By: Steve Grumm

Greetings from Austin.  This morning I tweeted some points from a “government lawyer careers” program.  (You can follow me @SteveGrumm, my colleague Kristen @KristenPavon, and our PSLawNet feed @pslawnet.)  I’ll quickly summarize them here, too.

• The Texas Attorney General’s office employs 700 lawyers.  Job openings occur frequently and are found at www.workintexas.com.  Job seekers should be licensed to practice before applying.  The AG doesn’t follow the practice of law firms which hire associates before they’ve sat for/passed the bar.  You have to have a license at the outset to be considered for an AG’s office job.
• On the federal level, one half of the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission’s (EEOC) workforce is now eligible to retire.  So when the federal-government hiring freeze starts to thaw, there should be openings for lawyer jobs and other positions.
• All three of our panelists agreed that GPA is not the most important criterion in a candidate’s application.  Experience and demonstrated commitment to public service go a long way toward overcoming a shaky GPA.

By: Steve Grumm

I didn’t get a chance to blog about this last week.  A National Law Journal op-ed entitled “Jump off the Private Prison Bandwagon”, penned by Vivian Berger, sounds a critical note on the growing industry in which private companies contract with government to run prisons.

On March 1, a broad coalition of public interest organizations wrote to the governors of every state, urging them to decline a bid from Corrections Corp. of America to buy up public prisons and turn them into private facilities. Significantly, this proposal from the largest for-profit prison company in the country did not come without strings attached. It stipulated that the seller must have a minimum of 1,000 beds, agree to let CCA operate the institution for no less than 20 years and guarantee to keep the prison at least 90 percent occupied. In light of the mass incarceration epidemic — with 5 percent of the world’s population, our nation confines 25 percent of all prisoners — the last thing we need is to expand an industry invested in maximizing the number of inmates.

…

The private institutions’ infiltration of the custody market has not produced the advantages touted by proponents and, worse, has yielded deleterious results. Various studies have failed to uncover evidence that for-profit imprisonment saves money. To the extent it does, such savings appear to come at the price of inmate well-being. Justice John Paul Stevens, dissenting in Correctional Services Corp. v. Malesko (2001), which declined to allow a Bivens action against a halfway house’s private operator, correctly noted: “Because a private prison corporation’s first loyalty is to its stockholders, rather than the public interest, it is no surprise that cost-cutting measures jeopardizing prisoners’ rights are more likely in private facilities than in public ones.”

Given the large numbers of nonviolent offenders presently imprisoned, and given current questions about the effect of mass incarceration on society, it’s also important to include discussion of where the incarcerated go and how they are treated.

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday (the 13th), dear readers.  This week I’ve been thinking about how I’m inspired – not what inspires me, but rather how inspiration strikes me.  The Atlantic is collecting readers’ thoughts on this topic.  My own conclusion is that I’m pretty boring.  Mostly, I’m a linear, process-driven thinker.  “Inspiration” comes after collecting data and viewpoints, consciously and/or subconsciously mulling them over, evaluating alternatives, and then crafting a solution.  If all of those wheels are turning subconsciously and at a quick pace, then I have what feels like an epiphanic moment.  But I still must consciously start the process if I’m to get to that endpoint.   In any case it seems to work for me.

And more importantly, the exercise of thinking about how we are inspired is in itself worthwhile.  By understanding how we work best we can bring those tools and approaches to bear on future problems.  I encourage you to think about your inspiration process (and contribute your thoughts to The Atlantic if you’re so moved).            

Okay, the latest access-to-justice, pro bono, funding, job market, and related news:

• Texas moving toward adoption of standard forms for pro-se, uncontested divorces;
• Minnesota law students are pitching in big-time to narrow the justice gap;
• a class-action lawsuit against a PA county alleges underfunding of indigent defense;
• MassMutual pledges pro bono assistance and funding in the Bay State;
• Community Legal Services of mid-Florida is one fine place to work;
• the “profound transformation” of pro bono over the past three decades;
• gun-totin’ prosecutors in Minnesota;
• pro bon-Oh, Canada;
• Texas high court honored for AtJ commitment;
• more pro bono volunteers in the Volunteer State;
• re-examining welfare reform’s “successes” in a recession’s aftermath;
• spotlight on South Texas College of Law’s Human Trafficking/Immigration Clinic;
• a Wisconsin-based legal services lawyer offers the basics on managing student debt. 

