MisterMike: "While he may not be a lawyer, I can say--speaking as a lawyer--that his writing on legal issues is sound and well-reasoned."
I distinguish (1) legal information, which almost anyone can look up in a law library or even online; from (2) legal reasoning, usually learned only at law school but occasionally picked up by talented laypersons; and (3) legal experience, which only practicing attorneys (and perhaps their direct support staff) will ever have. Ayoob is an intelligent, informed, articulate man with a zany sense of humor (perhaps not always intentional, but it's all good). I enjoy reading his stuff, and although I do not believe I've met him personally, I'd certainly not turn down a dinner invite. But he's not an attorney, and it shows. Ayoob can describe, accurately, what might happen in a hypothetical jurisdiction based on his research. I can tell you what will happen during the investigation, prosecution and trial of most crimes in much of Maine, based on years of practical experience. Other attorneys in other jurisdictions, similarly. And that's where Ayoob falls short, and where his legal analysis can run off the rails. He can't know how the District Attorney or certain Department head Assistant District Attorneys in Cumberland or Androscoggin or Kennebec or other counties think about particular crimes, or how the Portland or Lewiston or Augusta or State or other police agencies or their particular chiefs or detectives or patrolmen investigate particular crimes. I and dozens of other experienced criminal defense attorneys do. Similarly with experienced criminal defense counsel in Philadelphia, Chicago or wherever.
"A dirty little secret of the legal profession is that occasionally a layperson who specializes in studying a particular area of the law ends up being a better authority in that area of the law than a lawyer."
Jailhouse lawyers know more about criminal procedure, probation, parole, trustyship, good time, release date computation and so forth than most criminal defense attorneys. But they couldn't begin to prepare the defense of a homicide case, or most any other criminal cases.