The Law: From Richmond and Beyond

Recent happenings with law and interesting cases. The postings in this blog are not legal advice and do not create an attorney client relationship. These postings are for general informational purposes only. If you have a specific legal problem, consult an attorney.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Simple Justice: We Can Never Be Too Safe

Simple Justice: We Can Never Be Too Safe
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Susan E. Allen

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Susan E. Allen
Richmond, Virginia, United States
1805 Monument Ave., Ste. 301 Richmond, VA 23220
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Inter Alia

  • The Volokh Conspiracy
    [Josh Blackman] SCOTUS GVRs Capital Case After 13 Reschedules And 10 Relists - It seems to have taken some time to corral Justice Barrett's vote in a case involving evidence and sex-based slurs.
    1 hour ago
  • CrimProf Blog
    Potential Fallout From the Government's Challenge to the 9/11 Accused's Plea Deals - If the government has agreed to a plea deal in which the possibility of the death penalty has been dropped, may a higher-ranking official lawfully renege o...
    11 hours ago
  • SCOTUSblog
    The morning read for Tuesday, Jan. 21 - [image: The morning read for Tuesday, Jan. 21]The Supreme Court is meeting for oral arguments this morning in Food and Drug Administration v. R.J. Reynol...
    16 hours ago
  • ABA Journal Top Stories
    ABA calls on senators to oppose ‘deeply concerning’ immigration bill - The ABA is urging the U.S. Senate to vote against an immigration reform bill that would require the detention of noncitizens who committed “certain low-level…
    4 days ago
  • De Novo: A Virginia Appellate Law Blog
    Trial Court Cannot Require Transcript as Prerequisite to Appeal - You hate to see it: In Wolfe v. Wolfe, the ex husband filed a pro se motion to modify child support. The court granted the motion in part and denied it in ...
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  • DUI BLOG
    Can You Get a DUI From the Passenger Seat? - Can You Get a DUI From the Passenger Seat? Permitted Drivers and Drunk Supervisors Picture this scene. You’re at a SoCal family dinner party. The party...
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    The WSJ Law Blog: 2006-2017 - More than a decade ago, The Wall Street Journal launched Law Blog. It had a simple name but a novel approach to legal coverage in the pre-Twitter era. The ...
    7 years ago
  • Regent Law
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  • Virginia DUI Lawyers Discuss VA DWI Law: DUIAttorney.com
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Blog Archive

  • ►  2012 (3)
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  • ▼  2010 (85)
    • ►  December (1)
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    • ▼  August (18)
      • ACLU Sues Obama Administration Over Alleged Assass...
      • Va. institutions on list for sexual misconduct inv...
      • The Government Can Use GPS to Track Your Moves
      • Plan For Expungement
      • Knowledge of right to refuse search helps show con...
      • Va. ending face-to-face visits on death row | Rich...
      • Fourth Amendment news: TSA "testing" "enhanced pat...
      • We Can Never Be Too Safe
      • Simple Justice: We Can Never Be Too Safe
      • Have Released Felon In Custody. Job Done!
      • Denver officials clash over police discipline afte...
      • Ex-Inmate’s Dilemma - $2.2 Million or a Lawsuit - ...
      • Wrong Number Connects Drug Seller With Police
      • Diamonds may be forever, but love isn’t
      • If Big Brother is Watching, He Needs a Warrant, Co...
      • Supreme Court of Virginia Appeals Granted
      • Virginia AG rules police may inquire about immigra...
      • FOXNews.com - Virginia Attorney General Rules Poli...
    • ►  July (18)
    • ►  June (12)
    • ►  May (6)
    • ►  April (10)
"The very premise of our adversary system of criminal justice is that partisan advocacy on both sides of a case will best promote the ultimate objective that the guilty be convicted and the innocent go free." Herring v. New York, 422 U.S. 853, 862 (1975).

"The right to the effective assistance of counsel is thus the right of the accused to require the prosecution's case to survive the crucible of meaningful adversarial testing. When a true adversarial criminal trial has been conducted ... the kind of testing envisioned by the Sixth Amendment has occurred. But if the process loses its character as a confrontation between adversaries, the constitutional guarantee is violated." United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648, 655-56 (1984).

We, as criminal defense lawyers, are forced to deal with some of the lowest people on earth, people who have no sense of right and wrong, people who will lie in court to get what they want, people who do not care who gets hurt in the process. It is our job–our sworn duty–as criminal defense lawyers, to protect our clients from those people. —Cynthia Roseberry.

"[O]ur so-called adversary system is not adversary at all; nor should it be. But defense counsel has no comparable obligation to ascertain or present the truth. Our system assigns him a different mission. He must be and is interested in preventing the conviction of the innocent, but, absent a voluntary plea of guilty, we also insist that he defend his client whether he is innocent or guilty. ... [A]s part of our modified adversary system and as part of the duty imposed on the most honorable defense counsel, we countenance or require conduct which in many instances has little, if any, relation to the search for truth." —Justice White concurring and dissenting in U.S. v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 256-58 (1967).

“Many think it not only inevitable but entirely proper that liberty give way to security in times of national crisis–that, at the extremes of military exigency, inter arma silent leges. Whatever the general merits of the view that war silences law or modulates its voice, that view has no place in the interpretation and application of a Constitution designed precisely to confront war and, in a manner that accords with democratic principles, to accommodate it.” Justice Scalia, Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, dissent by Scalia and Stevens.
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