Probable Cause

I like to write about things that I know about and try to avoid writing about things that I don’t know about, unless (as is sometimes the case) I’m using the writing to boost my knowledge.  Writing is one of the ways I use to learn.

As a law student, I assisted — was considered “second chair” — on what are called in California “special circumstances” trials.  These are trials where the death penalty is one possible outcome.  Subsequently, as an attorney, I have handled one — and only one — special circumstances case.  Death was off the table, though, within two or three weeks of my coming onto the case.  (We ultimately settled the case, which involved confessions and the prior assistance of my client, leading the police to potential evidence, for a 28-year determinate sentence.  While my client’s family wasn’t happy and stiffed me on the remainder of the bill, my client was more than happy to trade death, or even life without possibility of parole, for the offer.)

In short, I don’t know much about death penalty cases.  I don’t, for example, know why we, the People, kill people to demonstrate that killing people is wrong.  I understand even less why we, the People, think killing an innocent person would demonstrate that killing people is wrong.

And thus I normally don’t write about such things.

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JDSupra, as I mentioned in a previous post, allows me to “showcase” some of my work.  So I’ve been going back through some of my old briefs I’ve written, deleting identifying information so as not to publicize my clients’ names, and posting to JDSupra. This post is about one of those motions.

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Like about a bazillion other people, I’ve often wondered why we kill people to show that killing people is wrong.

Not surprisingly, the political beliefs of those in power have a lot to do with it.  But I was a bit surprised to learn that neither the severity of the crime, nor the race of the individual, mattered as much as the level of education of the convicted individual.

On June 27, 2008, a terrible tragedy occurred. Of that, there can be no doubt. Three people are dead.

According to reports, a father and his two sons were on their way home, when another car tried to get around them. Dad tried to back up and get out of the way of the other car, so as to let it pass. The people in the car, however, were so angry, so upset, so irritated that someone in the other car just opened fire, killing the father and his sons. A member of MS-13 was later arrested for the murders.

Mom wants the death penalty.

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