In Defense of Wainwright

I spent a lot of time in my Criminal Procedure classes being frustrated with the criminal justice system. The system still allows for mistreatment of racial and ethnic minorities, treats the poor more harshly than the rich, and puts people in jail with little meaningful recourse. However, there was one thing in habeas corpus cases that did create a ton of confusion for me that might be surprising given my general beliefs about the world and about law enforcement.

I never spent much time thinking about the parties in Gideon v. Wainwright, the most important case for what I want to do with my future. Everyone vaguely familiar with criminal law knows the story of Clarence Earl Gideon, the indigent man accused of a burglary who requested that the court provide him with a lawyer because he was too poor to afford one. When the court denied his request he eventually took his case to the Supreme Court with a handwritten letter. He said that his right to counsel was denied. (Spoiler alert: He wins, and now there are Public Defender / Legal Aid systems throughout the country to provide counsel for indigent people accused of crimes).

But what of Wainwright? In most court cases, the petitioner accuses the respondent of some wrongdoing. States aren’t allowed to be sued by individuals thanks to sovereign immunity. When states are sued, the nominal entry is usually the head of the department being sued. In this case, the nominal entry was Louie L. Wainwright. Wainwright was the Secretary of the Florida Division of Corrections from 1962 to 1987. The problem that I have is that Wainwright did nothing to wrong Gideon. In his official capacity, Wainwright could do nothing to remedy Gideon’s situation. More importantly, there are players who have a less tenuous connection to the case.

There was a police officer who wrongly arrested him, a prosecutor who tried his case, and a judge who denied his request to have a lawyer. Each of these people, in their official capacity could have prevented Gideon from going to jail. Each of these people, in their official capacity could be considered to be at fault. Where this makes the most sense would be to have the judge listed as the nominal entry in the Supreme Court case. The police officer and prosecutor, who affected his trial as it related to his innocence of the crime, have nothing to do with why he was heard by the Supreme Court, namely a 6th amendment violation. The trial court judge, who denied Gideon’s request for a lawyer, was the person most connected to the petitioner’s grievance. Wainwright didn’t even hold the position when Gideon was first convicted. Wainwright didn’t get the job until July of 1962 over a year after the burglary happened.

The question is why does it matter? Wainwright probably didn’t lose any sleep over this, and the Gideon case wasn’t the only case where he was listed as a party. I do find it interesting that defense-minded law students look at this case every year and don’t even think about the respondent. It certainly seems mildly unjust that a person having nothing to do with why Gideon was in jail is listed on the case. It seems unjust that a case that deals with one of the major injustices of criminal law has a respondent who didn't create or perpetuate it. It matters because even Louie L. Wainwright deserves some defense.

24 lyrics from my 24th year

I did a post similar to this one last year. I listen to a lot of music, and great lyrics are important to me. This post serves partially as a way of telling the story of how my last year went, from my 23rd to my 24th birthday. It also gives me an opportunity to talk about songs, albums and mixtapes that were released within the last year that I haven’t had a chance to blog about. Also, the normal curse word caveats appear here. I’m not censoring a word of the lyrics, and the N-word is featured prominently throughout.

“I woke up this morning and figured I'd call you
In case I'm not here tomorrow, I'm hoping that I can borrow A piece of mind, I'm behind on what's really important
My mind is really distorted, I find nothing but trouble in my life”
-Kendrick Lamar (Sing about me, I’m dying of thirst)

The opening bars from the first verse of “Sing about me, I’m dying of thirst” are the best way to describe how my last year went. After a tumultuous previous year, I searched for peace of mind. Because of a lot of life changes (single for the first time as an adult, leaving home, moving from Springfield Gardens, NY to Boulder, CO., starting law school) I had to rediscover myself. Also, since I won’t mention Kendrick Lamar for the rest of this post, “Good kid, Maad City” was a very enjoyable album. Other than the small problem of the songs, “The Recipe” and “Black Boy Fly” only showing up in the deluxe version, the album is amazing.

"Just got word from my mans on the island, he said he needed guidance
Niggas on the streets is wilding, he look to God but can't find him
So he demand silence from the glaring sirens
The sympathy symphony, only thing playing is the banned violence"
- Joey Bada$$ (Hardknock)

Last summer a lot of people reached out to me to discuss rap music. One of the best things to come out of these conversations was that one of my classmates said I should listen to a kid named Joey Bada$$. I wasn’t excited at first. Joey Bada$$ sounds like a name a kid in junior high school comes up with. I decided to listen to the song anyway and I was glad that I did. It had a nice throwback boom-bap beat. I ended up downloading and enjoying the mixtape “1999”. 

