May It Please The Court: Weblog of legal news and observations, including a quote of the day and daily updates
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5/17/2018 - Phishing Alert: Suspicious Emails Targeting California Licensed Attorneys 8/30/2017 - Understand the First Amendment from Hate Speech to Violence to President Trump's Twitter Account 7/11/2017 - The Sled, our Christmas Book Written for our Grandchildren, Available for Pre-order Now 5/3/2016 - Different Rx Needed for Third Leading Cause of Death: Medical Errors more...
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Quote of the Day - The report of my death was an exaggeration.
News Flash: Huckleberry Finn and Jim Not GuiltyYou remember Huckleberry Finn and his friend, Jim? They find a corpse, but don't report it to the authorities. Did they violate Missouri law all those years ago? Is Mark Twain rolling over in his grave? Twain fans will be relieved to know the Missouri Supreme Court doesn't think so. The story has a modern-day twist: a Missouri man convicted for doing so had that conviction overturned based on Twain's tale. An appellate court used the high court's citation to Twain's story to apply the law cited above, and held that William Jones, Jr. did not have an obligation to report to authorities finding the corpse of his friend, Justin Hazlett, lying dead, apparently shot. Jones found Hazlett's deceased body outside Hazlett's home, but didn't tell anyone. Jones was convicted, and sentenced to four years. Like Huck and Jim, he's now free to float on the Mississippi. In 2002, a Missouri husband failed to report finding his wife's body, and he was also convicted of violating the statute, but his conviction was not overturned. The distinction lies in Twain's story, apparently. According to the Missouri decision reversing Jones' conviction, only relatives have that duty, not friends or strangers. Huck and Jim weren't guilty because they didn't know the person who died. I'm glad to know all these years later than Huck and Jim weren't criminals in the eyes of Missourians.
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