The family at the heart of the case.

To be sure, there will be a "battle of the experts" in Downtown Detroit this week and next at the Theodore Levin federal courthouse.  Today is the commencement of the trial ordered by U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman between the lesbian couple seeking to overturn Michigan's adoption and same-sex marriage laws on equal protection grounds, and Michigan's Governor and Attorney General who seek to enforce our state law ban on such arrangements.

Of course there is much publicity surrounding the case today on the Internet; and for a very good reason.  This case stands out among all the same-sex cases percolating across our nation for the reason that Judge Friedman declined to grant either side's dispositive motions back in October, electing to evaluate evidence in the case during a scheduled two-week trial.

Now, bring on the experts.  Both sides claim to be able to support their case with "scientific" evidence.

For their part, the lesbian couple -April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse- plan to capitalize on expert testimony from new studies that conclude children raised by same-sex couples have just as much promise and opportunity as children raised by traditional parents.  Their lawyer told the Freep yesterday:

We have sociologists, child growth experts, and psychologists (who) uniformly agree that child outcomes for children raised by gays and lesbians is just as promising as those kids raised by heterosexuals.

 The State of Michigan's legal team has its own arsenal of experts to provide testimony in this case.  In addition, it has been beating the drum that Judge Friedman, sitting in federal court, should not be making this decision because the voters of Michigan decided the issue via voter initiative back in 2004.

Judge Friedman had the opportunity to make a legal ruling on the merits of the respective positions last October, but ordered a trial instead.  We here at the Law Blogger now wonder whether this trial will be an exposition of modern child development theory, or a parade of junk science.  Stay tuned to be enlightened on these issues.

Whatever Judge Friedman decides, he will be appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati sometime later this year; the case could be headed to the SCOTUS.

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Photo: Reuters

Many comparisons have been drawn between the O.J. Simpson murder trial in the early 1990s and Casey Anthony's infanticide trial from this summer. 

Like the Simpson trial, the Anthony jury's verdict left most Americans scratching their heads, wondering about the state of the criminal justice system in America, and in their local community.  Unlike the Simpson case, however, the Orlando, FL trial was placed on the fast-track and, fortunately for everyone, the judge delivered.

In the Anthony case, the accused mother was acquitted of all murder charges, but convicted on four counts of lying to the police.  She has been incarcerated for about two years; she could get maxed-out on Thursday to 4-years (a year for each count), with credit for time served.  Her out date could be weeks, or even days away.

Tuning-in to the trial while grinding around town tending to my own clients, I was first struck by the possibility of an acquittal when the prosecutor's case in chief was taking two days to clear a so-called "expert" on foul odors; apparently captured in special containers for later sampling.  They had experts on top of experts.

The jury, filled with non-Orlando out-of-towners, made the prosecution pay.  When she earns a 7-figure income next year, Ms. Anthony will be sticking it in all our faces.

Meanwhile, in September, Michigan begins a probationary period for a series of innovative new court rules.  These rules, designed to encourage more detailed juror involvement and participation in a case, may have changed the Anthony verdict.  Click here for a detailed discussion of the specific changes.

One of the primary innovations is the ability of jurors to discuss the case among themselves and to ask their own questions of the witnesses, as the proofs are going in.  In a huge case like Casey Anthony, you have to wonder if the new rules would make a difference in the outcome if the case was to be tried here in Michigan.

If I had to guess, I would think most Casey Anthony jurors would attest to their frustration spending half the summer listening to a parade of junk scientists. Jurors have fine antennae for junk science.

In the end, all the junk scientists in the world could not overcome the fatal flaws in this case: lack of a cause of death; and the all-in gamble of a first degree murder theory.

Here is a great take on this trial by Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz.

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