Happy Monday! Here are some legal links to check out today:
-A New Jersey-based federal district judge granted a sentence reduction request by an inmate serving his time at the Passaic County Jail, ruling that the conditions there are “shameful.” Judge Katharine Hayden made her decision after hearing about overcrowding, mold problems and toilets that stand only a few feet from where inmates eat. To all criminal lawyers out there: are there Maryland prisons that rise (or sink, really) to this level? Thanks to law prof Douglas Berman at the Sentencing Law and Policy Blog for the link; Berman calls the sentencing reduction “remarkable.”
-The Legal Profession Blog has a post about an Ohio judge suspended for his obnoxious courtroom behavior. I wonder if there are any predictors of which lawyers, once appointed or elected to the bench, will end up contracting black robe-itis? Does gender have anything to do with it? Age? Type of law practiced?
-Adam Liptak at The New York Times has a column about the serious dearth of minority lawyers at big firms. He doesn’t mention any of the Maryland firms, but I’ve looked at the numbers online (you can see for yourself by searching here) and can say that most of the firms here aren’t doing too well on diversity, either. In fact, of the ones I’ve looked at, most have not a single Hispanic lawyer. Is there any way for firms to rectify this?
-The ABA is calling for a death penalty moratorium.
-CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
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