As described in greater detail here, Professor Robert Weisberg of Stanford Law School will be delivering our annual Barrock Lecture on Criminal Law at 12:15 on Thursday. In anticipation of his visit, I’ve been reading a few of his recent law review articles. Here are my reflections on these works:
Weisberg on Dan Kahan (our 2008 Boden Lecturer)
Weisberg on restorative justice
Weisberg on proposed reforms for the sentencing provisions of the Model Penal Code
Many thanks to our September guests, Stephane Fabus and Michael Rust ’06. Our October guests will be Christopher Ehrfurth and Frank Daily ’68.
While awaiting trial on criminal charges in federal court, Michael Campbell wrote the following in a letter to the judge:
Your honor I am asking that John Taylor [Campbell’s court-appointed lawyer] be removed from my case. I am requesting that you appoint another lawyer to complete the process. If not I would like to proceed pro se.
As my Criminal Procedure students have heard me discuss at length, defendants do indeed have a Sixth Amendment right to represent themselves. Yet, Campbell’s request was not satisfied: Taylor continued to serve as his lawyer through the time of his trial and conviction. Campbell then raised the issue on appeal, but the Seventh Circuit nonetheless affirmed his conviction earlier this week (United States v. Campbell (No. 10-3002)). The court held, in effect, that Campbell should have renewed his request to go it alone, rather than sitting quietly throughout the trial as his lawyer continued to represent him.