a poor joke, poor taste or intimidation?

dyslexia- I think that wearing those ties were not only in extremely poor taste, but totally unprofessional. I think that those jokers should be censured.

It's one thing to wear something like that at a party with your peers (I have a strange sense of humor. I would probably think that it was hilarious). It is quite another to wear those ties while you are in your official capacity, with a human being's life at stake. Shame on them!

I think they should be sacked. Frivolity and capital punishment aren't good bedfellows.

The Bar Association should get involved. This requires a disciplinary action that should sit in their files, and they should be removed from all future capital cases.

Hopefully it will call attention to cavalier attitudes that are too often the hallmarks of both prosecuting and appointed defense attorneys in capital cases. It was definitely in bad taste, but it pales in comparison to the oft-cited examples of defense attorneys falling asleep during trials and failing to introduce evidence which could exonerate the defendant.

i have to say that when i read this in the Rocky Mountian News this morning my reaction was "what the hell kind of response is this ("a poor joke") this is WAY beyond a poor joke and should provoke a far more significant concern for judicial procedure.

I simply cant believe it!
Extremely unprofessional....and I as well would do that for a party of my peers

Gross!!!!

Very poor taste, and protected as freedom of expression, and freedom to wear a tie of one's choosing.

There is no precedent for censuring someone due to choice of tie.

If anyone has the right to take some overt action, it should be their employer, ibecause they damaged the employers reputation with the community.

Since they are DA's, and state employees, they should be told it makes the state look ruthless, and told not to do it again.
HOWEVER, if censured or fired or penalized in any way for future wearing of 'inappropriate ties,' they should call the ACLU and sue the crap out of the state.
It's unconstitutional to force your choice of tiewear on others in the United States of America. We can't pick and choose Freedom of Speech in this country, as much as people try to. Its imposed morality, and I'm not putting up with it.
Who'd morality is being inforced here?

I'm not sure that freedom of expression extends to a coutroom. The judge can pretty much declare someone in contempt as they see fit for behaviors which would, in other contexts, find little censure.

If I were on the Jury, and the Prosecution came in wearing those ties, I would be likely to turn sympathetic to the Defense.

It sounds like "jury tampering" to me, only in reverse...As Equus has said, the jury is pulled in favor of the Defense.

Well, whatever happened to "open with a joke?"

Canons of Professional Ethics-Rule AT-5-
"they should always be attired in a proper manner and abstain from any apparel or ornament calculated to attract attention to themselves"

Good point, dyslexia.

The fact that lawyers have 'ethics' rules is funny.

So, it would be the Bar Association that has the right to discipline these guys?
Wonder is high-slit skirts on women is considered 'to draw attention to themselves? Loud colors? Cleavage?
Slippery slope.

lash: well, yeah the thought plickens as they say....

Lash, yes, we have ethical rules. I, like every other American attorney, had to take a class on Professional Responsibility, pass a separate portion of the Bar Exam on P. R. and be vouched for by an attorney already admitted.

Slit skirts, etc. are a whole other matter. Poor taste but probably freedom of expression, so long as the lawyer wasn't nude. But ties with nooses on them? For the same reason that the prosecution wouldn't be allowed to just leave a noose on their counsel table, it's an ethical violation and prejudicial in the case.

Freedom of expression, patiodog, does extend to the courtroom. Those ties worn by the attorneys were horrid and gruesome. That fact does not preclude them from wearing them. Little things like this "tie" story cause our freedoms to erode little by little, day by day.

Now, with an administration echoing the years of the McCarthy Era, it seems that the nation is ready to turn all its privacy and choice over to the government.

How frightening . . . and sad.

What a great thread. I have read every single response with interest and insight. Lawyers are not stupid. They didn't get their degrees by being stupid. So what was the point in wearing those ties? Perhaps a rather gruesome way of testing the system?

I do, however, still believe that in a court of law, all involved should dress the same way so that juries are not swayed by anything in the way of personal appearance.