Criminal Defense
Apprendi and safety valve sentencing
Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. MI). Imagine pleading guilty when facing a high risk of a three-strikes non-parolable life term in prison. Why enter such a guilty plea unless such an approach is one’s only realistic hope not to die in prison,...
The jury is the thing. Petty offenses are the barrier
Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) Yesterday I blogged on a recent marijuana bench trial victory in federal magistrates court. In my view, however, it is unconstitutional — absent the clear and informed consent of the criminal defendant on the record in court — to expose...
Judges: The Exclusionary Rule must even cover the countless police errors resulting from an overgrown criminal justice system
To my knowledge, when they were lawyers, no current Supreme Court justice prosecuted nor defended criminal cases in trial court, and none of them were police. Probably with few or no exceptions, the sitting justices’ law clerks are chosen not for previous law clerking experience...
Forfeiting confrontation rights through wrongdoing
Last June, the United States Supreme Court determined that Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004) strictly limits prosecutors’ ability to present to the jury a homicide victim’s testimonial hearsay, even though the victim could have testified at trial had his or her killing not been...
To hell with annotations
Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). When I started law school in 1986. my legal research class included researching weighty tomes with such titles as Supreme Court Digest, F.2d Digest, and A.2d Digest, which used key numbers to find various categories and...
Same court; two actors; two different appeal bond results
Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). Wesley Snipes and Paul Little (a.k.a. Max Hardcore) both are actors — very different actors, at that — Â with pending federal criminal appeals from the Middle District of Florida. Their similarities end there both with the...
Halloween treats galore today from Virginia’s Supreme Court
Image from Virginia Forestry Dept’s website. Halloween treats came before sundown today with the following favorable criminal rulings from Virginia’s Supreme Court, which issues opinions around every six weeks: – Virginia’s Supreme Court reversed a rape conviction where not more than a scintilla of evidence...
Max Hardcore’s Obscenity Sentencing- Fairfax criminal lawyer weighs in
Max Hardcore -- the stage name for Paul LIttle -- in 2008 received a 46 month prison sentence on his federal court obscenity conviction that followed a jury trial. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer deeply opposed to obscenity due to free expression and First Amendment...
First Amendment slays spam conviction
Computer hard drive. (Image from Pacific Northwest Laboratory’s website). Thanks to the lawyer(s) who last Friday won a First Amendment-based reversal of a spam conviction in Jaynes v. Com., ___ Va. ___ (Sept. 12, 2008), http://www.courts.state.va.us/opinions/opnscvwp/1062388.pdf. The Jaynes victory reverses the February 2008 Virginia Supreme Court...
When Miranda Does and Does Not Come to the Rescue
Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) Many of my clients complain that the police never read them their rights. I wish the police always had that obligation when questioning a person, but that is not the situation. Generally, the police must advise a suspect of...