Law and Magic Blog

Objection, Your Honor! Opposing Counsel Is Entirely Too Magical!

In a new article, Shannon P. Duffy covers the highly entertaining and age old question: should counsel be allowed to perform magic tricks for the jury?  Apparently, some opposing counsel say it's actually dirty tricks. It's also front and center in a recent case, Blash v. ABA Construction Group, because of the accomplished performance of one attorney, Steven Leventhal of Reger Rizzo & Darnall, who's also an adjunct at Temple University School of Law.

Mr. Leventhal has some favorites:

In one trick, Leventhal, who works exclusively for defendants, said he slowly folds a $1 bill while explaining to the jury that the parts of the plaintiff's case just don't tie together. When he unfolds the bill, he said, the astonished jury sees a bizarre bill that appears to have been cut apart and pasted together the wrong way, with the corners in the middle.

In another trick, Leventhal said, the slowly folded $1 bill is revealed to be a $100 bill and then, to the jury's collective amazement, changes back to a $1 bill.

Thanks to Ken Trombly for alerting me to this story.

Note: update at More On Magic Lawyering.

Law and Neuroscience

Michael S. Pardo, University of Alabama School of Law, and Dennis Patterson, Rutgers University School of Law, Camden, and Swansea University School of Law, have published "Philosophical Foundations of Law and Neuroscience." Here is the abstract. 

According to a wide variety of scholars, scientists, and policymakers, neuroscience promises to transform law. Many neurolegalists - those championing the power of neuroscience for law - proceed from problematic premises regarding the relationship of mind to brain. In this Article, we make the case that their accounts of the nature of mind are implausible and that their conclusions are overblown. Thus, their claims of the power of neuroscience for law cannot be sustained. We discuss a wide array of examples including lie detection, criminal-law doctrine, economic decision-making, moral decision-making, and jurisprudence.

Download the paper from SSRN here.

Cats and Caboodles

Again off topic, but it's a cat story. Craig Grant runs the Caboodle Ranch, a cat rescue operation, in Florida. Here's more about the ranch and its inhabitants. [Come to think of it, I post a fair number of cat stories, so I guess they're not quite so off topic].

On NPR: Yet Another Story About a Fortuneteller Who's Doing Well In Today's Economy

It had to happen. After CNN and MSNBC featured stories about fortunetelling boomlets in today's economy, NPR had to have one. Oh, NPR, say it ain't so.

Poker's Skill, Not Chance, But It's Still Gambling In South Carolina--Ante Up

Remember that ill-fated poker game that landed a bunch of South Carolina card-playing buds in trouble a while back? The judge in that case has ruled that poker is a game of skill (dangnabit--we knew that).  The buds, however, still have to pay fines. They were gambling, no doubt about it. [So tell me again, what is "gambling" in South Carolina exactly?]

Vanishing Women

I've just started reading Karen Beckman's Vanishing Women: Magic, Film, and Feminism (Duke University Press). Barnes and Noble provides a sample chapter here. Meanwhile, the new indie film Women in Boxes awaits the weekend (or some copious free time).

Snake Charmers Protest Full Implementation of Wildlife Protection Act

According to the Straits Times, the Indian snake charming community is protesting a new West Bengali law that places snakes on the endangered species list. They claim it effectively ends snake charming as a career. The snake charmers say they have a right to pursue their profession, which is to use the snakes as part of their act. Animal rights groups say the snake charmers "are cruel imposters who use physical abuse to train the reptiles to move to the sway of their flute-like instruments. The entertainers generally rip out the snakes' fangs and feed them milk...." When the snakes are eventually returned to the wild they cannot fend for themselves and die, hence the necessity for intervention under the Wildlife Protection Act passed some eight years ago. Snake charmers also want the government to allow them to use their expertise in extracting snake venom for "medical uses." Read more here in an article from Newsday.com.

I don't see why, if the snake charmers need "safe snakes," they can't keep the snakes they have, and care for them until they die, instead of returning them to the wild to die so cruelly. If they need a fresh supply of snakes, then why can't they breed them in captivity? If they need to defang them, why not defang them humanely? If they know so much about extracting snake venom, then they know how to deal with the snakes without getting bitten. There's something missing from the story here.

