Sometimes it is interesting to follow up on old blog posts to see what, if anything has happened or changed. Understand, WC would take absolutely no credit for effecting change if there was a shred of evidence his efforts had been noticed, but as a semi-responsible blogger, checking out what happened later can be instructive to WC’s shrinking pool of readers.
Truth and All That
WC wrote a long screed back in October 2009 on Cook County politics and the efforts by the Cook County D.A. to intimidate the Center for Wrongful Convictions at my old law school and the Medill Innocence Project at Northwestern’s School of Journalism. Confronted with evidence of yet another wrongful conviction, the Cook County District Attorney subpoenaed the college kids’ records, all the way down to their class grades. The subpoena was eventually quashed by an annoyed Cook County judge.
But the backlash from the clumsy intimidation effort contributed to the Illinois Legislature’s decision to repeal the death penalty in Illinois. The proposed law has been passed by both the state senate and state house, and awaits action by the Ill. Governor Pat Quinn. WC is slightly hopeful.
Grand Jury Secrecy Stood on Its Head
Back in November 2010, WC posted on Siobhan Reynolds and her battles with Tanya J. Treadway, an Ass’t U.S. Attorney. Treadway, in WC’s view, had abused the grand jury subpoena power to intimidate and harass Reynolds and her Pain Relief Network. What made the process particularly frightening was that because the subpoena came from a grand jury, the whole proceeding was shrouded in secrecy. The briefing, the decisions; everything was secret. After Reynolds lost in the 10th Circuit, she appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari, refusing the hear the appeal. Reynolds is bankrupted by fines and sanctions. Her Pain Relief Network is shut down. WC thinks the bad guys won.
Picking on Nonprofits
Back in September 2010, WC noted that there seemed to be some kind of orchestrated campaign against nonprofit – more specifically, charitable – corporations. Even gasbag Rush Limbaugh had noticed nonprofits. WC defends charities as highly regulated, generally under-paid organizations that did the scummy work that made our society work. Their business records were largely public.
WC is cautiously pleased to report that the hubbub has died down. Perhaps cooler heads have prevailed.
The Big Lie and the Big Deficit
WC has railed several times about the lies and distortions that Republicans tell about the causes and cures of the deficit. The claim is that the Bush and Obama economic relief measures have bankrupted the government. The evidence is completely different. The Bush tax cuts and two land wars in Asia are the principle culprits.
Yet Congress passed and the President signed a two year extension of the tax cuts, and the Department of Defense budget continues to explode. It’s enough to discourage even the most optimistic blogger.
WC will continue to tilt at windmills. But WC had few illusions when he started and even fewer now that tilting at them would change anything.
Wickersham's Conscience 
Cervantes’ Don Quixote has long been a favorite of mine because of the need for us to be quixotic (to strive for visionary ideals). If we do not pursue our ideals, we are often left to the subjugation of our mere ideas. Ideas are fine, but they lack that sense of nobility or hope that the word ideal conjures up for us.
I have a soft spot for people who pursue ideals because they are the ones who see beyond, see what could be and what is best rather than just what is or what is just better. Our sense of what is possible and what reality is expands and contracts with our ability to see and seek the ideal.
Don Quixote has had an audience for the last 406 years for a reason. I think it is that we all, in our core self, want to manifest what is best over what is merely better. We all strive to rid the world of injustice, pain and cruelty – if only in our little corners of it. Our pragmatic ideas are better for the jousting with the ideal. We come a bit closer to our best selves when we believe we might attain our ideals.
I was drawn to the law because of my belief that it made possible a more humane and balanced world. I left the law when I realized it was only as effective as those who managed or manipulated it, and sadly, those who I continually interacted with were less than ideal – embracing money and power rather than justice or fairness (which are not the synonymous I discovered).
I still believe in the spirit of the law and am pleased when I hear of or meet people who seek to fulfill that spirit into the letter of the law. Sadly, though, they are far and few between with the majority of practitioners not even recognizing the difference. However, I like you have not given up. I still engage in windmill jousting from time to time, and enjoy the tussle because it has the possibility of bestowing the glow of the ideal upon the land. I come to your blog because I recognize someone else who has not given up, someone who still retains his sense of what is possible or what is ideal.
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I won’t even try to add to kssunflower’s comments, but please fix the link to your so-called “screed.” I’m getting “page not found.”
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Snark, the links works for WC. Word Press has been having issues the last couple of days. Reload the page and try again. If it doesn’t fix it, contact WC by email. Or use this link:
https://wickershamsconscience.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/truth-and-all-that/
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freshwatersnark,
If your problem persists, you may need to “do a Joe Miller” on your cache. Sometimes emptying the cache can eliminate the problem that seems peculiar to your attempts but is clearly not widespread, as WC gets on readily. Re-booting might also clear the difficulty as well. I run into this difficulty occasionally with some of the federal courts’ log-in systems.
Paul Eaglin
Fairbanks
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Thanks, WC, it works, and I read your “screed.” My Chicago cop story that I heard when I came here for law school around the same time: a guy was pulled over on Lake Shore Drive for speeding, and apologetically handed the cop a twenty, saying it was all he had. The soft-hearted cop gave him back ten in change. Where else can you get change for your bribes?
Obviously, a cop taking a bribe to overlook a petty offense is nothing compared to a police officer or prosecutor who destroys an innocent man’s life. That attack on the innocence project was shameful.
I have mixed feelings about repealing the death penalty. I think we can do without it, and one could argue that it is unavoidably biased against minorities with whom juries are less likely to identify and show clemency. Sadly, nobody pays attention to the gaping flaws in our criminal justice system except when they are about to result in an execution. Death is absolutely final, but it is often impossible to correct an unjust life sentence even with good evidence of innocence, let alone mere denial of due process. Post-conviction procedural requirements can be absolutely unforgiving of a prisoner’s or an attorney’s mistake. Without the drama of a pending execution to draw attention, I’m afraid it will all remain out of sight and out of mind.
[Paul, thanks, but I trust I wouldn’t “do a Joe Miller” for anything. :)]
Kevin
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While this is getting a bit far afield of the original post, would you believe that this is the actual advice that I got, and it sounds awfully like doing a Joe Miller on my cache. This is from the court techie person: “We suggest that you delete the temporary internet cache, cookies and any saved passwords on a very regular (perhaps daily) basis.”
Paul Eaglin
Fairbanks
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WC recommends you do this only on your computer, if at all; not on your colleagues’ computers. Alternatively, get an Apple Macintosh Computer, which is less prone to these kinds of glitches.
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