Around the Blawgosphere: The week of July 14 2008

Don't forget about 8:30PM tonight, I begin blogging once a week at Long Island (Criminal)Trial Law. Tonights topic: Voir Dire of the Prosecutions Expert.

Ok so what did I find interesting last week?

1.This article from CrimProf Blog about how Facebook can help prosecutors and defense attorney's destroy the character of young witnesses.

Word to the wise Attorney: do a screenshot of your client's Facebook/MySpace page and then have him take it down. Tell him not to let anyone take his picture and to be sure that no one "Tags" him. Then make sure he or a loved one monitors the page. Also be sure that you get him to "Friend" you.
BTW if you do not have a Facebook or MySpace page or know what they are... you need to adopt a high school kid.

2. Also from CrimProf blog: When in the Congo, don't do like the Congolese (or the Brazilians either) This one is one of the weirder ones. The US State Dept Hired a nudist (not just a nudist but a leader of the movement) made him a diplomat and then he went to the Congo and Brazil where he had sex with minors and had pictures of them on his laptop...Porno of course. His defense? This type of behavior is common and is acceptable in those countries...

By the way, check out the URL for the post on the CRIMPROF's blog... Poetic Justice??

3. Mike over at Crime and Federalism Blog takes NY Times columnist Adam Liptak to task for not having any idea about the true nature and effectiveness of the Exclusionary rule. Seems in Liptak's world we defense lawyers are winning these suppression motions so often that it is making the world an unsafe place. Title of the piece, Media Ignorance (of the Exclusionary Rule), sounds redundant to me.

4. If they were any good at science they Woulda been Doctors not Judges.

My friend and one of my favorite bloggers Lawrence Taylor blogs about how in a recent case, California appellate judges permitted a Driver to be found drunk even though the defense was stopped by the judge from showing that the science behind the machine was faulty. See his post in DUI BLOG. The law trumps the state of accurate science...

5. Another Fave of mine Doug Berman over at Sentencing Law and Policy Blog is wondering here if President Bush will grant more pardon's at the end of his term

My short answer? Don't hold your breath.

That is it for now. Hope you are having a nice summer.
TLD.