Criminal Law Library Blog

[From an article by Tony Mauro in the January 29, 2008 issue of Legal Times]

“One way to get a rise out of usually reticent federal judges is to ask them about the sentencing mess — and particularly, the Supreme Court’s role in muddying the waters with a series of difficult-to-follow sentencing decisions since the beginning of this century. Frustration and anger will often spew forth.”

“U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf of the District of Nebraska channeled that frustration into a remarkable David Letterman-style Top 10 list, just published along with articles by other judges in the inaugural online companion to the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law. Kopf, a 1992 appointee of President George H.W. Bush, writes that he devised the list ‘with tongue partly in

[From “The History of an American Obsession: The Lie Detectors” by Ken Alder.]

“Despite this warning, the search for Momus’s window has continued down the centuries. The Greeks developed a science of physiognomy to assess people’s character from their facial features and gestures. On the assumption that anxious deceivers generated less saliva, uspected liars in ancient China were asked to chew a bowl of rice and spit it out. Judges in India scanned for curling toes. One pious Victorian physician suggested that God had endowed human beings with the capacity to blush so as to make their deceptions apparent. Today, you can pick up the basics of body language for a few bucks on almost any library resale

table – ‘Who’s Lying to You and Who’s Lusting for You!’ – along with guides for potting tricksters when you travel abroad. Popular manuals, updated with the latest findings of neuroscience, advise you how to track the eye movements and hand gestures of your spouse, boss, and stockbroker.