Criminal Defense

A colleague recently told me that he has previously complied with prosecutors’ requests for affidavits responding to his former criminal defense clients’ post conviction petitions. At least according to a July 2010 ABA formal opinion, providing such an affidavit is inadviseable, at the very least. I agree, mainly for...

1975’s groundbreaking One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest film highlighted the dangers of forced mental institutionalization, forced medication, forced electroshock therapy, and forced lobotomies (I question whether lobotomies can ever do more good than harm). Whether or not influenced by public outcries following Cuckoo’s Nest,...

Two nights ago while I was about to make a U-turn around a blocked-off street while police searched the Discovery Channel building after James Lee had already been killed, a woman crossing the street in front of me started asking if I could give her a...

Unfortunately, the state of the law reduces how carefree one may feel being in a car with others. If the car is stopped — or a house searched — and contraband is found on anyone in the car or home, do not be surprised if the police...

Cesar Chavez: A champion for the empowerment of workers and immigrants. Your immigration status is your own business. Whether or not law enforcement personnel have the authority to ask you your immigration status, you have no obligation to answer. Certainly, people in the United States...

Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). Prosecutors ordinarily are prohibited from mentioning to the jury that a defendant did not take the witness stand or remained silent prior to the trial date. Underlining the importance for criminal defendants to argue both under...

When Barack Obama ran for president, I predicted that despite his overgeneralized talk of change that I would be no more satisfied with him than with Bill Clinton, with whom I was only moderately satisfied.  On the obscenity prosecution front, it turns out that Barack...

I often hear people, including criminal defense colleagues, rallying around candidates for judges and chief prosecutors. Rarely do I hear talk in such promotions, and during confirmation hearings, about the extent to which the judge will be overly harsh with setting bonds and setting sentences. ...

Kudos to Virginia’s intermediate appellate court for reversing a second degree murder conviction, due to the trial court’s refusal to allow the defendant to present a self defense theory surrounding the alleged gang membership of the decedent and one of his star witnesses, to try to...

Bill of Rights (From public domain.) Early on, trial lawyers are taught to “know your judge” and your jury. As a consequence, decisions whether to proceed to trial or settle a criminal or civil case require considering the potential judges and jurors who will sit at...