Moosavi v. State

MOYLAN, Judge.

A seemingly insignificant little case may sometimes provide revealing insight into the fundamental operation of our criminal justice system. This may be such a case. In any event, we seize this case as a vehicle through which to offer, interspersed with our formal legal holdings, some observations on the basic nature of appellate review of a criminal conviction.

The numbing reality of senseless and tragic civilian bombings over the last half-decade has so sensitized the national temper that even a passing allusion to a “bombing” or to “blowing up” something will, inevitably,…