Criminal Defense

Supreme Court’s spiral staircase. Copyright Jon Katz (photographed October 2010). Today, the United States Supreme Court substantially retreated from Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004), in determining that the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause was not offended where the state trial court allowed into evidence the victim’s dying...

Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). When I started practicing criminal defense in 1991, the phrase “guilty plea” sounded like a dirty word, but I already knew that such pleas are a major part of the criminal “justice” system which otherwise would...

Today, the Fourth Circuit ruled that a marijuana disposition under Va. Code § 18.2-251 (also known as 251, which I fully discuss here) is not always a conviction for immigration purposes. Crespo v. Holder, 631 F.3d 130 (4th Cir., Jan. 11, 2011) . Crespo says: “We thus start...

  Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) Thanks to a listserv member for citing to a 1965 Supreme Court decision that underlines the unconstitutional overbreadth of statutes criminalizing one’s not obeying a "lawful order" of a police officer, where the statute does nothing to narrow such orders...

Image from the Government Printing Office’s website. District of Columbia v. Heller applies the Second Amendment to the individual right to possess firearms for home protection. Heller, 128 S. Ct. 2783 (2008). What happens when a person possesses a firearm at home in contravention of...

On December 2, Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals reversed a conviction based on the prosecutor’s comments on the credibility of his police witness. Sivells v. Maryland, ___ Md. App. ___ (Dec. 2, 2010). Sivells also addressed the test for probable cause: This Court recently discussed the concept...

Then-police detective Stephanie Lazarus sticks a billion feet in her mouth. Jon Katz urges suspects to assert their rights to remain silent and to refuse searches. On my blog, on the podium, and person-to-person, I do my best to spread the word for people to...

Image from the Government Printing Office’s website. As long as people must fill out applications for handgun purchase background checks, people with applicable convictions and applicable pending criminal charges will insert incorrect information, be prosecuted, and, with at least some, convicted. Enter Russell Smith, who had...

Today the Fourth Circuit affirmed a conviction for child pornography and attempted enticement of a minor. In doing so, the court found no Miranda violation, determining that the defendant was not in custody and was free to leave his home, even though police were circling...