Criminal Procedure

Terry v. Ohio as a Seinfeld Episode

November 26, 2011 Criminal Procedure

I have often said that you can explain everything in life through a Seinfeld episode. And while there is no single case that does for criminal law what Seinfeld does for life, Terry v. Ohio comes pretty darn close. It is not that Terry is my favorite case. After all, it expanded the scope of [...]

Read the full article →

Why Police Officers Love the “Plain View” Exception

October 27, 2011 Criminal Procedure

Police officers love the “plain view” exception to the Fourth Amendment requirement for a warrant. It is because this exception is so straightforward and understandable: I didn’t need a warrant because I saw it with my own eyes. I immediately recognized it as contraband. So I grabbed it. All the other exceptions are much more [...]

Read the full article →

The Weather is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful: Love Letter to a D.C. Law Enforcement Officer

October 1, 2011 Criminal Procedure

I have a beef with a D.C. law enforcement officer. I would be more specific, but I don’t want to embarrass my investigator. He has to work with the guy. Dear Mr. Law Enforcement Officer: I understand you have been giving my investigator the old run-around. Before becoming a criminal defense attorney, I worked for [...]

Read the full article →

Jack Lambert and My Investigator

September 27, 2011 Criminal Procedure

Wayne, my investigator, thinks he is being subtle. He insists on escorting me out of a bad neighborhood whenever we finish a crime scene investigation, and he doesn’t realize I can see him lingering down the street as I climb into my car. But this guy is bigger than his childhood hero, Jack Lambert of [...]

Read the full article →

In Favor of a Virginia Jury Instruction on “Knowing and Intentional” Possession

September 14, 2011 Criminal Procedure

My client is a convicted felon. He knows that it is illegal for him to possess a firearm. He lends his ex-wife his car. She returns it to him after a couple of days but accidentally leaves behind a handgun she had intended to take to the pawn ship. She calls my client and tells [...]

Read the full article →

On Compensating A Wrongfully Detained Defendant

August 27, 2011 Criminal Procedure

“My client had been held on no bond in the county jail for 25 months. Never once bitched about being in there or tried to rush me.” So says Chicago criminal defense lawyer Marcus Schantz on Twitter. A defendant is given credit for the time he spends in custody awaiting trial for the offense that [...]

Read the full article →

In Re Gault: “Constitutional Domestication” of the Juvenile Justice System

June 24, 2011 Criminal Procedure

There are only a small number of criminal cases that all lawyers, even those who don’t practice criminal law, seem to know. Although Miranda v. Arizona is probably the most famous, there is also Gideon v. Wainwright (right to counsel), Wong Sun v. United States (suppression of illegally obtained evidence), Crawford v. Washington (right to [...]

Read the full article →

On Ashe v. Swenson: Double Jeopardy and Collateral Estoppel

June 18, 2011 Criminal Procedure

Many laypersons suffer from misconceptions about the protections offered by the Double Jeopardy Clause contained in the 5th Amendment to the Constitution. As Blonde Justice pointed out in one of her funnier posts, for example, double jeopardy does not cover the situation in which the defendant is forced to show up twice for court appearances on [...]

Read the full article →

On the Defendant’s Acceptance of Responsibility at Sentencing

April 15, 2011 Criminal Procedure

Earlier this week, I caught the tail-end of a DWI trial in which Michael Bruckheim was representing the defendant. Bruckheim had attended portions of my last DWI trial in D.C., and I decided to repay the favor. I wanted to see him cross examine the same police officer who had testified in my case. And, [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →