Criminal Defense
Fourth Circuit denies en banc review in the Whorley obscenity case
Bill of Rights (From public domain.) On March 9, 2009, I blogged about the Fourth Circuit’s decision upholding a conviction and steep sentence on counts for obscenity and child pornography in the form of Japanese anime drawings and allegedly obscene e-mails. U.S. v. Whorley, 550 F.3d...
Supreme Court tells judges to follow its rulings
Bill of Rights (From public domain.) Five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004). For testimonial evidence, Crawford scrapped the rule of Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56 (1980), that the Sixth Amendment right to confront one’s accusers does not preclude...
New drug conspiracy opinion from Fourth Circuit
On June 17, 2009, the Fourth Circuit issued an opinion in a drug conspiracy case, addressing the following particularly important issues in U.S. v. Marc Jeffers. ___ F.3d ___ (4th Cir., June 17, 2009): – The Fourth Circuit rejected Jeffers’s request for plain error review...
Fight repeat offender sentencing tooth and nail
Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) Although a relative warned me, when I considered law school, that many lawyers are dissatisfied by the tediousness of practicing law, an essential part of practicing criminal defense — if not all litigation battle — is to meticulously obtain,...
The sometimes long and prickly road of probation
NOTE: Underdog’s June 2 blog entry is being posted late. Stay tuned for a resumption of regular daily postings. Criminal defendants sometimes focus on their time out of jail versus in jail, and not enough time on the often onerous and even draconian deprivations of...
4th Circuit: Trial courts may not presume reasonableness of Guidelines sentences
Bill of Rights. Yesterday, the Fourth Circuit confirmed that trial courts may not presume reasonableness of Guidelines sentences: While an appellate court reviewing a sentence may presume that the sentence within a properly calculated Guidelines range is reasonable, see United States v. Go, 517 F.3d 216, 218 (4th...
Getting convicted for assault without even raising a hand or fist
In the courts where I practice criminal defense, even giving an unwanted hug is an assault. That is additional testimony to the wisdom of bowing to others to greet them, apart from the reduced risk of catching swine flu (or mucus, if the person recently...
Good luck keeping your jurors off the Internet about your case
Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) In her wonderfully compassionate way, the amazing SunWolf emphasizes that jurors generally are going to bring their usual behaviors from their daily lives into the deliberation room regardless of the judges’ warnings to tell them to change behaviors that...
Cops: Stop shredding the Constitution with hunches
Cops must stop shredding the Constitution with hunches, particularly because they are not Quasimodo. Praised be Maryland’s highest court for recognizing that the cops had no more than a hunch of criminal activity afoot when witnessing a car drive around a parking lot, and then signaling...
When cops break the law in seeking convictions
Where do so many judges and jurors get the false notion that cops always tell the truth? Cops are but humans, so they are as prone to prevaricate as any non-cop. Praised be my fellow criminal defense brother Paul Mack — from neighboring Howard County...