Criminal Defense
4 of 7 Virginia Supreme Court judges uphold First-Amendment-violative criminal spam law
Computer hard drive. (Image from Pacific Northwest Laboratory’s website). All spammers’ eyes should be on Virginia — where a high percentage of computer crime cases are prosecuted, due to Virginia’s housing such major computer servers as America Online’s —  after its Supreme Court wrongfully upheld the state’s criminal...
Something about Valentine’s Day, courts, and sexual devices
Molly Ivins on the stupidity of Texas’s ban on the sale of sexual devices. She did not live to see the Fifth Circuit’s ban on this ban. Happy Valentine’s day. When we set aside the commercial hype around the holiday, it is a day and...
Why Don’t You Ask Your Client?
In Virginia District Court, mandatory criminal discovery is practically non-existent, and is limited to defendants’ statements to law enforcement that the prosecutor intends to introduce into evidence, the defendant’s criminal record, and Brady/exculpatory evidence (except that the prosecutor ordinarily is the sole person to decide what evidence...
Cops can’t play fast and loose with Miranda
Miranda warnings are required when "a reasonable man in the suspect’s position would have understood his situation" to be one of custody. Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 422 (1984). To determine whether a reasonable person would have understood the situation to have been one...
International Extraditions: To be Fought Tooth and Nail
International extradition defense seems to be an area that most criminal defense lawyers have either not handled at all, or very little. I learned this after being hired for such a case a few months ago, and learning that one of my favorite and most experienced...
What Justifies a Prosecutor Telling a Witness to Withhold Documents from a Defense Lawyer?
Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). One day while waiting for court to start, I approached the chemist in my client’s drug possession case. He said he would talk to me only if the prosecutor was present. Once I got the three...
Too many innocent people get convicted
Too many innocent people get convicted, whether through wrongful convictions by judges or juries, or by pleading guilty when the likelihood is high of a wrongful conviction (with an attendant harsher conviction from pleading not guilty) (North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25 (1970) allows innocent...
Will I win or lose?
Fellow criminal defense blogger Shawn Matlock recently blogged about handling potential clients’ and actual clients’ inquiries about whether they will win. Here is my comment on the matter: My short answer it to be honest with the potential client, and the actual client, about your ability and...
Breathing life into the justification defense
A convicted felon confronts a handgun being waved in his face. He disarms the gun wielder, and acts as expeditiously as possible to turn the gun over to the police. He has been confronted by Hobson’s choices: (1) either seize the handgun and face violating...
It’s not how you dress, but how you persuade
Adam Levin at Southern Criminal Law e-mailed criminal defense lawyers “whose blawgs I frequently read” for tips on practicing criminal law for newer lawyers and for those transitioning to solo practice. Here are my replies in CAPS: Philosophy What practical advice do you have for...