What it’s like to defend a death penalty case
Why would anyone, especially someone struggling to pay off sizeable student debt, choose to defend a person who much of society considers a “monster”? What’s it really like to be a death penalty lawyer?
Author: Michael Holtzman
Is Texas trying to rewrite history?
This fall, five million public school students in Texas began using new social studies textbooks based on state academic standards that barely touch on the shameful history of racial segregation, do not mention the Ku Klux Klan or Jim Crow laws, and soften the role that slavery played in the US Civil War. Why is the school board in Texas making these kinds of changes?
Seeing red: Controversy over red-light cameras
There’s no shortage of controversy around the country when it comes to red-light cameras. Are they meant to enhance public safety? Or are they simply a sneaky way to boost departmental revenue and shift more of the tax burden onto the poor?
Did Planned Parenthood actually do anything illegal?
Since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, there has been a consistent and dedicated campaign to make abortion illegal (again). The current effort to discredit and defund Planned Parenthood is only the most recent skirmish in a continuing battle, and if recent history teaches us anything, it’s that there are plenty more ahead.
Brain injuries haunt the NFL
American football is not only popular because of aggression and violence: the game involves speed, precision, and an intricate chess match between opposing coaches. But let’s face it: big hits draw big cheers. Unfortunately, those crowd-pleasing collisions are taking a toll on the brain health of the players—who are fighting back with something as American as football: a lawsuit.
Legal pot: The taxman’s two favorite words
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have now legalized medical marijuana, and four states (Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington) have legalized pot for recreational use. As the laws have changed and social acceptance has grown, so has the ability to make money—lots of it.
Sick people at work: A national epidemic
Everyone gets sick now and again. But not everybody gets to be sick without having to come into work, potentially making themselves sicker and spreading contagion to unsuspecting co-workers.
Amanda Knox is finally vindicated
After more than 8 years of tortuous legal proceedings in the Italian courts, Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were finally exonerated on March 27, 2015. Over the course of a conviction by a Perugia court in 2009, an acquittal in 2011 (after a first appeals court trial), and then a second conviction in 2014 (after another appellate trial), the pair had spent four years in prison. On Tuesday, September 8, Italy’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, issued a scathing written opinion explaining its March ruling.