Criminal Defense
Fourth Circuit affirms suppression of fruits of the poisonous tree
Prosecutors often will try to overcome bad searches by claiming such factors as inevitable discovery, and intervening events that cure any taint. Praised be the Fourth Circuit recently, 2-1, for not buying the prosecutor’s arguments over an unconstitutional stop of a car, without which the cops would...
Fourth Circuit reverses for on-the-street peek and entry into arrestee’s underwear
Bill of Rights (from the public domain) Praised be the two-judge majority that today reversed a drug conviction, finding that the police on-the-street peek into an arrestee’s underwear — and subsequent cutting off the string attaching a bag of cocaine to his penis — amounted...
Using the First Amendment Against the Criminalization of Free Expression
Beware when a judge sees the First Amendment’s free speech clause as a hindrance to judicial administration, perhaps emphasizing that the First Amendment is not absolute and does not protect the right to cry “fire” in a crowded theater. (As it turns out, a Supreme...
Mistakes by sleepy police and drug dogs’ schnozes
Police are mere humans, and are thus bound, collectively, to make frequent big mistakes. In their true nature, dogs are here to run at large, and not to be police employees pushed and rewarded to try ferreting out drugs; that alone sets them up to make big mistakes...
Always err on the side of protecting the First Amendment right to free expression
Bill of Rights (from the public domain) Praised be Maryland federal trial judge Roger Titus for recently dismissing a prosecution for engaging in a “course of conduct that caused substantial emotional distress” to the alleged victim, through posting messages on Twitter and other websites. Not...
Needing a more human and compassionate criminal justice system
At least for those with jailable criminal cases against them, a large percentage of them enter the courthouse in fear. Those running and operating the courts try to maintain a sense of normalcy — at least superficially — amidst all this fear, but it remains. Some...
A jury cannot eyeball a trial transcript
A jury cannot eyeball a witness to determine his or her credibility and demeanor by merely being read the complaining witness’s testimony from a prior proceeding. For a criminal defendant, letting such a transcript into evidence can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the defense...
“They’re ready for me. Loaded for bear. I stayed away from them.”
Criminal defense trial battle requires being as fearless and skilled as possible in approaching even the most formidable-seeming opponents. Edward Lee Elmore’s capital murder trial lawyer, unfortunately, exercised avoidance with forensic evidence: Properly applied, the totality-of-the-evidence standard results in only one reasonable conclusion: there is...
Convicted for a felony after a cop sees the car going one mile over the speed limit – KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
For over a decade, my website has prominently featured a Know Your Rights page. Those rights are prominently linked in the blue KNOW YOUR RIGHTS box on the lefthand side of this blog. Repeatedly, people get arrested, and often convicted for not knowing those rights,...
The criminal justice system should be about equal justice for all, and not a perpetuation of an underclass
When I became a public defender lawyer after two years working with a corporate law firm, I went from a high-rent office two blocks from the White House with a fancy desk to a non-descript office that was literally across the freight railroad tracks.I had...