Gramblings

The US Supreme Court can be a nasty piece of business. The latest is Portuondo v. Agard, where the court (or at least its nasty conservative majority) thought it might be OK for a prosecutor to suggest that a defendant was lying because they had been in the court all along and heard all the previous testimony.

Findlaw is another time-waster's paradise, with endless links from one case to another. While reading through the precedents for Portuondo, I came across the following two gems from 1893 (in Wilson v. US, 149 US 60, although I actually found one of the quotes in Griffin v. California, 380 US 609).

Here's what tyranny sounds like, from the prosecutor in the 1893 case:

'They say Wilson is a man of good character. It is a grand thing for a young man in Chicago to be the son of an honest man, because blood will tell. If the father is honest, the chances are the son will be honest too. Men live all their lives to build up a good character, because it is a shield against the attack of infamy. They called two or three witnesses here who testified to this young man's character as being good, so far as they know; but I want to say to you, gentlemen of the jury, that, if I am ever charged with a crime, I will not stop by putting witnesses on the stand to testify to my good character, but I will go upon the stand, and hold up my hand before high heaven, and testify to my innocence of the crime.'

and here's (Supreme Court) Justice Field fighting back:

It is not every one who can safely venture on the witness stand, though entirely innocent of the charge against him. Excessive timidity, nervousness when facing others and attempting to explain transactions of a suspicious character, and offenses charged against him, will often confuse and embarrass him to such a degree as to increase rather than remove prejudices against him. It is not every one, however honest, who would therefore willingly be placed on the witness stand. The statute, in tenderness to the weakness of those who from the causes mentioned might refuse to ask to be witnesses, particularly when they may have been in some degree compromised by their association with others, declares that the failure of a defendant in a criminal action to request to be a witness shall not create any presumption against him.

FindLaw has other good stuff as well, including a section they call "Tech Deals", with such gems as the agreement between PriceLine and Williams Shatner.

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