8 simple rules…
Posted on
April 19, 2008 by
Gideon
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Scott has shamed me into posting. Again. He has two posts on things that should always happen and things that should never happen. He asks us to think of it as a legal Rorschach test.
All people who believe that convicting innocent people is an acceptable necessity of an imperfect system should nominate one member of their family to go to prison “just to be safe.”
Government should never spend more on prisons than education.
So here are my contributions. Some may be repeats from his posts and it’s an incomplete list, mostly because I’m too busy soaking up the sun. But. Here goes:
Must happen:
- Appellate Judges must spend three weeks a year practicing in the “real world”.
- Defense lawyers must meet with clients at least twice before getting them to plead.
- Prosecutors must spend two weeks in our chair.
- Prosecutors must keep victims informed of progress in cases.
- Identifications must be performed using the double-blind, sequential method.
Must not happens:
- Harmless error must never be used as an excuse again.
- Claims must not be deemed abandoned because you forgot to object for the 5th time.
- Prosecutors must never hide exculpatory evidence and get away with it.
- Defense lawyers must never forget that someone’s liberty depends on our efforts.
- Prosecutors must never be afraid to challenge the police’s investigation (after all, they are after truth, not convictions).
- People must not be tricked into confessing.
- Police must never lie on affidavits.
- Defense lawyers must never forget that it is all about the clients.
- Defense lawyers must never forget that they can always do better.
Additions?
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That’s good stuff. How come you didn’t come add to my list? And too bad about interrupting your sunbathing, princess.
That would have been a long, long comment. Besides, this way, you get two links from me.
What do you have against sunbathing? Can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday: sunbathing and season finales of Doctor Who and Torchwood. Yum.
How about “Legislators should have to spend two weeks shadowing a prosecutor and two weeks shadowing a PD before proposing or voting on bills affecting the criminal justice system.”
And “The Constancy of Accusation hearsay exception must be abolished.”
And I’d make prosecutors spend more than 2 weeks in our shoes. 2 weeks is not enough!
1. Agreed! Sounds like a good idea.
2. Even better! It’s more bolstering.
3. I thought two weeks was appropriate. How many prosecutors do you know that you’d want handling your cases for more than 2 weeks?
All custodial interrogations and in-station interviews should be recorded from start to finish. Failure to record should result in an adverse inference instruction (see Mass’ Comm. v. DiGiambattista).
Show-up IDs should be suppressed unless there is a genuine exigency.
Defense expert testimony should be admitted under the same flexible standard as testimony by police “experts” about gangs, drug deals, etc.
Courts should not make rules (like CoA) based on assumptions about what jurors know, believe, or assume — the prosecution should have to show, with peer-reviewed scientific data or statistically valid polls whether rules like CoA are necessary.
All attorneys and judges should take some basic classes in psychology (heuristics, memory, & perception), statistics, and the scientific method.
LJS, thanks for the comment.
Did you see that there’s a very interesting case scheduled for argument in the CT Supreme Court next month on suggestive IDs? I might go watch it.