The summaries:

• 4.12.12 – from the Public News Service: “The state Supreme Court is considering whether to make it easier for low-income Texans to handle simple legal cases without hiring attorneys. An advisory committee will be hashing out recommendations Friday in Austin.  At issue is whether to require all Texas courts to accept standardized do-it-yourself legal forms in uncontested divorces.”  The San Antonio Express editorial board favors the move, writing, “Texas is only one of a few states without universal divorce forms. The majority of the 43 states that have adopted the forms also mandated their courts to accept the forms. Texas needs to follow suit.  As Public Citizen and other citizen advocates have noted, many Texans can’t afford the $203 median hourly rate Texas family law lawyers charge, but that should not keep them from having access to the justice system.”  The main argument against: standardized forms could encourage a large number of people to go pro se, and could thus clog up the court system. 

• 4.10.12 – the Minneapolis Star Tribune looks at the “…growing force of Minnesota law students who are wielding more influence in courtrooms as funding for legal aid services declines and economic forces reduce paid clerkships…. The number of law students who [completed a volunteer program via the] Minnesota Justice Foundation (MJF) has grown exponentially, from 43 in 2000 to 287 in 2010. Many…are placed with nonprofits that serve low-income clients. About 19 currently work in public defenders’ offices…”  The piece goes on to cite numbers about funding cuts and job losses in civil legal services.

• 4.10.12 –  in Pennsylvania, the “Luzerne County chief public defender…filed a lawsuit against the county…alleging that a lack of funding and staffing has led to his inability to represent indigent clients. The complaint, listed as a class action, was filed by the [Pennsylvania ACLU] and Dechert LLP in Philadelphia. The ACLU has had similar complaints about the Allegheny County public defender’s office.  Al Flora Jr,, who was named the Luzerne County chief public defender in 2010, stopped accepting new applications for representation on Dec. 19 except in [certain cases].  (Story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.)
  • Update: following the class-action filing on Tuesday, “Chief Public Defender Al Flora Jr. on Thursday filed a motion seeking a court order that would permit him to immediately hire six more attorneys and direct Luzerne County to pay private attorneys to represent indigent defendants who have been denied representation by his office.”  (Story from Wilkes Barre Times-Leader.)

   

• 4.10.12 – in Massachusetts, a locally-based company pitches in to address the justice gap.  From a press release: “Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) and the Hampden County Bar Association announced today MassMutual’s increased support for the Hampden County Legal Clinic, including a $15,000 grant and additional volunteer support through the company’s in-house legal team.  The grant is also intended to help support the expansion of pro bono activities currently administered by the Hampden County Legal Clinic.

• 4.10.12 – big props to Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, which is a mighty fine place to work.  “Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida has been named one of the nation’s “50 Best Nonprofits To Work For In 2012″ by The NonProfit Times.  For its third annual list…publication selected nonprofits in three categories: small, medium and large organizations.  Community Legal Services was ranked ninth among medium-sized nonprofits and 18th overall, according to a news release from the Daytona Beach-based nonprofit agency.”  (Story from the Daytona Beach News-Journal.)

• 4.9.12 – the Pro Bono Institute’s Esther Lardent has occasion to look at pro bono’s “profound transformation” in the past three decades.  Pro bono’s evolution toward a sophisticated national movement began with threats to eviscerate Legal Services Corporation funding in 1980 and continued with the institutionalization of pro bono in law-firm (and now in-house) culture.   (This National Law Journal piece is password-protected.)

• 4.9.12 – It’s cold in Minnesota, so now the state’s prosecutors can pack heat.  “Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill into law…that will allow prosecutors to arm themselves while on duty.  The legislation was drafted after a courthouse shooting nearly killed Cook County Attorney Tim Scannell last December. Previously, a quirk in state law had prohibited prosecutors from carrying weapons while on duty even though no such restrictions were imposed on judges or public defenders.  During debate on the bill, lawmakers were assured that judges will retain the right to ban guns from courtrooms and courthouse grounds.”  (Story from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.)

