2017-12-01 20:53:50
Lawyer Exposes Court Bias Against Defendants from Rising Up With Sonali on Vimeo.
GUEST: Zoe Dolan, lawyer based in New York and Los Angeles, who focuses on federal criminal defense and representation in cryptocurrency and new technology projects. Her article on Medium is entitled Judges Run Amok: A Defense Lawyer's Story of Corruption and Manipulation in the Criminal Justice System.
BACKGROUND: The American criminal justice system is supposed to have built-in checks and balances and the idea of due-process and "innocent until proven guilty," are considered sacrosanct and uniquely American. But, in practice, we've all heard of cases where defendants were wrongfully convicted or sentenced to unreasonably long terms because they couldn't afford an expensive lawyer.
Now, an attorney who has served as a court-appointed lawyer has had a ring-side seat to how criminal cases play out in our courts and particularly how judges display bias. She has become a whistleblower and just self-published a lengthy piece about her experiences and her analysis of our system.
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