Stranger in a Strange Land: ABA To Hold Session On The Cultural Defense

200px-AbalogoI will have the honor of serving as the moderator on a panel at the American Bar Association’s conference in Washington, D.C. today. The panel is entitled “Stranger in a Strange Land: Cross Cultural Issues in the Courts.” This is part of an internationally successful program organized by Judge Hon. Delissa A. Ridgway of U.S. Court of International Trade. Judge Ridgway has brought together jurists and lawyers from around the world to discuss difficult cultural issues that are increasingly appearing in criminal and civil cases. These cases deal with arguments or defenses that turn on the cultural norms or practices of a given defendant or litigant. The cases have forced the question of when and how courts should recognize such defenses.

I will be appearing at 9 am at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill with Judge Ridgeway, Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and Dr. Mark J. Mills, the renowned forensic psychiatrist.

We will be discussing some of the more difficult cases and allowing the audience to participate as a “jury” in voting on the use of the cultural defense in these different situations.

31 thoughts on “Stranger in a Strange Land: ABA To Hold Session On The Cultural Defense”

  1. @NickS

    I know. I don’t blame him a bit. As long as he keeps his mitts off my Irish Poems!
    And Parody Songs! Did you get the one from the other day, on the empty Orioles-White Sox game, which this is the 2.0 version of:

    Sneak Me Out Of The Ball Park???
    A Parody Song by Squeeky Fromm

    Sneak me out of the ball park!
    Sneak me out of here, pleeeeaaase!
    Just get me a jacket that’s made for flak!
    Let’s be safe and sneak out of the back!

    For it’s duck, duck, duck from the brick bats!
    And don’t let them hit your head!
    For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out. . .
    And you’ll wind up dead!

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  2. @NickS

    Oh, I am not losing any sleep over stuff that happens here. Except when I dream about Irish Poems or something like that. Some people are just like the one little sheep that is lost, and the shepherd goes out looking for it, even though he has 99 inside the sheep house, or whatever it is that sheep live in. Sooo, we need to have hope that one day that all the little lost lambs will come back home.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  3. Hundreds of people, trillions trekked west for a different life. That is an assumption, but apt. With all that migration came rules to rid their lives of horrors they experienced. So further west, more laws. Now those that stayed in those horrible places want to follow, but bring some of the horrors along.

    There was a simple economic reason for Mormon marriage law until you ask may I, a rich woman, marry more than one man? Now, just a minute, can’t have that. But now she can. She can marry one man for sure. How they’ll talk their way out of multiple husbands and wives being together because they love everybody will be a doozy. Hypocrisy will reign in everyone.

    So the camel’s nose, and the body, now live in the tent. Meanwhile, Trekkers coming west have cultural beliefs that require them to kill two people of one sex enjoying what we have deemed the right of the two participants. Perhaps that’s the idea behind taking our guns.

    I’m sorry, Professor Turley, but there is no longer an answer from law. Remember we only want no smoking on two-hour flights? While the Middle East is destroying every culture they had, they will be trekking west, eventually. Where will the people of the West, us, draw the line? At the Eastern Shore. Where else? I can’t finish this, dinner is ready

  4. That’s right Squeeky, do as Spinelli directs you and do not respond to me, thank you in advance, lol. I love it.

  5. Thanks, Squeek. No sorry needed. She’s trying all her toxic tricks and you are staying strong. Keep on keepin’ on, my friend.

  6. It’s been over 8 hours and no one has even taken a sip from the troll poison cup. Kudos to all.

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