• 4.9.12 – Pro Bon-Oh, Canada.  (LOL!)  Help for pro se litigants in Ontario who wish to go to the country’s high court: “Pro Bono Law Ontario (PBLO), in partnership with the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) and the Supreme Court of Canada, launched a new pilot project today to provide free legal services to low-income self-represented Ontarians seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. Initiated at the Court’s request, the project will help eligible litigants determine the merits of their leave applications and offer assistance to those found to have prospects for success. The volunteer lawyers are former law clerks at the Supreme Court.” (Here’s the full press release.)

• 4.9.12 – everything’s bigger in Texas, including the high court’s AtJ commitment.  “The Texas Supreme Court will receive a 2012 American Bar Association Grassroots Advocacy Award for leading an extraordinary effort to preserve state funding for legal aid programs and also for encouraging support for legal services in other states. The award will be presented April 18 during a reception at the United States Supreme Court.  Last year, the Texas Supreme Court played a key role in obtaining funding for Texas legal aid programs at a time when state-directed support was in serious jeopardy. The…justices lobbied extensively in support of an amendment on a general appropriations bill, which led to $17.6 million in legal services funding from the Texas state legislature.”  (Full ABA release.)

• 4.7.12 -pro bono advocates in Tennessee appear to be answering the call to help overwhelmed legal services providers.  From the Tennessean: “The state Supreme Court requires lawyers to report their pro bono service each year. In 2010, 4,400 more lawyers reported volunteering their time than the year before, a 100 percent increase, according to a commission report that is headed before the Supreme Court later this year.

• 4.7.12 – in 2003, when I was a 3L, I wrote a paper on how the mid-1990s welfare-reform policy changes were faring over time.  One of the main concerns raised by reform critics was that if the economy went south, and welfare recipients ran up against newly-imposed time limits on how long they could receive benefits, thousands of people could fall through the safety net’s holes.  Fast forward to post-recession 2012.  From the New York Times: “Perhaps no law in the past generation has drawn more praise than the drive to ‘end welfare as we know it,’ which joined the late-’90s economic boom to send caseloads plunging, employment rates rising and officials of both parties hailing the virtues of tough love.  But the distress of the last four years has added a cautionary postscript: much as overlooked critics of the restrictions once warned, a program that built its reputation when times were good offered little help when jobs disappeared. Despite the worst economy in decades, the cash welfare rolls have barely budged.”

• 4.7.12 – the Houston Chronicle highlights the work of the Human Trafficking/Immigration Clinic at the South Texas College of Law: “By 2011, the…Clinic had scored some major victories.  [Clinic director Naomi] Bang’s students had helped secure visas allowing 15 Vietnamese human trafficking victims to remain in the country. Second- and third-year law students were clamoring to get into the class, and a long waiting list developed for the 10 coveted spots.

• Writing in the April edition of the Wisconsin Lawyer, 2009 law grad and current legal services lawyer Karen Bauer reviews educational debt relief options and repayment approaches for today’s grads.

This is question that the California Supreme Court tackled late last year. The court’s decision will be published today. Here are the case details from the Washington Post:

In a case that could affect thousands of California employers and millions of workers, the state Supreme Court will decide whether managers must order workers to take rest and meal breaks at regular intervals throughout the workday.

The question is whether California labor law requires an employer to simply “provide” meal and rest breaks to employees, or whether it must also “ensure” those breaks are taken at certain times during shifts. The court’s decision could also greatly reduce the numerous class action lawsuits surrounding the issue, which cost companies embroiled in the cases millions of dollars in legal costs.

The closely watched case was filed in 2004 by restaurant workers employed by Brinker International, which owns Chili’s and other eateries. The company’s attorneys argue that businesses cannot control workers’ breaks, and that break timing should be left to an employee’s discretion.

The workers’ lawyers counter that by not ordering breaks at regular intervals throughout the workday, employers are taking advantage of employees who don’t want to leave colleagues during busy times.

California is one of only a few states that impose a monetary penalty for employers who violate meal and rest break laws, and there is no federal law requiring employers to provide breaks. . . .

During oral arguments in November, four of the seven justices appeared to side with Brinker’s attorneys, wondering aloud if a worker could be fired for disobeying an order to take a meal break.

