Could anyone imagine that faced with the potential opportunity of generating about $50 million of new funding for legal services and other needs of our justice system, the California State Bar Board of Trustees, claiming the support of the staff of the Supreme Court of California, would not only kill that opportunity, but do so by defaming the immediate past president and first Latino president of the State Bar and its executive director? I regret to inform the California legal community this is what happened. All this was recently brought
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Danielle Willard’s life was taken by the lawless act of Shaun Cowley. And her family’s quest to seek justice for their daughter was taken by the lawless act of Judge Dever. Both acts are unspeakably tragic, and the court’s decision – one plainly at odds with the directives given by Utah’s highest court – only compounds the tragedy, re-victimizing a family whose only comfort and solace for the loss of their young daughter was to come through the judicial process. The court’s ruling undermines the most fundamental principle upon which
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It’s one simple word: race. Prosecutors, used to demonizing young black males as violent predators of the night, weren’t ready to fight for Trayvon Martin. By Michael Jackson’s defense lawyer, Mark Geragos. Did the George Zimmerman trial involve racist attitudes? Of course it did. Did the predominantly white jury reach the right verdict? Of course it did. Is the criminal justice system a racist institution? Of course it is. Do young black males disproportionately suffer the brunt of this criminal justice system? Of course they do. Did the media and
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Since the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in 1993, the rapid and accelerating development of international criminal law has changed the world we live in. Crimes of war and atrocities against civilian populations have been a tragic and persistent scourge on humanity and are not likely to disappear anytime soon. But for perpetrators of these offenses, the calculations have changed. Now dictators, warlords, and generals know that their actions will be scrutinized by prosecutors and the possibility exists that those who violate the laws of
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