A Book by 2 Defense Lawyers

choi

David Lat, A Few Good Defense Lawyers; Beware of clients who ask if your fee includes a bribe to the judge—and other best-practice tips from the country's top defense attorneys. Wall Street Journal, Apr 11, 2013
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 58181682097130.html
(book review on Mark Geragos and Pat Harris, Mistrial: An inside look at how the criminal justice system works . . . and sometimes doesn't. Gotham, 2013)

a whole paragraph of the review: "The reality is that we live in a time of historically low crime rates. Violent crime and property crime both dropped by more than 60% between 1993 and 2011, and opinion polls show that public confidence in the criminal-justice system increased dramatically over the same period. Even so, the system is far from perfect, especially in its treatment of indigent or minority defendants, who often lack the resources to fight back against overzealous prosecutors and dishonest police officers. (The authors describe a phenomenon they call 'police memory syndrome,' or 'PMS'; even if a crime took place a long time ago, 'a police officer under the spell of PMS will be able to magically fill in all the gaps in the prosecution's case.')"

My comment:
(a) I shighlight this paragraph, not because police are more prone to lie on the stand. But when government employees lie, it is pretty bad.
(b) The review mentions "thumbnail sketches of living clients."

thumbnail (n): "the nail of the thumb"; (adj): "brief; cursory,"
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/thumbnail