Criminal Defense
When a judge makes an improvident evidentiary ruling at trial
Trial judges have nothing to lose and often much to gain by permitting at least brief voir dire/cross examination of prosecution witnesses before a damning exhibit is offered into evidence.
Challenges in dealing with fellow criminal defense lawyers
Many times I write about addressing challenges in dealing with clients, judges, juries, prosecutors and witnesses. Another challenge sometimes arises in dealing with fellow criminal defense lawyers, including in the following ways:
Here are the court documents behind Apple’s refusal to become an FBI terrorism-fighting arm
Rather than my amplifying opinions that already have been stated about the court order for Apple to help the FBI with a backdoor around its iPhone security protection, I provide the following additional thoughts and court documents.
Police shortcuts and police willful ignorance contribute to reasonable doubt
When police fall short of their obligations, their failures must not be shifted towards and into the victimization of criminal suspects and criminal defendants. To do otherwise will turn the Bill of Rights into more of a farce than they already have been turned into...
When alleged shoplifters receive dollar-demanding lawyer letters
Shoplifting collections letters are part of retailers' larger efforts to minimize loss from theft. For that reason alone, a person cannot expect to pick his or her nose or scratch his or her butt in a large store without being caught on security camera.
Virginia Court of Appeals affirms animal cruelty felony conviction where defendant claimed insufficient funds to get veterinary care
In Virginia, a person who "willfully inflicts inhumane injury or pain not connected with bona fide scientific or medical experimentation" is guilty of a class 6 felony if death results from such behavior.
William Melendez’s dashcamera beating of an African-American man is another reason to strengthen the right to tape police
I was about to say how much former officer Melendez's brutality against Floyd Dent -- compounded by the other numerous assembled cops acting as a united front with Melendez rather than stepping up against his brutality -- shows how so much in this world is...
SCOTUS strengthens giving retroactive effect to its procedural opinions benefitting criminal defendants
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court gave retrospective effect to Miller v. Alabama, 567 U. S. ___ (2012), which prohibits mandatory, versus discretionary, life without parole sentences for those who committed crimes while under eighteen years old.
One-size-fits-all prosecutorial negotiating approaches disserve all parties and invite patchwork negotiating over jurisdictions and time
As glorious as are criminal trial victories, settlement negotiations are very important for many criminal defendants, because many of them are caught redhanded and have thin reeds at best for avoiding worse and significantly more punishing outcomes at trial than trough settling their case.
Taking the community service task by the horns
My community service recommendations come in the context of my advising my criminal defense clients to complete some tasks or "homework" to assist in negotiating their cases and to assist with any possible sentencing.