A criminal trial, a former law school professor once said, is nuclear war at 30 paces. That struck even me as harsh. I don’t care to be incinerated myself in the conflagration. But the point is well-taken—everything matters in the trial of a criminal case, even the appearance of the defendant.

So I found myself the other day demanding that my client be given the right to shave before jury selection. The battle was more difficult that in should have been.