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5 Comments

  1. John Agius
    20 November 2016 @ 2:46 pm

    Hello Philip. I am a Senior/Queens Counsel in Sydney Australia. I look forward to your blog. In practice we have a divided profession and I am what you would call a trial lawyer (trials, pleas and appeals) not an attorney.We no longer have the death penalty in Australia either at a State or Federal level; the last execution was in Victoria in the 60s. We do still have issues with breaches of the prosecution’s obligation to disclose information to the defence in criminal matters from time to time although with nothing like the frequency or deliberate intent that you report.
    As you would know our prosecutors and judges do not contest elections for office, they are appointed. Judges are overseen by a judicial commission and prosecution authorities are also accountable and independent of government.
    I am always saddened to read of the examples of injustice you report. The death penalty is no deterrent. Indeed after 40 years practicing criminal law I wonder about the utility of the notion of general deterrence and its value when compared to rehabilitation and addressing the underlying causes of crime. Our indigenous citizens are hugely over represented in gaols as are your citizens of African American, Latino and Mexican descent. The solution may be expensive in the short run but as so called civilised societies we have an obligation to address it rather than hide it by just locking up those convicted of crimes.

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  2. Kazuhiko Higuchi
    17 November 2016 @ 1:15 pm

    I’m a Japanese lawyer and a visiting scholar at UCDAVIS.
    I felt in the election that White Supremacy still remains in this country .

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  3. Penny Garrett
    16 November 2016 @ 2:54 pm

    I am a sister of a plainspoken Colorado criminal defense lawyer, and these are my thoughts (and hopes). I am hoping with all my heart that the President-elect becomes one of our best presidents ever. I would be so happy to be able to say to all I know that I WAS WRONG about him.

    Now, having said that, I must say that as of today I have no doubt in my mind that I was NOT wrong, and that he is a totally disgusting person. No matter what, we must all stand together and never give up.

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  4. Bruce Ross
    16 November 2016 @ 11:51 am

    I am a retired person. There is a remote possibility
    that Trump may have a spark of liberalism in him and truly try to govern for all the people. He is however, sending mix signals about who he appoints to fill certain posts. We do get the government we deserve.

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  5. steve lacheen
    16 November 2016 @ 10:46 am

    I am a criminal defense attorney in Phila., PA. My thoughts on what’s coming:
    Trump is trying to appease both sides of the R party….the moderates with promises of moderation in his policies, the crazies who were his loyal partisans with his appointment of rabid alt-right fascists like Bannon, Bolton, Giuliani, et al. He is bound to quickly infuriate both sides by trying to play both sides; and everyone is very quickly going to tire of the family-style dictatorship he is implementing ahead of everything else. As I have been saying for 18 months, everybody should read Sinclair Lewis’ book, “It Can’t happen Here,” which illustrated how the Dictator-to-be comes not with an alarm but a circus clown’s horn.
    The only thing that will save us will be the in-fighting among the three sectors of the Trump Movement, which will find it impossible to walk in lock-step with each other
    Steve LaCheen.

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