Odds and Sods

Hey, what's with this weather -- when did we suddenly become New England?

Congrats to Vivian de las Cuevas-Diaz, the new President of CABA -- I know it was a hard fought election between two cuties and the organization is fortunate to have so many talented and dedicated professionals involved in key leadership roles.

Go 'Noles!

This is a nice story about the Capital Defense Project over at UM Law:

University of Miami School of Law students Keon Hardemon and Paul Petrequin assisted a defense team in avoiding a death sentence for Grady Nelson, 53, in a Miami courtroom last week. After only an hour of deliberation on Thursday, jurors sided with Nelson’s defense team that included defense attorneys Terry Lenamon, David S. Markus and student supervisor and Assistant Professor Sarah Mourer, who entered the case pro bono as co-counsel. The jury recommended a life sentence.

The students conducted extensive research to assist in submitting QEEG [quantitative electroencephalography] – a three-dimensional brain image also known as brain mapping used to indicate traumatic brain injury. Lenamon says it’s the first time QEEG has ever been used in a death penalty case, and he believes it was the first time the technology was used in a Florida criminal case.

 Boy, maybe they can get involved in this horrendous upcoming execution in California, detailed today by Nicholas Kristof in the NYT:

William A. Fletcher, a federal circuit judge, explained his view of what happens in such cases in a law school lecture at Gonzaga University, in which he added that Mr. Cooper is “probably” innocent: “The police are under heavy pressure to solve a high-profile crime. They know, or think they know, who did the crime. And they plant evidence to help their case along.”

Judge Fletcher wrote an extraordinary judicial opinion — more than 100 pages when it was released — dissenting from the refusal of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to rehear the case. The opinion is a 21st-century version of Émile Zola’s famous “J’Accuse.”

Mr. Fletcher, a well-respected judge and former law professor, was joined in his “J’Accuse” by four other circuit judges. Six more wrote their own dissents calling for the full Ninth Circuit to rehear the case. But they fell just short of the votes needed for rehearing.

Where's the Governator when you really need him?