In the introductory essay to the special edition New Mexico Law Review devoted entirely to Breaking Bad, Max Minzner makes the case for why the show should be required study material in law schools.

His argument is simple: times have changed and the kids like to watch videos. That, and Breaking Bad is a show about “law enforcement in action”. Minzner recommends five specific scenes professors could roll out to demonstrate various parts of the law.

The following is a summary of the key points from the rest of the essays in the journal.

A jury probably wouldn’t give Walt the death penalty (as long as his defense team were as skilled as the show’s writers)

He might be an insane, degenerate piece of filth, but Walt doesn’t deserve to die. In a detailed explanation of how a death penalty trial works, Bidish Sarma says defense lawyers could learn a lot from the show writers’ ability to spin a yarn. In his alternative ending, Walt doesn’t die but gets arrested and faces trial with the possibility of capital punishment. Building a hypothesis around this, he says if the defense team used mitigation arguments properly, a jury would struggle to hand down the toughest sentence to Walt.

“The defense would seek to capitalize on the truth that Krazy 8 spoke to Walter early in the first season: ‘You getting to know me won’t make it easier.’ The more jurors come to know Walter, the more difficult it will be for them to sentence him to death.”



When you call Saul, better you don’t tell him everything

In another alternative ending, Walt and Jesse are on trial and Saul is called as a witness. He plays the “attorney-client privilege card”. Not a good idea, apparently.

“In truth, nearly all of Saul’s communications on Breaking Bad likely fall within the crime-fraud exception,” Armen Adzhemyan and Susan Marcella say in their essay.

The article busts two myths about attorney-client privilege: a dollar bill is not a prerequisite to the formation of a privileged relationship; and not all communications with a lawyer are protected.

Breaking Bad may have caused questionable policing tactics

Did Breaking Bad instigate a rise in reckless policing tactics within the Albuquerque police department? Elizabeth Jones thinks there’s enough scant evidence to cobble together a vague argument to suggest so.

Jones bases her theory on the overlap between when the show aired and particularly bad patch in Albuquerque’s policing history. She puts forward a Freakonomics-esque explanation for a possible connection between the two. Jones writes: “Walt’s journey from family man to narcotics despot is not unlike the APD’s submission to postures of hostility and antagonism.”

We never fully grasped just how bad Skyler had it

As Holly Jeanine Boux and Courtenay Daum’s essay title puts it, Skyler is caught between a rock and a meth-cooking husband. The gist is that she’s up shit creek without a paddle.

“Women of circumstance,” the semi-legal term for women caught up in the illicit drug activity of their not-so-better halves, are pulled in different directions by the demands put on them by society, their family and the law.

Guess it’s best to tread lightly before passing judgment on Skyler.



Walter White, the baddest negotiator there ever was

“For the student of negotiation, Breaking Bad is an absolute treasure trove,” Jennifer Reynolds says. She looks at five different situations spanning across the series in which Walt busts out his A-game. According to Reynolds, Walt actually uses pretty standard negotiating tactics otherwise found in court or boardrooms.

Something about plea bargains

Greg Goelzhauser also opts to hinge his essay on something that didn’t actually happen in the show. Walt is once again arrested and tried for capital crimes. In the driest of all the essays, we get an academic discussion about plea bargains and whether they are more or less likely to be used in resolving federal death-eligible cases in death penalty states. Still with us? They are less likely.

Walt should’ve called Saul a lot sooner

The edition concludes with a buzzkill. Michael Mims’s essay says that if Walt would’ve just consulted a lawyer when he left Grey Matter Technologies, he could’ve got himself better exit terms and wouldn’t have been in a financial mess in the first place and ergo wouldn’t have needed to peddle meth.

Failing that, he still had other options aside from meth available to him, those that involve “aggressive litigation tactics”. Mims also doesn’t think Saul would’ve cut the mustard for this kind of deeply fascinating legal work, but rather Walt should have called upon a “sophisticated business transaction attorney”. Snore.

