People v. State

Check out this eye-opening essay by Alan Dershowitz (H/T Evolution News & Views) at the website of a new movie about the Scopes Monkey Trial, “alleged,” starring Brian Dennehy as Clarence Darrow and Fred Thompson as William Jennings Bryan. As Dershowitz shows, the textbook from which John Scopes was accused of teaching, Hunter’s Civic Biology, was replete with racism and eugenic advocacy.

On a related note, Jeff Gamso credits Mike at Crime & Federalism with having the best tag line in the whole blogosphere:

Because everything I was ever told was a lie.

Tony Serra comes closest to hero-status for me, but I take him at his word when he says that he is a deeply flawed human being and that his primary motivation as a criminal defense attorney is the gratification of his own ego.

I’ve been accused of being a Bugliosi groupie. I challenge anyone to actually read And the Sea Will Tell and then tell me that Vincent Bugliosi was not a badass criminal defense attorney. This doesn’t mean he’s a hero of mine that I aspire to emulate. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a former prosecutor to enter the kingdom of heaven, at least until after he’s smoked a turd in Purgatory for every hour of unjust incarceration for which he is responsible. (Both Serra and Gerry Spence are also former prosecutors, by the way.) But I’ve got to respect a guy, perhaps especially a guy primarily famous for being a prosecutor, who has written things like this, this and this. Read those links, and then tell me whose “side” Bugliosi is on.

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First, Mark Bennett wrote a post reversing his previous condemnation of John Regan, the formerly anonymous author of the Lawyers on Strike blog, as a “coward.”

Then, Scott Greenfield tried to kick John Regan’s ass and “revealed” that John Regan was also commenter “John R.”.

Then, Bennett updated his post to write of John Regan that “it might be better for the criminal-justice system if he stays in Canada.” Bennett’s reversal of his reversal was based on the following comment left by John R. at Greenfield’s blog in 2010, which both Greenfield and Bennett at the time adjudged “scary bad”:

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Mike at Crime & Federalism, who’s been a supporter of John Regan aka Strike Lawyer, now writes, in connection with the release of the West Memphis 3:

The conviction remains a total outrage, although I’ll wager the young men who were wrongfully convicted are pleased that their lawyers didn’t go on strike.

I commented in response:

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