June 2010

On The Fallibility of Eyewitness Testimony

June 16, 2010 Law Practice

I have been trying to do a blog entry on the fallibility of eyewitness testimony for months. And then I saw this video. I strongly urge you to watch it. It is quick and fun. It is also far more persuasive than anything I could say.

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Congressman Etheridge and Simple Assault in D.C.

June 16, 2010 Assault

While the YouTube video is now posted all over the Internet, I first found out about Congressman Etheridge’s altercation with two students when checking out my website stats through Google Analytics. I found that visits to the Simple Assault page on my website had gone through the roof. My summary of the offense was also [...]

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On The Ethics of Blogging About A Client

June 15, 2010 Criminal Law Bloggers

I don’t own my cases, and they aren’t mine to write about. They belong to my clients, and my clients don’t want the worst experience of their lives strewn across the internet. I respect that, so I don’t kiss and tell. – Scott Greenfield, “Letting Go” While I consider myself an ethical person and [...]

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Q’orianka Kilcher Arrested for Disorderly Conduct/Unlawful Entry

June 14, 2010 Other Criminal Offenses

How great is it to live and blog in D.C.? We get all the fun stories. The Washington Post reported this morning on the arrest of Peruvian actress Q’orianka Kilcher earlier this month for chaining herself to the fence outside the White House. Ms. Kilcher was using a visit to the White House by Peruvian [...]

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Disorderly Conduct: D.C. Court Narrows The Scope

June 13, 2010 Drug Offenses

Disorderly conduct is a really annoying charge. The first problem is that the offense is usually so broad and poorly defined that it is too easy for police to charge and too easy for the government to prove at trial. For example, since intent to cause a “public inconvenience” is a major element of the [...]

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On Watching A Client’s Recorded Statement To The Police

June 12, 2010 Law Practice

I am watching a DVD recording of my client’s statement to the detective. The camera must have a wide-angle lens because my client and the detective take up only a small portion of the screen. There is also something surreal about two people huddled together in one corner of the room, the cinderblock walls a [...]

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D.C. Concludes Review of Faulty DWI Breath Test Cases

June 10, 2010 DUI and Driving Offenses

According to the Washington Post, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) in D.C. has completed its review of 1,100 suspect DWI cases. It has concluded that nearly 400 people were convicted of driving while intoxicated since September 2008 based on inaccurate results from the Intoxilyzer 5000EN breath test machine. Over half of these people [...]

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Self-Defense in a D.C. Assault Case

June 9, 2010 Assault

Self-defense is the use of force to protect oneself, one’s family or one’s property from a real or threatened attack. It is an affirmative defense, meaning that the defendant has the initial burden of raising it. In D.C., once the defendant has been able to introduce sufficient evidence of self-defense, it then becomes the government’s [...]

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“Uh oh!”: Swearing-In Ceremony for the Virginia Bar

June 9, 2010 Humor

I was sworn into the Virginia Bar on Monday in Richmond. I drove down with my friend and colleague Chris Guest, and also ran into Kathryn Pearlman and Tevenia Jacobs while there. It was an impressive ceremony presided over by the entire Supreme Court of Virginia. During the preliminary ceremony, the President of the Virginia [...]

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