Welcome to the brand new Habeas Corpus Blog!
Your one-stop internet location for news on habeas corpus . . .
I think that it is important, right from the beginning, to explain what I intend to do on this blog. I am a criminal defense practitioner. Obviously, that will be my perspective here. But I do not intend to write this blog in a way that will just appeal to criminal defense practitioners. Obviously, for this to truly be a legal and helpful blog, it will have to have some technical posts that will only appeal to lawyers.
Nonetheless, I intend to write my posts using language that will allow people without any familiarity with habeas law to follow along. To facilitate that, I have developed a Habeas Corpus FAQ page that appears in the right hand column. I will refer to those FAQs in my posts where I think it would help the reader to gain some understanding of what I am discussing. It has always been my belief that non-lawyers should be familiar with how the courts operate. Federal habeas proceedings are a good vehicle to see how they work.
Substantively, I think the main goal will be to follow developments in habeas corpus law that affect state prisoners filing federal habeas corpus petitions under 28 U.S.C. ยง 2254. Since I practice in New York, this blog will initially focus exclusively on cases in (1) the federal district courts in New York, (2) the Second Circuit (the federal appeals court that covers New York) and (3) the United States Supreme Court. If I get adventurous, I may expand the focus to courts beyond those. But that will be down the road. Nevertheless, if I hear about an interesting decision from somewhere else around country, I may take the time to mention it.
Developments in habeas law will include not only court decisions, but also recently filed petitions. As best I can, I will discuss recently filed petitions of interest. In this regard, readers should feel free to forward me petitions that they have filed. Also, keep in mind that, unless you indicate otherwise, any words sent in an e-mail could end up in the blog post. Similarly, if a litigant receives a decision and wants me to talk about it, please send it along.
There will be other things that appear on this blog. I do have some opinions about habeas corpus law that I intend to share. If there is also something interesting out there that relates to habeas corpus law, such as an article or a book, I will try to mention it. I intend to try to personalize the blog with stories about my own experience with habeas law. I know, in the abstract, that sounds pretty dull. But I promise I will do my best to make these stories worth reading.
What does it all mean? I find habeas corpus to be interesting. I also believe that it is critically important in ways that I will discuss over time. I hope that visitors to this blog will enjoy reading about this unusual and complicated area of law.
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