"So as you hear me dropping this rhyme
Know my opportunity could've been stopped at a dime
The life you choose come from lack of options sometimes
Gotta do what you gotta do, even opt into crime
And who am I? Without name-dropping it, I'm
Someone who saw the top and didn't stop, he just climbed" 
– Fabolous(Transformation)

The last year has been amazing to me. I’ve been doing public defender work and I love it. Last year around this time I struggled with my decision to do public defender work and not switch to something that paid more. Public defender work is more rewarding and I do it because I love it.

"They say a woman cancel dates ‘cause she has to
And a man cancel dates ‘cause he has two
Well, I got two dates, one with destiny
I need more, baby, don’t think any less of me"- Fabolous (Only Life I Know)

Fabolous’s mixtape “The Soul Tape 2” is amazing by the way. Fabolous’s music is generally pretty solid, and the fact that the Soul Tape 2 is free helps.

"And I try, sit alone and I cry
Yo I won't tell no lie, not a moment goes by
That I don't pray to the sky, please I'm beggin’ you God
Please don't let me be pigeonholed in no regular job
Yo I hope you can hear me homey wherever you are
Yo I'm tellin’ you dawg I'm bailin’ this trailer tomorrow
Tell my mother I love her, kiss baby sister goodbye
Say whenever you need me baby, I'm never too far
But yo I gotta get out there, the only way I know
And I'mma be back for you, the second that I blow
On everything I own, I'll make it on my own" - Eminem (8 mile)

I still struggle with the decision to leave NY, even though I know that it was for the best. There were a lot of unintentional benefits to leaving NY. I got to see the world through a new lens. 

“Con los Terroristas... Do the Harlem Shake” - Baauer (Harlem Shake)

I loved the Harlem Shake videos. Mostly, because I always enjoy funny videos, but also because I love the song. I didn’t get the racial backlash for two reasons. First, the original Harlem Shake was a fad that was dead. Performing the original Harlem Shake in 2012 would have gotten you laughed out of any club (unless it was done to be intentionally ironic I suppose). Second, I strongly doubt that most of the people who made the Harlem Shake videos (based on Baauer’s song) had any idea of what the Harlem Shake was, or even particularly cared. No one listens to Welcome to the Jungle by Jay-Z and thinks of it as disrespectful of the original song.

“Sean you looking tired, damn homie that’s all
I’ve been stressin’ so hard I’m surprised I ain't going bald
Haters praying I fall, move back in with my moms
Take online classes and turn back into ya’ll, hatin’ ” - Big Sean (100)

“I’m just a Detroit nigga, nothing extra about me
I go extra hard at the first second you doubt me
I strive for perfection at the same time
I’m accepting the fact that there’ll never be nothing perfect about me”
- Royce Da 5’9 (100)

Big Sean’s an artist I really enjoy. To be fair, I pretty much like everyone under the G.O.O.D. Music umbrella. His Detroit mixtape was a feel good record.

"I'm gonna be everything I wanna be So I'm gonna be what I wanna be And say, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be I'm gonna, I'm, I'm gonna be" – Big Sean (I’m gonna be)

Another catchy song on Big Sean’s Detroit mixtape. I’m very excited about Big Sean’s new LP coming this summer.

"And it's God fearing, foreign car steering
60 thou Chopard wearing, just beat a trial hearing
You should catch me walking cocky out the courtroom (diddy bopping!)
Like eat my dust, a buck 40 for the Porsche zoom (ZOOOOOOOOOM!)
Back in population (what else?) We cop drops to race 'em (BALLIIIING!)
We getting money over here WHAT'S YOUR OCCUPATION?!?!" - Jim Jones (Reppin Time)

Is it possible to listen to Reppin Time and not feel better afterwards? I didn’t think so.

“I don’t never feel pain, cause I done felt too much pain” - Future (Pain)

I love the chorus to Pain. I hope that My Name is My Name, Pusha T’s debut album is as good as I expect it to be. Wrath of Caine, Pusha T’s recent mixtape, wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. Not that it was bad, it just was mediocre. Nothing special. Given my love for the Clipse’s previous catalogue I’m rooting for the album. 

"No joke, blow smoke, thought I had no hope
Then I copped the yacht guess I showed boats!
Yeah, guess I showboat
Catch me on a water baby, that's how hope floats" - Cam’ron (You Know This)

See, because he has a yacht, he’s showing his boat. But he’s bragging about it, like showboating. Get it? But seriously, sometimes lines don’t require explanation, but corny jokes can sometimes be just as funny. Thanks Cam’ron for adding levity to my life. This song was a nice way to “start the year off right”.
“Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta, Shield”- The Shield’s opening theme makes me just as happy as any song does. Ryback, not as much.

"And I ain't too proud to tell you That I cry sometime, I cry sometimes about it
And girl I know it hurt, but if this world was perfect
Then we can make it work but I doubt it" - J.Cole (Lost Ones)

We all have regrets. I didn’t listen to the Sideline Story when it first came out but I’m glad I came back to it. My friend had me listen to the song “Lost Ones” and it was amazing.

