A Tour of Kenosha

Check out this citizen's driving tour of Kenosha, showcasing some of the destruction including a couple of the buildings that were burned to the ground by rioters.  And check out Terry Rose's speech (at the 6:15 mark) outside of a decimated building in Kenosha.  Rose rightfully gives some credit to the Governor for accepting President Trump's offer of federal assistance -- while pointing out that politics initially got in the way of truly swift and timely action.  Wisconsin's Governor waited too long, but, as Rose accurately points out, better late than never.  

Other than Fox, major news outlets won't be covering this accurately, or at all, so for those who don't know, a woman called 911 on a man called Jacob Blake.  Completely unrelated to that incident, Blake also a had an outstanding warrant for felony sexual assault.  Police arrived, and Blake resisted and obstructed officers causing them to use a taser gun, which had no impact.  Blake then got up off the ground and walked from the passenger side of his SUV to the driver's side.  After officers drew their guns, Blake again refused to comply with their commands and went into his vehicle.  Blake also had a large knife, although it was unclear if he had it with him or if he was going to retrieve it -- it was found on the driver's side of his SUV's floorboard.  The end result: the police shot Blake multiple times in the back as he was getting into the vehicle.

There is a legitimate debate about whether the police should have done something differently, such as tackling Blake as he walked around the car to the driver's side door or even letting him drive away to do whatever it is he might do next.  But the mob descended on Kenosha and began rioting.  Some of the facts I've outlined above weren't known at the time the rioting started.  Nonetheless, I suspect they wouldn't have mattered.  Why not?  Because rioters riot for any or no reason.  In Minneapolis, for example, rioting started up again over reports of cops shooting another black man.  Problem is, there was no police shooting.  The man actually killed himself as the police were about to arrest him for murder.

Facts, I suppose, be damned.  At least in Kenosha there was a real-life (rather than imaginary) shooting by police that triggered the rioters.  In either case, as Attorney Rose said in the above clip, "Kenosha isn't going to be another Portland."

Does character matter?

If you're charged with a crime, it's very possible that the prosecutor will find some way to use -- either directly or indirectly -- your prior criminal record as evidence of your bad character.  This, of course, is likely to make you look guilty in the eyes of the jury.  But what if you've got a squeaky-clean record and have never even been accused of -- let alone arrested for, charged with, or convicted of -- a crime?  Can you use your clean record as evidence of your good, law-abiding character?  The law actually (generally) prohibits you from doing so.  Talk about double standards!  In my new article, I debunk the prosecutorial and judicial justifications for hiding your clean record from the jury, argue for legal reform, and provide defense lawyers with a possible strategy under the existing rules: A Clean Record as Character Evidence, 90 Mississippi Law Journal __ (forthcoming, 2021).  Or read the abstract after the jump.

That's Absurd!

Assume you're a sheriff's deputy and you arrest a mail-carrier pursuant to an outstanding murder warrant.  Can you be charged criminally for "interfering with the delivery of the mail"?  What if you rescue a baby squirrel from certain death by giving it food and water -- are you guilty of a crime for "keeping a game quadruped" in your home?  What if you are convicted of a crime that has nothing to do with sex and isn't related to sex in any imaginable way -- can the government still make you register as a sex offender?  Technically, yes.  But a legal principle called "the absurdity doctrine" is supposed to protect you when statutes would otherwise produce an absurd result, like the ones discussed above.  Unfortunately, the doctrine doesn't always work.  Read about my proposed legal reform in The New Absurdity Doctrine, 125 Penn State Law Review __ (forthcoming, 2021).  Or read the abstract after the jump.

Wordplay

In Wisconsin, you could be a "domestic abuse repeater" if you have been convicted, "on 2 or more separate occasions," of domestic abuse crimes.  Yet prosecutors are branding defendants as repeaters, thus transforming misdemeanors into felonies and increasing jail sentences to prison sentences, whenever defendants have been convicted only on ONE prior occasion.  How is this possible?  Read my new article explaining this governmental wordplay, Criminal Repeater Statutes: Occasions, Convictions, and Absurd Results, 11 Hous. L. Rev. Online 1 (2020).  Or read the abstract after the jump.