Expert Queen, Nashville Crime, Fugitive Poet

Law, crime fiction, drinks, poetry.

Law

It was a banner term at the Supreme Court for cases with an impact on the white-collar world. My Lightfoot summer associate colleague Rachel Bragg and I commented in Law360 on the ways white-collar defense lawyers following the Ruiz decision may wish to think about experts and intent at trial:

Queen Elizabeth I supposedly said that she had “no desire to make windows into men’s souls.” But the U.S. Supreme Court in its recent Diaz v. U.S. opinion may have done just that.

In Diaz, the court expanded Rule 704(b) of the Federal Rules of Evidence to allow experts to testify about the mental state of criminal defendants in federal court.

The June 20 decision gives prosecutors a new tool but, at a deeper level, it may also provide new advocacy platforms for white collar criminal defense counsel before, during and at the close of business-crime trials.

In this article, we briefly sketch Rule 704(b) practice before Diaz and then summarize the opinion. We conclude by offering tactical and strategic options that counsel in a business-crimes case may wish to consider in a post-Diaz world.

Jack Sharman and Rachel Bragg, Justices’ Intent Witness Ruling May Be Useful For Defense Bar, Law360 White Collar (1 August 2024) [ Law360 subscription may be required].

Crime Fiction

Bouchercon (pronounced “BOW-cher-con”) is the world’s largest crime fiction and mystery conference. This year, it was in Nashville. I was on a legal-thriller panel—”Lawyers, Guns, and Money”—on August 28th with Lee Ann Whitlock (our moderator), Michele Desoer, Mandy Miller, J.B.Manning, and J.D. Rhoades. Great group. Plus, I saw outstanding writers and good friends including Bobby Mathews, Mark Westmoreland, Meagan Lucas, Juliet Grames, Lauren Nossett, Bob Rotstein, Jim Fusilli, Wes Browne, S.A. Crosby, Joe Brosnan, Henry Wise, Brian Panowich,and many others.

Drinks I Have Been Drinking

The Golden Bough (1890) by Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941) was a study of the cults, rites, and myths of antiquity that had a deep influence on artists and writers of the first third of the 20th century, including T.S. Eliot and his poem The Waste Land. The “Golden Bough” cocktail skips the vegetation ceremonies:

1.5 oz Louis Roque La Vieille prune eau-de-vie [I substituted Clear Creek Blue Plum brandy]

.5 oz Elijah Craig bourbon

.75 oz. Cocchi vermouth di Torino

1 tsp. Nux Alpina walnut liqueur [sub creme de cacao]

1 dash absinthe

1 dash Angostura bitters

Garnish: 1 orange twist

Stir all ingredients over ice, then strain into a double old-fashioned glass over 1 large ice cube. Express the organ twist over the drink, then place it in the drink.

Day, Fauchald, and Kaplan, Death & Co. Welcome Home at 253

A mash-up of the “Vieux Carre” and the “Corpse Reviver #1,” the “Corpse Carre” is a creation of Chip Welsh, bartender at The Fig and Barrel Pub in York City, Pennsylvania:

1.5 oz cognac

.75 oz. calvados

.75 oz. sweet vermouth

.25 oz. Benedictine

2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

Garnish: lemon peel

Stir all ingredients over ice and strain into a coupe. Garnish with the lemon peel.

And then there is the smoking bar at The W Hotel in Barcelona:

Poetry

John Crowe Ransom (1888-1974) was a member of the “Fugitives” group at Vanderbilt and a founder of The Kenyon Review. He published “John Whiteside’s Daughter” in 1924. The poem comes up in a novel manuscript I am outlining. Here below is Crowe reading the poem. For some good critical notes, including observations by Robert Penn Warren and M.E. Bradford, go here. The text is below:

There was such speed in her little body,
And such lightness in her footfall,
It is no wonder her brown study
Astonishes us all.

Her wars were bruited in our high window.
We looked among orchard trees and beyond
Where she took arms against her shadow,
Or harried unto the pond

The lazy geese, like a snow cloud
Dripping their snow on the green grass,
Tricking and stopping, sleepy and proud,
Who cried in goose, Alas,

For the tireless heart within the little
Lady with rod that made them rise
From their noon apple-dreams and scuttle
Goose-fashion under the skies!

But now go the bells, and we are ready,
In one house we are sternly stopped
To say we are vexed at her brown study,
Lying so primly propped.