Legal History

Who died at boys reform school over last century, and how? State AG asks judge to OK exhumation

Seeking to provide some answers to questions that have been raised about an unknown number of deaths at a Florida reform school over the course of the last century, the state’s attorney general on Tuesday asked a judge to OK an exhumation. “The deaths that occurred at Dozier School for…

Mar 13, 2013 4:15 PM CDT

Couple visits all 254 Texas courthouses in 14,500-mile odyssey, ties knot Monday in Ellis County

When Aaron Mason and Anne Cornell first visited the Fayette County courthouse in LaGrange, Texas, together in December 2010, the two Austin schoolteachers didn’t know each other all that well. But over the next two years, as they traveled over 14,500 miles together to visit all 254 of the state’s…

Mar 11, 2013 10:47 PM CDT

Want to protect individual freedom? Have a strong central government, says ‘Rule of the Clan’ author

We live in a society which values individual freedoms, but we come from a place which valued kinship ties above all else. Author Mark S. Weiner has studied ancient and modern-day clan societies in which group responsibility, rather than individual responsibility, is the rule of law.

Mar 11, 2013 1:45 PM CDT

Joseph Kelner, attorney who sued sitting Ohio governor over Kent State slayings, is dead at 98

Joseph Kelner, a personal injury attorney best known for the litigation battle he fought, and arguably won, over an iconic Vietnam War protest at Kent State University, has died. He was 98 years old. A former president of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association and the American Trial Lawyers…

Mar 8, 2013 7:55 PM CST

Looking for SCOTUS controversy? Case revelations? O’Connor book sticks to facts of court history

Readers hoping for juicy revelations about controversial Supreme Court cases or “tell all” insights won’t find them in Sandra Day O’Connor’s latest book. But those looking for a “succinct, snappy account” of the Supreme Court’s history should pick up the latest book by the retired justice, the New York Times…

Mar 6, 2013 12:15 PM CST

Larry Flynt’s lawyer and others recall March ‘78 shooting near courthouse

No one, of course, would want to be shot by a man armed with a .44 magnum “elephant gun.” But there were a few slight benefits that resulted when he and his client, Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, were attacked on their way back to the Gwinnett County, Ga., courthouse…

Mar 5, 2013 4:21 PM CST

Fifty years after Gideon, lawyers still struggle to provide counsel to the indigent

In June 1962, when the U.S. Supreme Court granted review of the handwritten pauper’s appeal from a Florida inmate named Clarence Earl Gideon, the court correspondent of the New York Times immediately knew he had a good news story on his hands. And, he thought, it was likely to be…

Mar 1, 2013 11:10 AM CST

The ‘Obvious Truth’: Gideon asserts only a lawyer’s advocacy can ensure a defendant a fair trial

Bryan was a high school graduate who made a youthful mistake that could have sent him to prison. His public defender in Los Angeles County, Rhonda May-Rucker, convinced the prosecutor to drop theft charges and got her client to pay restitution. With this second chance, Bryan went on to graduate…

Mar 1, 2013 10:40 AM CST

March 25, 1931: The saga of the Scottsboro Boys begins

Three words have come to define racial injustice in the South: the Scottsboro Boys. Eighty-two years ago, a Southern Railroad freight train left Chattanooga, Tenn., bound for Memphis. Several teenage boys—black and white—and two white girls jumped on board. A fight broke out, and most of the white boys were…

Mar 1, 2013 6:30 AM CST

Bork’s posthumous book tells of Nixon’s promise after Saturday Night Massacre

A memoir by Robert Bork published after his death says President Nixon promised to nominate him for the U.S. Supreme Court as soon as a vacancy occurred. The book, Saving Justice, says Nixon made the promise after Bork complied with Nixon’s order to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox in…

Feb 27, 2013 1:58 PM CST

‘A kind of Apple Store for legal stuff’ opens; Richard III’s legal legacy

Concierge legal services Right across from the Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif., is the retail location LegalForce, which DirectLaw founder Richard Granat describes as “a kind of Apple Store for legal stuff and other stuff (self-help law books, non-Apple tablets, tablet accessories, etc)” at eLawyering Blog. Granat (who discloses…

Feb 8, 2013 2:29 PM CST

Socrates retrial: Did he have to drink the hemlock?

Twenty-four centuries after he was convicted in one of the most famous trials in history, the ancient Greek philosopher and teacher Socrates is still guilty. But at least this time around, he wouldn’t have to down that fatal cup of hemlock. That was the consensus, at least, of an audience…

Feb 1, 2013 2:59 PM CST

Letters: The history of labor strife

THE HISTORY OF LABOR STRIFE Eric Newhouse’s “King Coal’s Violent Reign,” December, blew me away! I am 83 years old, and all my life I was told stories of life in the coalfields that were passionate but disjointed as to time and events. Now it all makes sense. My young…

Feb 1, 2013 10:50 AM CST

Feb. 22, 1841: Amistad case opens in Supreme Court

In July 1839, while en route between two Cuban ports, a group of 53 Africans aboard La Amistad, a Spanish slave ship, broke from their chains in revolt. Having killed the ship’s captain and two crewmen, they demanded the remaining crew return them to their homeland, Sierra Leone. During the…

Feb 1, 2013 6:40 AM CST

Should a judge recuse due to Facebook friendship with prosecutor? Florida supremes asked to decide

A Florida appeals court wants guidance on an ethics issue: Should judges recuse from cases when they are Facebook friends with the prosecutor? The 4th District Court of Appeal said on Wednesday that the matter is of great importance, and the Florida Supreme Court should decide the issue, the Palm…

Jan 17, 2013 1:13 PM CST