Kevin Allen, a workers-side employment lawyer, said he hoped the court’s decision will require employers to ensure that their workers take regular breaks. He said the law is there to protect employees from working too many hours in a row with no rest.

You can read the rest here.

From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) filed [an administrative] complaint Tuesday with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The group said it looked at [more than 1,000] foreclosed homes in several metro areas and found that they were more likely to be rundown and poorly marketed in minority neighborhoods than in white ones.

Complaints range from failing to cut grass to allowing boarded up homes to decay and failing to put up “For Sale” signs.

NFHA said Wells Fargo is violating the federal Fair Housing Act, which requires banks and investors to maintain and market homes without regard to race or ethnicity. . . .

Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, disputed the complaint generally and said it didn’t have enough information to respond to specific cases. . . .

Shanna Smith, president of NFHA, said she hopes HUD will “call the parties together try to work this out and begin an investigation,” Smith said. “Filing this complaint with HUD will light a fire. I am sorry that this is what we have to do to get their attention.”

Smith said her organization looked at eight lenders, adding Wells Fargo was the most egregious offender and is the only bank named in the complaint. She did not rule out complaints against others.

Wells Fargo services one out of every six home loans in the United States.

Washington-based NFHA, which describes itself as “the only national organization dedicated solely to ending discrimination in housing,” said it looked at more than 1,000 homes in Baltimore; Dallas; Dayton, Ohio; Miami and Fort Lauderdale; Oakland; Philadelphia; Washington; and Atlanta.

You can read more here or here.

Thoughts?

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

. . .[Daniel S.] Medwed has blazed a unique trail in the field of criminal defense law. He’s a board member of directors for the Innocence Network and the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center. In 2008, the 43-year-old native of Cambridge, Mass., helped draft and pass a factual innocence bill for the state of Utah, which created a procedure for prisoners to prove their innocence even without DNA evidence. The law also allowed compensation for wrongfully-convicted inmates who subsequently proved their innocence.

Medwed’s new book, Prosecution Complex, published by New York University Press, works from the maxim of 18th-century English judge and jurist William Blackstone that, “It’s better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer.” Medwed’s intent is to show where the nation’s criminal justice system has gone wrong, and how we can get it right, his exploration set against the contemporary backdrop in which United States prisons hold more people than were housed in Stalin’s gulags. . . .

Pre-trial mistakes might have the greatest ripple effects. If you charge someone with a crime, even though the evidence is very weak, that sets the case in motion. If a prosecutor does not turn over all exculpatory evidence, it creates a situation where the defendant may be enticed by a plea-bargain. . . .

Prosecutors, the overwhelming majority of them, want to do justice. They come into the profession wanting to do the right thing. But there are so many pressures — cultural, institutional, and political and psychological — that come into bear in prosecution.

Take for example, political pressures. Prosecutors have limited budgets. They’re financially strapped, like all government offices. One way to justify a higher budget is to show that your success with high conviction rates. It’s much harder to show, and more nuanced to demonstrate, that you’re successful when you decline to charge a case. It’s harder to show you’re being tough on crime. Conviction rates become the coin of the realm. The American system of places a premium on winning. . . .

Read more here. Thoughts?

By: Steve Grumm

Here’s a nice piece in the Houston Chronicle about the clinic’s work with local immigrants and refugees who may feel trapped between extraordinary hardship both in the US and in their country of origin.

By 2011, the South Texas College of Law’s Human Trafficking Clinic had scored some major victories.

[Clinic director Naomi] Bang’s students had helped secure visas allowing 15 Vietnamese human trafficking victims to remain in the country. Second- and third-year law students were clamoring to get into the class, and a long waiting list developed for the 10 coveted spots.

That fall, three of those places went to Sheridan Green, a clean-cut father and husband from St. George, Utah; Jamie Lauren Morrison, a former eighth-grade teacher from suburban Cy-Fair; and Sharon Sulami, the Houston-raised daughter of Israeli immigrants.

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  It pleases me to report that the Glorious Philadelphia Phillies Baseball Franchise is undefeated this season, having shut out the Pirates of Pittsburgh yesterday.  While we’re talking baseball, I encourage you to check out the artwork of Will Johnson.  Johnson, who is steeped in baseball history, produced a series of paintings that profile some of the game’s most fascinating and impactful personalities, like this one of Cubs great Mordecai Brown.  (That’s for you, Mr. Glaves.)  Johnson is also the frontman of Centro-matic, a great rock band out of Denton, Texas.

