While all of my previous posts have been about running, I’m a defense lawyer, a part-time juvenile magistrate, and an adjunct professor of criminal justice. Consequently, I’m interested in, and follow, justice issues. It is only fitting.

At 17, I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. After 24 years and several deployments (including Operation Restore Hope in 1992-1993 and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2005), I transferred to the Retired Reserve and entered a new phase of life. I’m very proud of my service. I’m proud of the men and women I served with. I’m proud of the things we accomplished. And on this Memorial Day I’m proud to honor those who gave their lives on the field of battle.

It is only fitting that we honor them, and there is no higher way to honor them than to continue to uphold the oath I took all those years ago. It’s not necessary to deploy to combat to protect and defend our Constitution. Many are doing so here at home. In honor of my passed brothers and sisters, in memory of the ideas they fought and died for, I’d like to refer you to Joseph Frey. 

Mr. Frey wasn’t a Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine. Mr. Frey is a convicted murderer. Mr. Frey was convicted by a jury in 1993 for a 1991 rape and murder. While I was an active duty Marine, deployed to Somalia, Mr. Frey was being investigated, tried, and convicted for a heinous crime.  The only problem was that his trial and conviction resulted from a process that was repugnant to the Constitution I’d sworn to uphold. It was in contravention to the ideas I thought I was defending.

Luckily, for Mr. Frey and for the Constitution I’ve sworn to defend, there exists a different breed of warrior still in the fight. One of the first people I followed when I joined Twitter in 2008 was @Tcita. In real life, she’s known as Professor Trisha Bushnell at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she is an assistant clinical professor in the Wisconsin Innocence Project.

I’m not going to re-tell the story of Professor Bushnell, her students and Mr. Frey. What I’m going to say is that I’m still proud of the people I serve with, including especially @Tcita. What a magnificent victory on behalf of Mr. Frey and the Constitution.

http://www.law.wisc.edu/news/Articles/New_trial_granted_for_Wisconsin_2013-05-23