Asleep At The Wheel

As long as I'm bashing the legal profession, here's one for all you judges out there from today's New York Law Journal:

A man convicted of killing an undercover police officer should not receive a new trial, even if a judge was asleep at times while the jury was selected, a New York appeals court ruled Tuesday.

In a unanimous opinion, the New York Appellate Division, 1st Department, said that since David Degondea and his attorney failed to object to the judge's alleged behavior at the time, they could not use it to attack the jury's verdict years later.

<true story>I kid you not, when I first started practicing law, I had a one day trial up in the Bronx. The judge spent the whole trial studiously pouring over the day's Racing Form.</true story>

File under The Legal Profession.

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