“(I know one thing) Anything is better than that 1 Train” – A$AP Rocky

I could complain about the problems that Boulder, Colorado has, but even on the worst days out here, it still beats the long subway rides from Queens to Manhattan. Also, this posse cut by A$AP, Joey, Kendrick Lamar and others was amazing and the highlight of A$AP Rocky’s debut album.

“R.I.P. R.I.P. R.I.P. R.I.P. R.I.P. we just killed the club” - Young Jeezy

I spent a lot of Saturday nights on Pearl Street. One of the joys of being single.

“I sleep with one eye open like an insomnia-stricken Cyclops
Cause I could rest in that pine box” -Crooked I (Slaughterhouse 20 Minute Freestyle)

“Brave move trying test my resolve
with no grind. Come Showtime I'm like Dexter to y'all
Just based off what I'm hearing from the rest of New York
Quite honestly I should be the best by default”
- Joe Budden (Slaughterhouse 20 Minute Freestyle)

I think I listened to this freestyle every day on the way to work for about a month. Everyone in the Slaughterhouse conglomerate put in quality verses. Just talking about Crooked I’s bars, my insomnia has gotten much better. Before I never went to sleep before 12 and often went to sleep at 2, 3 and often closer to 5. Much of that was stress based. Now, I’m falling asleep at (around) 10 PM. My sleeping habits aren’t great, but it’s much better to be asleep when everyone else is. In reference to Budden’s work, I’m a huge fan of the Dexter line.

“Your pops wasn’t no gangster, he was just another lost nigga
You think it’s gangster to let a mother love that dope more than her daughter?
Shoot a father from his son and turn around and put that boy on the corner?
Or leave your son out here alone to fend for himself, knowin he need order?
Is your money being long worth your lifespan bein shorter? Huh?”
– Loaded Lux (Loaded Lux v. Calicoe)

I’m a huge fan of these lines delivered by Loaded Lux. This isn’t from a song, but from a rap battle. In battle raps, a general theme is toughness. A lot of lines delivered are about violence, crime, and the perils of the neighborhood that he participants are from. To say that rap battles glamorize violence would be somewhat inaccurate, but violence and willingness to use violence are definitely used as a positive. In the last round of this battle, Loaded Lux flips that paradigm. Calicoe’s father is in prison and was a major drug lord. Calicoe’s often raps about that and has unquestionable “street cred” as a result of it. Lux, rather than try to show that he’s tougher than Calicoe, which would be the typical strategy in a rap battle, he questions whether we should view Calicoe’s father’s life as a positive. Now, it was in the course of a battle, and the lines were used more to win the battle, than to prove a point, but they are something to think about. Lux was viewed as having beaten Calicoe decisively in that round.

“I’m the man little do they know, little do they know” - King L (Val Venis)

Hello Ladies! 2012 had a lot of one verse songs that were catchy. My favorite one was this one that referenced an Attitude Era wrestler with a funny gimmick. The chorus, mentioned here is simple and great at the time. I also remember listening to this song along with Love Sosa by Chief Keef and All Gold Everything, when I came back to New York and had an opportunity to hang out with a couple of friends. None of those songs are good lyrically, but they are outside of my usual taste in rap music and the songs were more fun than good in a typical sense.

If I got to choose a coast I got to choose the East
I live out there, so don't go there
But that don't mean a nigga can't rest in the West
- Notorious B.I.G. (Goin Back to Cali)

DLB in SPG. (The SPG stands for Springfield Gardens, the neighborhood in New York City that I’m from.) The name isn’t going to change no matter where I live. Home is in the 718, no matter where I happen to live. On another note, this year, I spent a few months analyzing the N-word, reading internet articles, law review articles and cases about the (mis)use of the word. I don’t get excited about people using it when quoting rap lyrics and I planned to write a blogpost about it. I ended up writing a 20 page seminar paper. (Don’t ask for a copy, it’s not every good). Essentially, people have argued that because the word appears in rap music, that it’s acceptable to use the word. Seeing it in cases has affected my thoughts about people using the word. I don’t care if someone uses it, but I completely understand if other people care.

“Wobble baby, wobble baby, wobble baby, wobble” - V.I.C. (Wobble)

Before this year, I hadn’t heard this song. I found myself dancing to it a lot, an insane amount really. 