This week in access-to-justice, pro bono, and related public interest news:

• sharing the wealth across counties to fund indigent defense in Nebraska;
• making the business case for nonlawyer professionals to provide pro bono services;
• the early end of the Cincy defender’s tenure;
• the Wash. State Bar Association’s “Moderate Means” program provides sliding-scale legal help to the (not quite) poor by partnering with the state’s 3 law schools;
• the Virginia Legal Aid Society is charting a course to maximize services with less anticipated future funding;
• how law student pro bono is done by those hippie kids in Berkeley;
• the Early Resolution Project in Alaska seeks to make the legal dimension to divorces quick, inexpensive, and as pain-free as possible;
• more nonlegal pro bono, this time focusing on the value of “secondment” projects;
• the Media Access Project will soon cease to be;
• a New Hampshire lawmaker opposes the state’s move from a voluntary to mandatory IOLTA jurisdiction.
• the Illinois AG and defender press for funding to boost attorney salaries.

The summaries:

• 4.5.12 – a Nebraska state legislator has withdrawn a bill that would have diverted funds away from indigent defense in rural counties.  (Story from the Omaha World-Herald.) 

• 4.5.12 – a Taproot Foundation blog post explores the business case for pro bono, with a focus on how pro bono provides experiential learning opportunities.  But here, we’re dealing with pro bono by nonlawyer professionals who offer free technical and strategic planning assistance to nonprofits.  Recently I’ve seen more and more coverage of “nonlegal pro bono.”  This probably speaks to 1) the increasing sophistication of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) movement, and 2) the post-recession need among resource-strapped nonprofits for free professional services.   

• 4.4.12 – the rocky tenure of Cincinnati’s public defender came to an early end after a report pointed to an abrasive management style and failure to inspire trust among staff.  Full story from the Cincinnati Enquirer.

• 4.4.12 – the Washington State Bar Association’s Moderate Means “low bono” program: “Washingtonians of moderate means now have a better chance of getting legal representation when they need it.  More than 350 lawyers have volunteered to adjust their fees on a sliding scale to accommodate people who are neither rich nor poor. The attorneys are part of a partnership between the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) and the state’s three law schools….  People are eligible for the Moderate Means Program if their household income is between 200 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level for their family size. That would be household incomes between $45,622 and $91,244. The bar association said that includes about 30 percent of Washington households.”  Full piece in the Seattle Times.  And here’s more from the Seattle Business Journal.

• 4.4.12 – “Because of federal budget cuts, the Virginia Legal Aid Society needs help to determine how best to use limited resources to help residents.  While more low-income residents in Danville and Southside need free civil legal services every year, Legal Aid revenues have declined by about 20 percent in the past two and a half years, said VLAS Executive Director David Neumeyer. Next year, Legal Aid faces a deficit of $500,000 for a $2.6 million budget. Without significant help, the nonprofit law firm would need to reduce staff or close an office next year, he added.”  VLAS is seeking community input as it charts a course forward.  (Story from Roanoke-based WSLS.)

• 4.4.12 – law student pro bono. The ABA Center for Pro Bono’s blog features a guest post from our friend Sue Schechter (Hi, Sue!) of Berkeley Law.  Sue reviews Berkeley’s law student pro bono program, a model that provides staff and academic support to students but that also allows much autonomy as students make their own volunteer commitments with local agencies.  This latter dimension reflects the fact that pro bono at Berkeley law has historically been a student-run initiative. 

• 4.4.12 – the Early Resolution Project set up by an Alaska judge uses pro bono attorneys to help bring about amicable – and brief – divorce resolutions.  The underlying philosophy is that the longer divorces stay in litigation, the more painful and financially draining they are likely to be for the parties.  So brief, low-stress proceedings are the ERP’s goal.  Here’s the story from Alaska Public Radio and NPR.

• 4.3.12 – more nonlegal pro bono.  Global public relations outfit Ketchum blogs about the advantages of pro bono “secondments,” through which Ketchum professionals are embedded within a nonprofit organization to provide pro bono services for a period of time.  This pro bono model is of course not new to the law firm world, but it is still interesting to see how and why pro bono work is structured in other professions.   

