Listen to the ABA Journal Podcast for analysis and discussion of the latest legal issues and trends the first Monday of each month. Also hear discussions with authors for The Modern Law Library books podcast series.
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Barrister’s new mystery novel offers glimpse inside the Inner Temple
Season 1 · Episode 239
Wednesday, June 18, 2025 • Duration 36:10
Since it was seized from the Knights Templar in the 14th century, the Inner Temple in London has housed acolytes of a different sort: men (and eventually women) who serve as advocates of the law. Sally Smith spent her legal career—and now is spending her retirement—inside the 15 acres that comprise the Inner Temple, now one of the four Inns of Court. Smith has previously written non-fiction books about historical crimes and legal figures. When she decided to turn her hand to writing fiction, the familiar setting of the Inner Temple was the perfect setting for her new mystery novel, A Case of Mice and Men. Set in 1901, mere months after the death of Queen Victoria, A Case of Mice and Men introduces a new (and very reluctant) sleuth to the literary scene. Sir Gabriel Ward KC is happiest either when holed up in his Inner Temple lodgings with his books, or when making a compelling case in front of the High Court judges. A solitary, particular and cerebral man, Ward is not looking for excitement beyond the intellectual. But he finds it early one morning when he trips over the body of the Lord Chief Justice of England, which has been left on the doorstep of his professional chambers. The ancient privileges afforded to the Inner Temple mean that no policeman is allowed to enter without permission, and an aghast Ward is told he will conduct the investigation himself or be at risk of being kicked out of his lodgings. Unused to the world outside the Temple walls, or of conversing with any women apart from his old nanny or his mother, Ward must stretch himself to discover who killed Lord Norman Dunning. All the while, Ward is also wrestling with a knotty legal issue involving the rights to a bestselling children’s book, and will need to exercise all his skills on behalf of his client, the publisher of Millie the Temple Church Mouse. Written by a mysterious author, the book has been a runaway success, bringing throngs of children to the Temple Church and spawning toys, games and an American publishing deal. Now that the author has reportedly surfaced and is demanding her share of the money and control of the intellectual property, what will happen to Millie the Temple Church Mouse? In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Smith and the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles discuss the launch of this new series, which will contain at least three books following Ward’s adventures. Smith describes her own career as a barrister, and why she chose to set the series at the beginning of the Edwardian era. She also discusses the issues of class, gender and the complex world within the walls of the Inner Temple.
How a Florida murder and an unlikely justice created a ‘criminal procedure revolution’
Season 1 · Episode 239
Wednesday, June 4, 2025 • Duration 41:54
In Chambers v. Florida and the Criminal Justice Revolution, historian and former ABA Journal reporter Richard Brust lifts the veil on a case that laid the groundwork for some much more famous civil rights victories. On May 13, 1933, shopkeeper Robert Darsey was robbed and murdered in Pompano, Florida. Four Black migrant farm workers—Izell Chambers, Walter Woodard, Jack Williamson and Charlie Davis—were seized and pressured by the local sheriff into confessing to the murder under threat of lynching. Their appeals eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court through the efforts of some dedicated African American attorneys, and succeeded in 1940. In Justice Hugo Black’s written opinion for the majority, the justice drew parallels between the Jim Crow regime in the American South and the rise of authoritarianism and fascism in Europe. Chambers v. Florida forbade the use of psychological coercion—such as threatening to turn prisoners over to lynch mobs—as well as physical abuse to extract confessions. The court’s ruling declared that the protections of the Bill of Rights extended into states’ criminal cases, and began to change the kinds of cases that made it onto the Supreme Court docket.Brust sees it as part of a trio of cases, which includes Moore v. Dempsey (1923) and Brown v. Mississippi (1936), that led to a “criminal procedure revolution,” he tells the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles. In this episode of The Modern Law Library, Brust discusses the lawyers who worked on the case, most prominently Simuel D. McGill, a Black attorney in Jacksonville. He delves into the generational differences between the Floridian defense lawyers and the attorneys of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund who would go on to win key civil rights battles. He explains why Justice Black would have been considered an unlikely author for this opinion. And he shares what he could discover about the fates of Chambers, Woodard, Williamson and Davis after the trial.
