In Summation - The Final Word

Friend of the show Adam Uris returns to discuss the Waukesha, Wisconsin Christmas Parade Tragedy and ensuing prosecution of Darrell Brooks, the man who drove his red Ford Escape right through the parade.  Brooks killed 6 people and injured over 60 more. This episode touches on a number of really fascinating legal topics.  Paul and Adam discuss the difference between competency to stand trial and t...

In the 1950's and 60's, Lenny Bruce was a transformative figure in the world of comedy.  He was hip, brash, unfiltered, and...obscene?  His biting social commentary made some people uncomfortable, and many felt that the words he used violated certain laws which regulated speech which may have the tendency to corrupt or degrade morals. In this episode, Paul breaks down governmental interv...

A lot of listeners have asked In Summation to publish an episode on impeachment.  Paul thought it only fitting that episode 45 be the one to cover impeachment seeing as how our 45th president has the dubious distinction of being the most impeached president in American history. In this episode, Paul explains the historical background of impeachment, the circumstances in which it arises, why it has...

Does the death penalty work?  Does the threat of the death penalty work?  Is it a deterrent to murder or other serious crimes?  When and how does a person get put on death row? In this episode, Paul breaks down the unique case of Nikolas Cruz, the teenager who killed 17 people on Valentine's Day, 2018, at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.  There was no question that...

This is a unique episode for a number of reasons. First, this is the first case Paul has covered which is technically still ongoing.  There is hope that it may be brought to a just resolution in early 2023, but there is no way to know for certain just yet. Second, the fact pattern and procedural history of this case is more absurd than anything coming out of Hollywood. This is a longer monologue e...

Special Guest Adam Uris is back!  In this episode, Adam and Paul discuss The Preppy Murder, one of the most notorious trials in American history. In 1986 the body of recent high school graduate Jennifer Levin was found in Central Park. There was evidence that she had recently had intercourse and that she had been strangled.  The investigation quickly narrowed in on Robert Chambers, a 19 year old u...

No matter how successful someone becomes, there is always the chance of flying a little too close to the sun and having the heat melt the wax holding your makeshift wings together.  The same fate that befell Icarus happened to superstar celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti. Avenatti rose to national fame by representing some of the biggest names in celebrity.  Athletes, entertainers (adult and otherw...

Hello Listeners, In this installment of In Summation, Paul brings on special guest host Andrew Heaton of the Political Orphanage podcast to discuss the recent Supreme Court decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton. What ensues is a great conversation about the First Amendment, specifically the negative and positive rights associated with religious liberty in America.  Where is the line between accommodati...

In Summation is back!!!!  After a lengthy hiatus caused by a complex murder trial in New York we have finally returned to provide you with more insights into current legal issues, allowing you to amaze your friends and family with keen insights and deep knowledge. In this episode, we consider the case(s) of Merle Denezpi.  This was a Supreme Court case decided in the October 2021 term, so alongsid...

Sometimes, when we fulfill our commitment to abiding by the bill of rights, it means we end up protecting the rights of people to say or do things that make us uncomfortable.  Perhaps the greatest example of this is free speech.  It is incumbent on all citizens to ensure that speech remains free, but in doing that, it necessarily requires the average person to affirm the rights of people to say th...

Special Guest Episode! In this episode, Paul brings on seasoned sex crimes prosecutor and dynamic defense attorney (and wife) Sarena Townsend to discuss the RICO prosecution of R&B superstar R. Kelly. Wait...RICO?  Yes, RICO.  R. Kelly was accused of committing sex abuse and sex crimes in several states a in time period spanning roughly 20 years.  But rather than charge Kelly with the individu...

Welcome back, friends of the show.  In this episode, we look at the Breonna Taylor raid in Jefferson County, Kentucky.  We are NOT examining the officer who fired the shot which ultimately killed Taylor, that officer was never indicted.  However, another officer at the scene, Brett Hankison, discharged his firearm approximately 10 times through Taylors living room wall, into her neighbor's ap...

