Joel Cohen

Prosecutors often deal with crime victims who do not want to testify. Victims are afraid they will be harmed by their abusers, such as victims of domestic violence. Others are embarrassed to testify in public and undergo brutal cross-examination, such as rape victims. Others are traumatized by the courtroom and...

George Zimmerman -- who, no one disputes, killed Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. -- has now been formally charged with second degree murder in a hearsay affidavit filed by special prosecutor Angela Corey. But there is a huge question whether Zimmerman actually murdered Trayvon, or rather committed...

For starters, I admit that I am writing on a tabula distant from my comfort zone. Perhaps the fact that my law practice doesn't implicate medical ethics and policy accords me greater freedom to opine about this.

Bone marrow transplants to treat leukemia are affecting more Americans than ever...

Pontius Pilate would have been proud of Haley Barbour. Pilate, the Roman procurator over Judea at the time of Jesus, pardoned Barabbas, a murderer/insurrectionist against Pilate's own authority (as the Gospel of Mark tells us), the most famous pardon in the history of the world. Barbour, the outgoing procurator (actually,...

O.J. Simpson, John DeLorean, Claus von Bulow and Casey Anthony. In each of these cases, the public (aroused to quick judgments by reporters and headline writers on deadline) would have convicted in a heartbeat. Still, each of these defendants was acquitted. How? How is it that those juries did not...

Jerry Sandusky already has been convicted by the media and the public of a series of atrocious sexual crimes against young boys committed over many years. He deserves no sympathy even if one-tenth of what is reported about him is true. He appears to be as bad a sexual predator...

Put aside Coach Paterno and the Nittany Lions for the moment. There's a much broader issue that the Penn State scandal highlights: What would you do under the same or similar circumstances? You, not a football icon or part of the football culture in Happy Valley, look out your window...

As Speaker of the House in the 1990s, Newt Gingrich was famous for his "Contract with America."  To some detractors, it was his contract "on America." His willingness to provoke has not ebbed. Now, he offers prosecution as his palimpsest.

As he boldly said during the October 11 Republican candidates...

Can a person go to jail without proof that he personally did anything wrong or even knew about any wrongdoing? Prosecutors typically charge corporate officials with business-related felonies and allege that the corporate officer knowingly and intentionally committed the crime. It's tough enough to defend against that charge, even though...

Are There Limits To What The Government Should Be Doing?

Governor Cuomo didn't necessarily relinquish his role as Attorney General on the day he was sworn in as the governor of New York. Rather, his executive actions as governor bear a resemblance to the Spitzer model...

In July, 2011, Levi Aron allegedly kidnapped, killed and dismembered the body of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky in Brooklyn -- as horrific a crime as exists, and one reported throughout the world. We use the term "allegedly" as a matter of form. As reported, Aron confessed. What lawyer would...

On August 19, three convicted murderers in West Memphis, Arkansas, had their convictions, under which they had served 18 years, thrown out -- only to plead guilty to murder, be sentenced to time served and be released from jail, all the while telling the judge and the rest...

Assume that everything Nafissatou ("Nafi") Diallo alleges that Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) did to her is true:  that he rushed at her, grabbed her, tried to rape her, and forcibly compelled her to give him sex. And shortly after, she made a criminal complaint against him. For sure there are questions about...

Ramadan looms on the immediate horizon. The Jewish High Holidays are scheduled to begin shortly thereafter. It is certainly a pensive time for many of the variously faithful across the globe.

Some bemoan "once-a-year Jews," whose synagogue connections are limited to paying dues and filling pews on Rosh Hashana...

The dust has begun to settle on the Casey Anthony saga. She has been released from prison, having been acquitted on the capital murder charge. The public will continue to believe that the jury is dumb -- the man on the street "knows better" -- and that she is guilty...

The case appears to be over. Dominique Strauss-Kahn will return to France a free man and be acclaimed for his triumph over the egregious elements of so-called U.S. legal justice. In fact, he may even be guilty of a violent attack on a hotel chambermaid. But that doesn't reallyt matter...

At 1:30 p.m. this Wednesday, June 15th, in the Thomas Eagleton Federal Courthouse in St. Louis, Missouri, an appeal will be argued before three judges on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in one of the most bitterly contested and controversial criminal trials in many years. The appeal...

The circus surrounding the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK, as the French call him) for allegedly sexually assaulting a chambermaid in his Manhattan hotel has begun to subside. He has been indicted by a grand jury, is at liberty under extremely rigorous bail conditions, and faces serious felony charges that...

Vinny "Gorgeous" Basciano has just been convicted of racketeering and murder in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York and faces the death penalty. His conviction was based in large part on the testimony of one of the most powerful and nefarious "rats" ever to get on a...

Is our civil justice system at a breaking point? And, if so, is this why civil litigants, particularly plaintiffs, are opting away from the courthouse venue, simply unable to get to trial before everyone's hair turns gray (or things become more terminal)?

Good trial lawyers know how...