Juliet is “not yet fourteen” In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Lady Capulet says her daughter is “not yet fourteen.” Juliet was two weeks from her fourteenth birthday. “Ready for marriage,” her mother said. After all, Lady Capulet says, she was already a mother at that age. Though we never are told her lover Romeo’s age, it’s apparent… Read More »Romeo and Juliet Law: Minnesota Sex Crimes Based On Age
Do you remember the story about Jesus as defense lawyer for the woman accused of adultery? What can we learn about criminal law from the story of Jesus and The Adulterous Woman? (It’s in John, Chapter 8 of the New Testament.) We can learn about what criminal defense lawyers do. And we can learn about the laws of evidence;… Read More »Jesus as Defense Lawyer: The Woman Accused of Adultery
Do you think little or a lot about self-defense? Either way, you’ll live a better life when you consider self-defense from two perspectives: the practical and the legal. The different schools of self-defense training agree on many things. Similarly, the law of self-defense agrees in many ways across jurisdictions, cultures, even history. And though practical self-defense… Read More »Escalation, Dominance, Deception in Self-defense
1970s partial decriminalization of marijuana; the loophole In 1976, Minnesota decriminalized possession of a “small amount” of marijuana. Or did it? Minnesota has only partially decriminalized a small amount of marijuana. Why partially? Minnesota’s decrim law applies to plant-form only. But the law left a loophole for “the resinous form of marijuana,” still a felony. And the “resinous form” comes in many forms, under many names. These… Read More »Minnesota’s Incomplete Marijuana Decriminalization – Resinous Form Exception
Self-defense and The Other: Self-defense is a legal defense to certain criminal charges in Minnesota. A defendant can plead self-defense when facing charges of: assault, murder, and disorderly conduct, among others. It is not a bright-line sort of law. If it were, the law would be easier to apply; but justice and fairness would suffer. Instead, the… Read More »Self-defense and The Other
Has the time come to remove marijuana from Minnesota’s Schedule 1 of the Minnesota Controlled Substances Act? Here is an explanation of why; and how we can. The Minnesota Controlled Substances Act is Minnesota Statutes Chapter 152. And it is similar to the Federal Controlled Substances Ac, 21 United States Code Sections 801 et seq. After all, they both… Read More »Removing Marijuana from Minnesota’s Schedule 1 Law
