Jon Katz’s victories
You want a trial? I’ll go to trial / Plus, beating the Intoxylizer 5000
When I became a public defender lawyer in the early 1990’s all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to fight the good fight, it turned out that my survival instincts — developed all the more since early childhood by growing up among plenty of peers who were more...
The importance of pleading innocent
The only way to know if a defendant will win is to go to trial. This month yielded another example of why it is critical to go to trial when the outcome from an innocent plea is not likely to be any worse than the...
Client Caught in Disbelief Over an Acquittal
A drug possession conviction requires probable cause to seize the alleged drugs; proof that the seized item constitutes illegal drugs; and proof beyond a reasonable doubt of knowledge, dominion and control over the alleged drugs. When I started doing criminal defense over fifteen years ago,...