Criminal Defense
Michael Brown and the subsequent events in Ferguson, Missouri
I was on vacation and not following the news as much as otherwise when Michael Brown, unarmed, was shot dead in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9. I posted a handful of Twitter entries about events in Ferguson, and here make a few observations about Mr. Brown’s...
Of empowering storytelling, restorative justice and listening
The cashier who recently sold me a lemonade at a carryout restaurant told me simply to return the cup to the cashier for a free refill. I returned around thirty minutes later requesting a refill to the now-different cashier. She went off into a mantra that the...
Prosecutors must not tell witnesses not to talk with defense lawyers
Prosecutors must NOT tell or even hint at cops and other witnesses not to talk with defense lawyers. Specifically, in a criminal matter, a lawyer "shall not" request "a person other than a client to refrain from voluntarily giving relevant information to another party." Va....
Perverting your tax dollars- Federal prosecutors monitoring attorney-inmate emails
When my criminal defense client is incarcerated pretrial, that makes the attorney-client relationship and case preparation all the more a challenge. When my client is not incarcerated, we may freely talk, email, and meet at any time, unmonitored by anyone, with the exception that I...
8th Circuit follows 6th Circuit in denying 1st Amendment protection to morphing a child’s face onto photo of an adult body in child pornography case
In 2011 and 2012, I blogged about an attorney who — acting as an expert witness — morphed a picture of a child’s head onto a photo of an adult’s body, creating what would have constituted child pornography had the entire photo been an image...
Judges as both fallible and potentially excellent
Judges are not deities. They are humans. They are selected through a combination of some or all of the following: Meritocracy, vetting for ability (with various sorts and quality of vetting), political considerations, and elections by the public. Even some of the most promising-seeming judicial candidates...
Convincing Prosecution Witnesses To Talk, Through A Third Approach
Criminal complainants can be valuable sources of information to a criminal defense lawyer both for preparing the defense and for seeking to settle the case. Watch out, though, for the risks that criminal complainants will clam up, whether out of fear or uncertainty, out of...
Law enforcement is off-kilter for seeking to induce and photograph an erection in a sexting case
UPDATE (Late July 10, 2014): Manassas City, Virginia, police, have done the right thing by deciding to let expire the magstrate-issued search warrant ordering the inducing and photographing of a 17-year-old man’s erection. ORIGINAL BLOG ENTRY (JULY 10, 2014): Yesterday morning, July 9, a colleague asked...
A search is invalid where the suspect squeals after cop claims non-existent probable cause to search
When a person lights a fire in a dry-wood forest, s/he will not be able to stop the firestorm that follows, burning down multiple trees, spreading far and wide, polluting the air and waterways, and killing and maiming animals and destroying their habitats. Government is...
Beware turning your back on prosecutors and wrestling opponents – Don’t be paranoid, either
How much compassion should I show for someone directing a meat cleaver at the throat of me or my client? Even with my over two decades of experience defending over three thousand criminal defendants, I still witness new ways that some opposing prosecutors and witnesses...