Arthur D. Hlavaty

The crack in the crack

Sat, 17 Aug 2019 13:21:46 GMT

Minnesota declares that we should not be impounded in the butt by law enforcement. [City Pages]

comments

Surprise. Surprise.

Fri, 06 Apr 2018 09:58:59 GMT

Liberalization of divorce laws significantly decreased rates of domestic violence and female suicide.

Thanx to Slate Star Codex

comments

Alternatives

Tue, 05 Dec 2017 10:58:51 GMT

1.Tribal courts

2. Get a goat or two chickens instead of marrying off your teenage daughter.

Thanx to conuly

comments

Bail Fail

Wed, 17 May 2017 09:46:56 GMT

Scott Alexander on the horrors of the bail system. We are hearing the radical new suggestion that a large percentage of those charged with crimes could actually be released on their promise to return (and the threat of additional charges if they fail to) with a record of success comparable to those on bail and that family and other ties can be used to determine who qualifies. 50 years ago there were programs that did just that. (I participated in one of them.) They worked.

comments

Less Worse

Tue, 13 Aug 2013 12:49:53 GMT

Charles Pierce cheers on a couple of mild outbreaks of sanity in the criminal justice system.

comments

Unlicensed, but are they unethical?

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:50:03 GMT

Woman Would Face 20 Years in Jail for Unlicensed Horse Massages

Thanx to Radley Balko on Facebook

comments

Past meets future

Mon, 07 May 2012 13:00:28 GMT

Drone pursues cattle rustler.

Thanx to Fragano Ledgister on Facebook

ETA: It's a nonfiction Bat Durston story.

comments

Good for business

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:13:56 GMT

comments

Why we can't have nice things #n: The death penalty

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:06:40 GMT

There is a really annoying petty irony to being falsely accused of failing to return the library's copy of Convicting the Innocent. I've settled that, though, and now I want to put in a plug for the book, which is written by Brandon L. Garrett and published by Harvard.

Convicting the Innocent studies the cases of 150 people who did serious prison time and have since been proven innocent beyond a reasonable doubt by DNA evidence. It shows the problems with confessions, eyewitness testimony, and perhaps worst of all, jailhouse snitches.

For a long time, I was neutral on the death penalty. I don't have strong feelings about it, but most people do, in ways that cannot be settled by further factual evidence. What I do have strong feelings about is making sure we've got the actual perp, especially if we're going to kill the person we convict, and this book, and the specific case of Troy Davis, have convinced me that as long as there's a death penalty, we're going to kill innocent people, or at least people we aren't sure enough about.

comments

Laws named after dead children

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:34:49 GMT

Smart law professor explains the problems with make-it-didn’t-happen laws.

Thanx to The Agitator

comments

Laws named after dead children

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:44:39 GMT

Radley Balko on what's wrong with Caylee's Law.

comments

Laws named after dead children

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 10:25:58 GMT

What's wrong with sex offender registration

Thanx to The Agitator

comments

For the children

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:04:40 GMT

A man did a video in which he sang a suggestive song, and spliced in pictures of children so it looked as if they were listening. For this act of abuse twice removed, he is going to jail.

Thanx to eatsoylentgreen

comments

The Ministry of Truth gets one right

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 12:18:46 GMT

In the UK, they are going to expunge all convictions for homosexual acts that should never have been crimes. Here, they punish the unjustly convicted if they don't register as sex offenders.

Thanx to andrewducker

comments

Sanity in the UK

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:36:20 GMT

[British] Supreme Court rules gay asylum seekers can't be deported to persecution. Ours should do likewise.

Thanx to coyotegoth

comments

Sincere belief

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:42:13 GMT

Nidal Hasan just wanted to protect innocent Muslims from the Great Satan.

Thanx to Majikthise.

comments

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:46:28 GMT

There are times when the legal system could profit from allowing a writ of copulo non compos mentis (are you out of your fucking mind?). A judge attempts to approximate it in dealing with Orly Taitz, and rightly so.

(Surely by now someone has pointed out that he who has a Taitz is lost.)

comments