“I got the big beat”-  Billy Squier (The Big Beat)

Until otherwise notified, Billy Squier is the Genghis Khan of rap music. In the same way that Khan’s genetics passed throughout all of Asia, this song has been sampled and interpolated for an insane amount of songs and freestyles including Hip Hop is Dead by Nas, 99 problems by Jay-Z, Jackin for Beats by Ice Cube and Ain’t No Half Steppin by Big Daddy Kane. It’s also the background music for the 2011 XXL Freshman cyphers.
I found myself looking through the digital crates listening to the samples used in rap songs. One of my favorite Spotify playlists is “Kanye West Samples” (Here’s one for example-  Rick Ross voice). I listened to so many great songs as a result of that expedition. Otis Redding, Curtis Mayfield and King Crimson coexist perfectly here.

“You float like a feather In a beautiful world I wish I was special You're so fucking special

But I'm a creep I'm a weirdo What the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here” - Radiohead (Creep)

Fun Fact: The first time I heard this song was... this year. Creep came out 20 years ago. One of the perks of being in Boulder is how much more diverse my musical tastes are. I now have the opportunity to listen to more types of music. Still, my tastes lead to mostly rap music, but it’s nice to have options.

“But I'm here for a greater purpose, I knew right from the start
I'm just a man of the people, not above but equal
And for the greater good I walk amongst the evil
Don't cry mama, this the life I choose myself
Just pray along the way that I don't lose myself” – J. Cole (Let Nas Down)

J.Cole’s verse in “Let Nas Down” was amazing, as most of J. Cole’s new album is.  He has a lot of songs that have incredible density. The reason I’m using these lines to end my post should be self explanatory.
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Honorable mention:
“So I typed a text to a girl I used to see Sayin' that I chose this cutie pie with whom I wanna be And I apologize if this message gets you down Then I CC'ed every girl that I'd see-see 'round town” - Outkast (Int’l Players Anthem)
“You wanna battle me? I'll battle you and shatter your dreams I said ‘what up’, he said ‘what up’ I took your girl so ‘what up’ The crowd screamed, he threw the towel man enough is enough Now I'm on my way, it's a beautiful day Sun shining on my back man what more can I pray” - Jay Electronica (I Feel Good)
“I can't go home, it's not on my way” - Elliot Smith (L.A.)
"6 months, and I'm still at it You'll probably never hear this track but I still rapped it I guess I'm still attracted to you being here I swear I can't imagine you would not even care Whole thing played out like magic and it’s kinda weird It's like I did a trick and you won't reappear It ain't fair, I need you back sometimes I get scared But I'm a player, ain't gonna let you see my tears" - Joey Bada$$ (PennyRoyal)
“ Work, Work, Work, Work, Bounce” -Pop That French Montana
I'm haunted by horror stories, wanna-be home owners Horrible outcome, a dope boy got one motive Cries when he convicted, cried on every visit I'm cryin' sayin' his name, ride for all my niggas - Rick Ross (Millions)
For my theme song
My leather black jeans on
My by-any-means on
Pardon, I'm getting my scream on  - Kanye West (Black Skinhead)

Where "Writing Cogently About Sports" Happens

 

Mike Lupica, Filip Bondy, Bill Gallo, Mighty Quinn

When it comes down to it, when I first started to really care about sports, these were the people whose eyes that I viewed sports through. I would pick up the NY Daily News and rush to the back so I could read Lupica and Bondy's columns. I'd check for Gallo's sports cartoons. I'd glance at Quinn's betting lines and short non-sequiturs. When I was too young to follow every sporting event on my own, I'd read the Daily News in the morning afterward and figure out what happened. My favorite column was Lupica's Shooting from the Lip. In the weekly column he'd write a page and a half about some major article and then complete the page with a short remarks about different sports events from the week. Before I was able to listen to ESPN's podcasts, or check out the blogs of my favorite teams that was my way of finding out what happened and getting some commentary on the topic.

Now, I write about sports. I try to do it every week but I'm a law student first and law school and the other events of my early 20's come first. This season I've written 13 posts about the NBA. My idea when this season started was to talk about the future schedule. A lot of my friends have some interest in basketball, but they don't know a ton about the impending stories. The friends that I have that are sports addicts like I am are often too busy to check what games are going to be good before they happen. What I wanted to do was provide an place for showing what games in the coming week would be worth watching and explain, in some way or another, why they would be worth paying attention to.

A fellow law student came to me and said that I "write cogently about sports". In a lot of ways, that response is all I could ask for. I get about a dozen hits a week, so the blog isn't exactly ESPN, but I've been writing on this blog for almost 5 years now, and a dozen hits per article is more than I could ask for. More importantly, people have come to me to discuss the things that I've written about. It's meant a lot to me and I'm incredibly grateful for everything. I've found my voice. I don't see myself as providing the same level or quality of service that Lupica once gave me, but hopefully, people who come across my blog get something out of it. Thanks to all of the people who help me with my posts, help me find weaknesses in my arguments before they enter the internet, and to the person who read my blog back when no one else did. Thanks for reading.