Hello friends of the show! This episode comes as a recommendation from my wife, Sarena, who thought it would be interesting to take a look at the first case in American history where the prosecutor used DNA evidence.  It turns out this was a fascinating case which took place in Florida (of course it did).  It involved the same prosecutor who tried the Casey Anthony case, and the defense attorney w...

In this episode, we look at whether words can kill someone in a very literal sense.  17 year old Michelle Carter encouraged her 18 year old boyfriend, Conrad Roy, to kill himself.  When Roy's body was discovered in his truck filled with toxic fumes, the investigation uncovered that Carter had been pushing Roy to kill himself for weeks, and was ordering Roy to end his own life as he was potent...

Virtually  every adult in the United States is familiar with their Miranda rights.  Our culture is obsessed with crime, we love movies and television shows about law enforcement and shady organizations which spar against federal agents. As a result, we have all become familiar with variations of the lines "you have the right to remain silent, anything you say can - and will - be used against...

WE ARE BACK!!!!! Apologies to all for the delay in episode publishing, I was on trial in federal court in a complex white-collar fraud and narcotics case.    But that's all over now and we are picking up right where we left off, discussing some of the biggest headlines in trial work and explaining a bit about who argued what and how effective it was. In this episode, we tackle the recent pros...

Recently, two very significant verdicts came down in trials that captured national attention. First, Kyle Rittenhouse was charged with multiple counts of murder for killing two people (and seriously injuring a third) during the Kenosha, Wisconsin protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.  Rittenhouse, a 17 year old armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, was with a local "militia,&quo...

The bombing of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was a watershed event of the mid 1990s.  It put an end to a national feeling of optimism and relief and served to remind the public at large that there were some people who were so vehemently opposed to the federal government, that they would become domestic terrorists.  Timothy McVeigh went from a decorated veteran to the man who...

Hi listeners, so many people have reached out regarding the  Korematsu episode commenting about how much they enjoyed having a co-host on to discuss the episode that we've done it again!  Forensic death investigator Joseph Scott Morgan joins Paul to discuss the California trial of Robert Durst.  Durst, a member of one of the richest New York City families was put on trial in California in the...

We typically think of Central and South American cartel leaders as men.  We're familiar with such infamous characters as El Chapo, Pablo Escobar, and more recently, El Mencho.  But if we take a serious look through history, we would see that it wasn't always a man's world.  While we tend to believe that the world of the Colombian cartels importing huge quantities of drugs into the U...

In 2018 Bill Cosby was convicted of sexual assault for drugging and molesting Andrea Constand in 2004.  In the summer of 2021, the Pennsylvania Court of Appeals not only reversed the conviction, but instructed the trial court and the Montgomery County DA that they were barred from brining this case to trial again. Typically, when an appeal results in the reversal of a conviction, it means that som...

Hello friends of the show! One my earliest and most consistent listeners, Yossi, has asked for a show on organized crime.  So naturally I dropped all the research I was doing on very interesting topics and decided to dedicate an episode to what he wanted to hear about. I can think of no better prototype for organized crime in the recent era than the Dapper Don himself, John Gotti.  Gotti embodied...

Political assassinations are an unfortunately  frequent occurrence in American history.  Fanatics and ideologues have felt compelled to kill public servants based on what they believed was required by their personal philosophical views at an alarming rate. In this episode, we examine the strange trial of Sirhan Sirhan, the man who murdered Senator Robert Kennedy at the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel...

Listener Feedback Episode! In this episode, Paul responds to a request from a listener who requested an analysis of a commerce clause case.  After giving the idea some thought, Paul began researching the curious case of Alfonso Lopez. Many of the Supreme Court cases which concern the commerce clause are civil in nature, but there have been a few criminal cases, and the federal prosecution of Alfon...

If you are new to the program, please go listen to Episode 11 before playing this one.  This is Part 2 of the saga of Steven Donziger. For those of you who already listened to Episode 11/Part 1 and need a quick refresher: Donziger is the human rights attorney who sued Texaco/Chevron Oil on behalf of the indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Amazon and ultimately won a judgment of roughly $8.6 BILLIO...