Harry's Law

We’re becoming faithful watchers of Harry’s Law, in which Harry and her colleagues engage in some really interesting and controversial cases. This week, in an episode called “Head Games,” there were two. The parents of a high school boy who died from brain trauma suffered in a football game wanted Harry to present their case against the high school, wanting the high school to do away with the football program. Interesting statistics about concussions and sub concussive brain trauma in the game, and the younger the player the more likely the injuries, with the brain still developing to age 23. With more and more autopsies on those who die from football or on those who played college or professional football and died young, the results indicate the likelihood of dementia later in life. Then the defense brought up that many other sports involve head injuries—soccer, boxing, hockey, baseball, skateboarding, even cheerleading, to name only a few. Should they all be discontinued? The judge, after hearing both sides, decided to sidestep the issue and send it to a jury trial. Interesting case. The other one involved a middle-age woman who had held up a bank at gunpoint, escaping with $60.000. She didn’t wear a mask or attempt in any way to disguise herself. She was shown clearly on tape doing exactly what she was accused of. Tommy defends her arguing that hers was an act of civil disobedience against the bank that foreclosed on her home, foreclosed unfairly without using any of the federal bailout money the bank received to help her with her loan. Tommy wasn’t trying to win an innocent verdict since it was obvious she was guilty. But he thought the twenty years the district attorney was asking for was too harsh, that no one was injured, that she had made no attempt to get away with the crime, that the banks and the federal government were as much to blame for her actions as she was. She was found guilty and sentenced to serve the twenty years. I wonder what Henry David Thoreau would have to say about it.