Norm Pattis
Norm Pattis is a criminal defense attorney and civil rights lawyer in Bethany. Most days he blogs at www.pattisblog.com.
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Prosecutors Dance Around Grand Jury Rules
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Wednesday, July 18, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
Am I alone in wondering whether federal prosecutors in Connecticut are abusing the grand jury process? When I discuss the issue with fellow members of the defense bar, folks get nervous. Blowing the whistle on Uncle Sam could hurt either them or their clients. Funny how the topic of grand jury abuse scares defense lawyers; it should scare prosecutors.
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University's Sins Will Enrich Lucky Law Firm
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Friday, July 13, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh's report on Penn State and Jerry Sandusky reads like the not-too-original account of a honeymoon: He said all the right things, and in just the right tone. There were even pictures, in the form of exhibits. I am sure the university spent millions of dollars for the effort. But it teaches nothing we did not already know.
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A Little Revolt In The Jury Room
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Friday, July 6, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
New Hampshire did something extraordinary the other day. The Granite State decided to take juries and the work they do seriously. As of Jan. 1, 2013, criminal defense lawyers will be permitted to inform juries that they are to determine not just the facts in a given prosecution, but whether the law has been correctly applied to the controversy at hand. In other words, New Hampshire has adopted jury nullification.
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No Reason For State To Pay Chimp Victim
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Friday, June 29, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
There really ought not to be two standards for what is fair, just and reasonable, one for the ordinary, run-of-the mill case, the other for cases in which the world is watching, struck dumb with pity. But lawyers for Charla Nash think otherwise.
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Two Deans Step Down From Very Different Schools
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Wednesday, June 27, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
I've never wanted to be the dean of law school. For that matter, I've never even wanted to teach at a law school either. I suppose that is a good thing, since no law school has ever wanted me to teach or lead by example. So much the worse for legal education, I say.
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Accusers Shouldn't Enjoy Presumption Of 'Victimhood'
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Friday, June 15, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
Call me an idealist, a dreamer, even a fool: I believe in the presumption of innocence. When a client stands presented to the world as a criminal, his reputation in tatters, his livelihood at risk, the presumption of innocence is all he has left. I wish the courts took it more seriously.
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Just Like Prison, But Without Bars
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Monday, June 11, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
The conventional wisdom holds that you do a client a great deal of good if you spare him a term behind bars. Prison and the loss of liberty is the great evil to be avoided in the criminal justice system. Rare is the individual who actually benefits from imprisonment; rarer still is the crime so heinous that prison is required. Yet we send folks to the slammer with the prim satisfaction of an accountant at tax time; we pretend to believe that justice is being done.
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In Dystopian Society, There Are No Sunny Days
Monday, June 4, 2012 | by Norm Pattis | The Connecticut Law Tribune
I have a confession: Kurt Vonnegut has been a dead key to me ever since I started to read both for pleasure and spiritual succor. I'd pick up a Vonnegut novel or story, start to read armed with the conviction that I was about to find something I had been missing. Then I would get distracted. I wrote him off as a breezy smart aleck.
