to and for the youth but the Governator executed him. Do you realize where I'm going and how differently the system works BTDT?
10:14..........the reinstatement was not retroactive. Once a sentence is commuted, it's commuted. The Legislature can't change that.
BTDT
It's ESPERANZA Spalding, you fucking moron.
American Minority, reading your comments in this thread, I have to conclude you are not a lawyer, nor a graduate of law school, nor enrolled in any law school, nor have you taken the LSAT.
Indeed, I wonder if you somehow have the one cable TV provider in the nation which does not air re-runs of "Law & Order."
AM......you can't determine someone or something is racist simply by looking at coinciding events (or stats, for that matter). You can bet that they would have LOVED to reinstate the death penalty if they could have. The fact is that they couldn't.
I agree that racism permeated the system for a long time and impacts sentences in pockets around the country today. I just don't think it's pervasive as some others do. And, the statistics don't impress me. Correlation doesn't equate to causation and anyone who knows anything about stats can destroy the studies published in the last 10 years purporting to show pervasive discrimination.
BTDT
To Moron,Dis iz Bullsheet! Tomato, Tomatto, Sadam, Saddam.Can you come up with any thing of substance? lol You are the Jerk of the week week week... Pull your undies out your but.
P.S. (Whispering) "One, day were going to take over hockey and swimming, then your really going to be mad."
Anonymous you suggested it then it's your burden of proof. Folds legs, crosses arms, sits back and listens.
Those were typos, and this blog has a lot of tea party and repub trolls... Rump, I don't see how you put up with these buffoons.
There is a lot of Trolls and Buffoons on this blog. Rump how you put up with it is unfathomable.
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