Though many criminal practitioners have recently seen the inside of the courtroom, significantly fewer have felt the tantalizing thrill of a trial! We look in the mirror, growing more suspicious. Do I still have it? Can I still wow a jury with a well-reasoned argument? Or have my skills atrophied to the point of seeking a new career? While it’s probably now that bad, check out these movies to be reminded of the heady days of trials by jury!

With COVID cases spiking across the state, the safety minded criminal practitioner may be currently eyeing the world outside their front door with suspicion. And who could blame them? Luckily, we live in a veritable technological wonderland, where hours of entertainment are at our fingertips. Some of the longest (and best) films about crime are about organized crime! That’s la cosa nostra! If you have some time to kill indoors, then snuggle up with a blanket and a big bowl of red sauce and check out these flicks!

Perhaps the greatest treat we’ve been robbed of during this terrible year is the ability to gather together in a dimly lit hall and listen to our favorite troubadours sing songs of love and hate. Instead, we’re stuck watching people playing music on, like, Instagram live. It is not the same! In fact, it stinks! Please enjoy these songs about crime until you can again find yourself in a familiar room, drinking a too expensive beer and singing your heart out.

Shakespeare once wrote, “If music be the fruit of love, play on.” Shakespeare never considered if music was the fruit of crime (or if he did, he never wrote it down), but that seems to be a historical anomaly. For as long as there have been people playing music, there have been people writing songs about breaking the law. The Criminal Justice Section is excited to continue highlighting good song about bad people.

Though the criminal practitioner is hardened by difficult cases, even the crustiest among us can be moved by the power of song. Music is the most ethereal medium, combining rhythm, emotion, poetry and the manipulation of time to produce memory and emotion.Be it an inspirational toe-tapper or a funerial dirge, these recommendations welcome the criminal practitioner to encounter new emotion through an old medium: the power of song.

While most criminal justice practitioners have some experience with the slammer, no one looks forward to client visits at the pen. Of course, a trip to the cinema is usually much more pleasant than a trip up the river. Check out these flicks that prove that hard time can be a fun time!

A recent development in popular culture, the documentary series allows directors to use the wide canvas and tropes of episodic television to tell sprawling, complicated, and fascinating true stories. While many of us were captivated by Tiger King at the beginning of the pandemic, the story of Joe Exotic represents the tip of the iceberg when it comes to serialized true crime storytelling.

As Alfred Hitchcock once said, “[i]n feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director.” True stories, when told with skill and discretion, are more interesting than fiction. The discerning criminal attorney will not be simply titillated by these films; instead they will be moved to learn, feel and think.

Nothing says relaxation like curling up on the couch, firing up the tube, and watching hours upon hours of tortured detectives, scheming criminal masterminds, and heroic defense attorneys standing up to the grinding gears of the State. Marshall McLuhan once described television as a “cool medium,” but we promise these shows will heat things up!

Some people are sick of their jobs when they get home; not the criminal justice practitioner! In fact, you may wonder how get more Crim Just action into your runs, dog walks, dishes doing, etc. That’s what podcasts are for!