• 4.3.12 – “The Media Access Project announced on Tuesday that it will be shutting down its operations in May because of funding difficulties.  The public interest law firm said its board has decided to suspend operations on May 1 because of the ‘difficult funding environment facing MAP and other progressive public interest groups.’  The group was founded in 1973 and represents clients that promote the free flow of information and free speech and diversity in electronic and other forms of new media.”

• 4.3.12 – in the recession’s wake New Hampshire’s high court converted the state’s IOLTA program from voluntary to mandatory in order to boost funding for beleaguered legal services providers.  One state legislator, attorney Gregory Sorg, is proposing a bill to undo this change and return to a voluntary program.  “’I moved to New Hampshire because this was the one state left in the Northeast where a person could own his own soul’, says [Sorg]…. But to [New Hampshire Legal Assistance exec. director John Tobin,]…Sorg’s focus on the principle of the issue ignores the very real consequences.  ‘Even if we lose the funding that costs us one lawyer or one paralegal, that means that several hundred New Hampshire people will not have an advocate,’ says Tobin. ‘And that means that some of them will lose their housing, some of them won’t get health care, some of them won’t be able to escape from domestic violence’.”  Story from New Hampshire Public Radio.

• 3.30.12 – In Illinois, the AG and state public defender pressed for higher salaries during budget hearings in the state senate.  (The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin article is password-protected.)

The Center for American Progress’ latest policy brief focuses on the impact of restrictive state immigration laws, like Arizona’s ‘Show Me Your Papers’ law (which is heading to the U.S. Supreme Court on April 25 for oral arguments), on our country and delves into the practical consequences of such laws.

A few of the consequences include:

• Pitting pro-and anti-immigrant states against each other by creating hostile versus welcoming environments for immigrants
• Increasing racial profiling and ethnic division by requiring police to make investigative decisions based on appearance, not conduct
• Undermining public safety and social cohesion by making immigrant and mixed-status families afraid to report crimes, attend school, receive medical assistance, etc.
• Creating severe economic harm by driving needed workers and consumers from the states and hurting the states’ reputations
• Subverting U.S. foreign policy objectives by making foreign nationals and foreign investors feel unwelcome

You can download the 24-page brief here. It has great infographics and identifies states that have either passed Arizona-style legislation, are close to passing Arizona-type laws, or have considered these laws but failed to advance them in the legislative process.

by Kristen Pavón

Unless you’ve been living under a rock in far-faraway land, you’re well aware of the curious case of Trayvon Martin. I’ve shied away from blogging about it here because, frankly, I’ve been pretty outraged.

However, I thought I’d share the following article from The National Law Journal written by Jay Sterling Silver, a law professor at St. Thomas University of Law in Miami Gardens, Florida. I agree with him 100 percent.

Read through and let me know your thoughts!

From The National Law Journal:

. . .[P]olice are empowered to make “probable cause” determinations and arrest suspects at crime scenes, and do so thousands of times every day, to develop and preserve the evidence necessary to prosecute the case. The Sanford police, however, made little effort to thoroughly and immediately comb the scene, question the suspect and any witnesses, and confiscate evidence. . . .

The failure to take the suspect into custody for further questioning, i.e., to arrest the admitted killer standing over Martin’s body with a recently fired gun, was an egregious irregularity in police work that cannot be excused by hollow assertions of the absence of probable cause. The scene was dripping with probable cause, as it is traditionally defined in our criminal law. It requires, as any good cop or prosecutor or criminal defense attorney will tell you — and as the U.S. Supreme Court put it — only “reasonably trustworthy information” supporting a “prudent” belief that the suspect committed or is committing a crime. . . .

No leap of faith was required to reach this conclusion. The police knew that George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin. He admitted to it. He’d followed the victim after being told by the police dispatcher not to follow him. Without knowing anything more, they needed only to conclude that the claim of self-defense by a 250-pound adult armed with a loaded gun who tracked and killed a 140-pound youth armed only with a pack of Skittles was inherently suspect. Police know, better than anyone else in the world, that suspects have an overwhelming interest in and habit of lying to save their own skin. . . .

Read the rest here.