If you want to know where many unconstitutional weapons laws actually come from, do not bother digging through crime data or history books. Just watch a musical. Enter West Side Story. A beautifully crafted, emotionally manipulative stage and film production from Bernstein and Sondheim. Tragic. Romantic. Memorable. Also fictional. That part mattered to everyone except lawmakers. Legislators across the country watched a stylized gang melodrama, dried their tears and promptly went to work banning objects. Switchblade knives, in particular. Not because of statistics. Not because of real world trends. Because a movie made them feel something. Italian stilettos were suddenly public enemy number one. Yes, they opened fast. So what. If speed were the issue, a fixed blade hunting knife would have ended the battle much sooner. But logic does not test well in legislatures. And legislators, as it turns out, do not take intelligence exams. They pose for cameras, shake hands and smile w...

After a run of high-profile cases where I helped clear people falsely accused of serious violent crimes, I crossed paths with a man headed straight for death row. It was the fall of 1989. The crime was unspeakably cruel. He had not yet been convicted. He begged me to take his case and conduct a defense investigation. The problem was simple and brutal. The evidence against him was overwhelming. He already had a public defender and a full investigative team. His criminal history ran for pages. The media had branded him “The Devil.” That was not hyperbole. That was the headline. He called me from the jail, and later from death row, at least two dozen times. I never treated the calls as an annoyance. I listened every time. My answer never changed. There was nothing to impeach. No loose thread. No unexplored lead. No alternate theory that survived contact with the evidence. I watched his case climb the appellate ladder year after year. Nothing improved. In modern capital litigation, tim...

The Steven Steinberg Case and the Lawyer Who Rewrote Reality.  In 1982, Arizona pulled off a legal magic trick that would be funny if it were not so grotesque. Steven Steinberg stabbed his wife, Elana Steinberg, twenty six times. Not once. Not twice. Twenty six. He admitted it. And then he walked. No plea bargain. No prison. No hospital commitment. Just a courtroom exit and a lesson in how far a jury can be pushed if the story is slick enough. Welcome to State v. Steven Steinberg, the case that forced Arizona lawmakers to admit they had created a monster. THE FACTS THAT NEVER CHANGED On January 15, 1981, inside a Scottsdale home, Steven Steinberg killed his wife with a kitchen knife. Police found no intruder. No defensive wounds suggesting mutual combat. No evidence pointing anywhere else. Steinberg did not deny the killing. He claimed he could not remember it. This was never about who did it. It was about how badly the defense could blur responsibility. ENTER THE LAWYER The archit...

  Rob Reiner had talent. Real talent. Once upon a time, he made people laugh instead of lecturing them. That version of Rob Reiner was worth celebrating. Then he became angry. Loudly angry. Permanently angry. For ten straight years, his public identity narrowed to one obsession. Smear Trump. Repeat. Reload. Do it again tomorrow. It wasn’t clever. It wasn’t brave. It was tedious. And eventually, it poisoned the well. When the ranting began, I stopped watching. Not out of protest. Out of exhaustion. America treated Rob Reiner extraordinarily well. He lived the dream most people never touch. And yet he spoke as if the country had personally wronged him. That kind of bitterness is hard to sell as moral clarity. The phrase “shut up and sing” was never about silencing anyone. It was a warning. If you turn art into scolding, the applause will stop. Reiner ignored that warning. He was wealthy enough to ignore it. I don’t mourn his death. That doesn’t make me heartless. It makes me hon...

Nick Reiner’s name detonated into public consciousness overnight. Police allege he stabbed his parents, Rob Reiner and Michelle Singer Reiner, to death. Investigators say the forensic evidence is heavy and unavoidable, including substantial blood evidence was recovered. Attention quickly turned to who would defend a young man now facing the full weight of a California murder prosecution. Many were surprised when attorney, Alan Jackson appeared on his behalf.  Jackson is no rookie. He is a longtime criminal defense attorney and a former Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney. His résumé includes prosecuting one of the most notorious homicide cases in modern history: the Phil Spector trials. After an initial mistrial and a retrial, Spector was convicted of murdering actress Lana Clarkson. Despite defense claims involving suicide or negligent handling of Spector’s Colt revolver, Spector was sentenced to prison, where he later died. Alan Jackson does not come cheap. As of now, the...