An online history of jurisprudence, and lack thereof

November 30, 2004 6:57 AM

Sacco and Vanzetti et al.The amazing Famous Trials website, compiled as a labor of love by University of Missouri law professor Douglas Linder, is a motherlode of information on historically significant trails, ranging from Galileo to the Amistad to Lenny Bruce. It features not only official transcripts, but also equally intriguing details such as a map of the railroad cars in the Scottsboro Boys trial, Klan documents from the Mississippi Burning case, and opinion polls related to the My Lai courts martial.
posted by foxy_hedgehog (8 comments total)

Wow. This is great. Thanks foxy. Hell of a debut post.
posted by Ufez Jones at 7:08 AM on November 30, 2004

[this is good].
posted by gd779 at 7:56 AM on November 30, 2004

Thanks foxy, this is the kind of thing the internet was (or should of been) made for.
posted by marxchivist at 8:11 AM on November 30, 2004

I sat for a while awaiting jury duty in the same courtroom where Sacco and Vanzetti were tried (Dedham, MA). Kind of freaky - then I was dismissed.
posted by jalexei at 8:39 AM on November 30, 2004

I found this site when I first started law school, and it has come in handy on many different occasions.

A good friend of mine went to UMKC and took the class that the site is based around. She said it was one of the best classes she has ever taken.
posted by sp dinsmoor at 8:50 AM on November 30, 2004

This is fantastic. I just read Oscar Wilde's cross examination. Capital post!
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:41 AM on November 30, 2004

The site is missing the Haymarket Trial. The trial is critically important for several reasons. It was a complete and utter sham, ultimately sentencing 7 men to death for a crime they had nothing to do with. It also set off one of the first "Red Scares" in the U.S.

It is an amazing story as well.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 12:06 PM on November 30, 2004

This is on my top ten Mefiposts!
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 2:26 PM on November 30, 2004