Criminal Defense

Here are some ideas some colleagues recently suggested for responding in Virginia and beyond to prosecutorial objections about a defendant’s hearsay submissions at sentencing: – Argue that if the presentence report is considered at sentencing, as well as any other hearsay from the prosecution, then...

Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) The newest addition to my blogroll — under the Beyond Blogs category — is Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963). I urge all judges, prosecutors, criminal defense lawyers, and police to read Brady at least once a year,...

Too many judges, jurors, and members of the general public accept cops’ words hook, line and sinker, merely because they are cops. Becoming a cop does not cloak a person with superhuman powers not to lie, cheat and steal. Police are drawn from the general...

On November 16, 2006, I blogged about a Pennsylvania Superior Court opinion that the crime of possessing child pornography from an online source (as opposed to a statute prohibiting the mere viewing of child pornography) requires that the defendant know that the image is actually being saved...

Virginia has an unconstitutionally vague and overbroad harassment statute, which provides:   "§ 18.2-186.4. It shall be unlawful for any person, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass another person, to publish the person’s name or photograph along with identifying information as defined in clauses...

Too many trial judges allow pseudo-expert cops to testify as expert witnesses on such topics as illegal drug sales and gang activity. Here is a Second Circuit case that at least puts brakes on testimony that masquerades as coming from the expert realm, but instead...

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...

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...

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,...