They are known on the street as the “jump out” cops. They cruise poor parts of town in unmarked cars, one car following the other. There are 3 or 4 officers in each car. They pull up and jump out at the slightest hint of criminal activity. Sometimes they see a suspect walking with a lopsided gait or swinging only …
In Arizona v. Gant, the U.S. Supreme Court held that police may search the passenger compartment of a vehicle incident to a recent occupant’s arrest (and therefore without a warrant) under one of only two scenarios. The first scenario is that officers have a reasonable belief that the arrestee might access the vehicle at the time of the search, thereby …
It is always painful to see a criminal defendant replace a good public defender or court-appointed lawyer with an inexperienced one. Because you don’t value what you don’t pay for. This is what happened in Timothy Dugger v. United States, 295 A.3d 1102 (D.C. 2023), an opinion issued recently by the D.C. Court of Appeals. A smart and seasoned criminal …
For a threat to be unprotected by the First Amendment, the prosecution must prove that the defendant subjectively understood that the statement could be perceived as threatening.
In Mashaud v. Boone, the D.C. Court of Appeals limited the scope of unprotected speech under District’s stalking statute to threats, obscenity, defamation, fraud, incitement, and speech integral to criminal conduct.
The defendant “poked” the complainant somewhere on the body after having been specifically admonished not to do so. Such an “offensive touching” constituted a criminal assault.
According to the “Rule of Lenity,” a court should construe any ambiguity in the language of a criminal statute in favor of the defendant.
Although “claim of right” is a valid defense to robbery and other theft offenses, the defense fails when the defendant takes more than the property whose ownership is in question.
Under the ‘forfeiture-by-wrongdoing doctrine, a defendant forfeits his Sixth Amendment right to be confronted by a witness against him, as well as his objection to the introduction of hearsay, if he wrongfully procured the unavailability of that witness with the purpose of preventing the witness from testifying.
Bias can be “a favorable or friendly feeling toward a party.” It can also be hostility toward someone, a motive to lie out of self-interest, and/or corruption.