Bench & Bar: July 2

Columns in this episode:

After J.O., when should attorneys expect a CCP 170.6 challenge?

J.O. v. Superior Court stripped blanket CCP 170.6 challenges of their immunity from attack. Trial and litigation attorney James G. Perry asks the harder question: when unrelated attorneys all paper the same judge, how does anyone prove the coordinated "policy" Batson burden-shifting demands?

An extraordinary right, narrowed by an extraordinary abuse

The CCP 170.6 affidavit that once ended all inquiry can now begin one. Okorie Okorocha of Toxicolawgy.com argues J.O. narrowed the right for every litigant -- hitting hardest the lawyer who challenges a judge he genuinely believes is biased.

Capital punishment's forgotten Barbara Graham

Likely guilty, almost certainly denied a fair trial. Los Angeles lawyer John S. Caragozian revisits Barbara Graham's 1955 execution -- a buried witness statement, a staged alibi, a hanging judge -- and the death-penalty debate it briefly forced open.