When should life sentences be overturned? Judge shares how he decides
Season 1 · Episode 229
Wednesday, January 8, 2025 • Duration 40:29
A federal judge’s new book is giving readers a rare inside glimpse at how a judge determines which prisoners deserve to have their sentences overturned.
In his memoir, Disrobed: An Inside Look at the Life and Work of a Federal Trial Judge, Judge Frederic Block introduced readers to his colorful life and career. In Crimes and Punishments: Entering the Mind of a Sentencing Judge, he explained the rationale judges use when deciding sentences, and the human toll it can take. And now, in A Second Chance: A Federal Judge Decides Who Deserves It, he’s shining a light on how judges consider resentencing and compassionate release.
Without the passage of a key federal law in 2018, A Second Chance would not have been written. A bipartisan piece of legislation signed by President Donald Trump and supported by the ABA, the First Step Act was one of the biggest criminal justice reforms in the past decade. Among its sentencing reforms, it allows federal judges to reconsider sentences given out during tough-on-crime crackdowns, and for prisoners to petition for compassionate release.
Block, who is a senior judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, soon found himself asked to reconsider sentences under the First Step Act. In the book, he outlines the crimes and rehabilitations (or lack thereof) of six federal prisoners. From a former police officer who assaulted an innocent Haitian immigrant to a trio of mobsters, Block selected an array that represents the types of cases he’s being asked to consider. Later in the book, he reveals the fate of each—whether life sentences were overturned or unrepentant prisoners were returned to their cells.
In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Block tells ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles how his own views on sentencing have changed since he ascended to the bench in the 1990s. In a case that made the news after A Second Chance went to press, Block overturned a sentence he gave out 27 years ago, during his second year on the bench. Block had imposed a quintuple life sentence on Walter Johnson after the man was convicted of robbery, cocaine possession and witness tampering. At 61, Johnson has now been released from prison, and Block discusses that decision in the episode.
Block sees a moral imperative for all strata of the justice system to work together to address mass incarceration. In addition to calling on judges to be open-minded when considering resentencing offenders, he encourages criminal defense attorneys to go through their lists of former clients to see whether any would be eligible for relief under the First Step Act. Most importantly, Block is calling upon citizens to lobby for sentencing reforms like the First Step Act on the state level, since the legislation only applies to federal prisoners. He points out that only about 200,000 of the approximately 2 million incarcerated Americans are federal prisoners; the vast majority are overseen by state courts.
Block also discusses the public response to President Joe Biden’s recent clemency decisions, and how collateral consequences have influenced his initial sentencing decisions.
Interested in infectious disease litigations? Before you accept a case, read this
Season 1 · Episode 139
Wednesday, March 10, 2021 • Duration 34:23
A different kind of wave of coronavirus cases will be coming to courts. Here's what you should know before you take a case.
What can Texas tell us about the rise and fall of the death penalty?
Season 1 · Episode 138
Wednesday, February 17, 2021 • Duration 01:01:23
In Let The Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty, Maurice Chammah shares how Texas became the country's capital punishment capital.
Why do barristers wear wigs? 'Dress Codes' explores fashion and the law
Season 1 · Episode 137
Wednesday, February 3, 2021 • Duration 47:59
The rules surrounding what we wear can be unwritten social mores or codified in law. Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History explains why.
How your firm can use technology to build business and keep clients
Season 1 · Episode 136
Wednesday, January 27, 2021 • Duration 32:45
Most lawyers are cautious about change, but in The Modern Law Firm, Heinan Landa says technology adoption is key to getting and keeping clients.
'White Fright' author discusses historical lynch mobs and the attack on the Capitol
Season 1 · Episode 135
Wednesday, January 13, 2021 • Duration 40:12
White Fright author Jane Dailey discusses what America's history with lynch mobs can teach us about the attack on the Capitol.
Our favorite reads from 2020
Season 1 · Episode 134
Wednesday, December 23, 2020 • Duration 39:12
Lee Rawles speaks with editor Victor Li and reporters Lyle Moran, Amanda Robert and Stephanie Francis Ward to find out which books helped them make it through 2020–and what listeners could be adding to their own 2021 reading lists.
Former corporate lawyer draws inspiration from her family for her tireless clemency work
Season 1 · Episode 133
Wednesday, December 9, 2020 • Duration 37:40
Brittany Barnett shares how formative experience changed her and made her identify strongly with Sharanda Jones, an incarcerated woman Barnett met during law school.
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