Wanted For Treasury Secretary: One Magician

Via the Ellusionist Blog, which is always fun to read, two particularly interesting stories today: one discussing a story from the Daily Oklahoman about a magician who uses non-disclosure agreements to try to make certain his crew doesn't reveal secrets, and another about John Hodgeman (The Daily Show)'s proposal to make Criss Angel the Treasury Secretary ("he'll levitate the economy.")An interesting idea. If we're (fancifully) going with magicians for the post, any suggestions for other nominees? David Copperfield? (he's got a metal in his name, at least). Maybe we need a magician/lawyer/mind reader.

Ray Karch, Lawyer/Magician/Sandcastle Artist

A little something from lawyer/magician Ray Karch on the similarities between law and magic: "Deception is highly prized in both professions."

Here's more from the Orange County News, July 13, 2006.

Columbo Mystery Magic: A New Set of DVDs

Universal Studios has released a set of Columbo made for tv movies: the Columbo Mystery Movie Collection 1990, which includes

• Columbo Cries Wolf
• Columbo: Agenda for Murder
• Columbo: Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo
• Columbo: Uneasy Lies the Crown
• Columbo: Murder in Malibu
• Columbo Goes to College

All of these follow the traditional formula (we see the set up for the murder, the commission of the crime, and then the arrival of the lieutenant on the scene, followed by his detection of howdunit), and I could describe each of them as in some sense being dependent on the principles of magic, in that the murderer relies on deception, misdirection, and psychology in the hopes of evading capture. [Spoiler alert.]

In Columbo Cries Wolf, the killer and the woman who is eventually his victim agree to make her disappear [the vanishing lady.] Columbo spends a great deal of time looking for her after she's reported missing, even digging up the area that he suspects is her gravesite. Of course, she makes a reappearance. Only after the killer thinks it's safe to carry out the deed does he actually murder her [time-shifting]. He has an accomplice [a pretty magician's assistant.] In this particular case, the woman who ends up as the victim thinks she knows what is going on--one might cast her as a member of the audience who doesn't know as much as she thinks and is ultimately that much more deceived. Of course, magicians aren't supposed to murder members of the audience.

In Murder in Malibu, the killer uses a time-shift as well, for an alibi, although he hadn't intended to; Columbo actually refers to him as a "juggler." When one murderous plan goes awry, he substitutes another. He shoots the victim dead early in the morning. Then, realizing that his alibi won't work because he can't leave the scene of the crime undetected, he waits around, constructs another alibi, shoots the victim again, with another gun, and admits to that act.

When Columbo Goes to College, he's up against two college students who in desperation decide to do in their professor because he's threatening to get them expelled. (I know--the fantasy of every undergraduate who's failing a class). What's their evil plot? They're in class when he dies while unlocking his car door, the result of a bomb, set off by a remote control device. Neat trick. The garage is under closed circuit camera surveillance. It's a variant on the "locked room mystery." How did the killer get out of the garage? (How did the magician get out of the box?) The killer was never in the garage (and the magician might never have been in the box). The two students try to distract Columbo by setting him on the trail of other suspects, but as other killers have discovered before them, he's not the naive raincoated idiot he looks. As officers take them away, he asks why they did and one responds, "Because we could." Well, not exactly. You did it, but Columbo figured out how. Failing grade, boys.

Nice set of Columbo movies, once again emphasizing what has made this series so memorable. What I'm not quite so happy about is the lack of indexing: one can't get access to individual scenes. The choices are "play movie" and "main menu." In addition, several of the movies have the original trailers attached but two don't; why? Seems odd. The set offers no additional goodies of any kind--no interviews, no outtakes. When many DVD sets offer at a minimum much more indexing, and some offer interviews with the cast and crew, this offering seems a little stripped down. Still, if you like Columbo, Peter Falk, and good entertainment, here it all is, with some magic thrown in.