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Mitchell v. U.S.: Cruelty to Children is a General Intent Offense

Jamison Koehler Opinions/Cases, Other Criminal Offenses

In Pennsylvania, the offense is known as endangering the welfare of a child.  In D.C., it is cruelty to children and, as the D.C. Court of Appeals pointed out recently in Mitchell v. United States, 64 A.3d 154 (D.C. 2013), you cannot read too much into the title of a criminal offense:  The title is of use in interpreting a …

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Young v. U.S.: The Confrontation Clause Is Still Alive In D.C.

Jamison Koehler Criminal Procedure, Legal Concepts/Principles, Opinions/Cases

The U.S. Supreme Court has made such a mess of the Confrontation Clause line of cases that the D.C. Court of Appeals declared today that it really doesn’t know what to do. So it decided to do the right thing instead. In Robert Young v. United States, 63 A.3d 1033 (D.C. 2013), the D.C. Court of Appeals decided to essentially …

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Further Guidance on Significant Bodily Injury in Quintanilla v. U.S.

Jamison Koehler Criminal Procedure, Legal Concepts/Principles, Opinions/Cases

The D.C. Court of Appeals took another step last week in defining what up until recently has been a poorly defined term:  the “significant bodily injury” that is required in order for the government to prove felony assault. Although the appellant in Fidel Quintanilla v. United States, 62 A.3d 1261 (D.C. 2013), was convicted of multiple felony offenses, including robbery, …

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Haye v. U.S.: Unlawful Entry, Criminal Contempt, Double Jeopardy, and Prior Bad Acts

Jamison Koehler Criminal Procedure, Legal Concepts/Principles, Opinions/Cases

When people talk about evidence being admitted at trial, they tend to think in terms of physical evidence:  guns, drugs, documents, fingerprints, DNA, that type of thing. Sometimes you need to remind them that oral testimony alone – someone getting up on the stand and testifying to what he or she saw – can also serve as the basis for …

U.S. Capitol building

D.C. Court of Appeals on “Furtive Gestures”

Jamison Koehler Criminal Procedure, Legal Concepts/Principles, Opinions/Cases

Sometimes you need to go outside your own jurisdiction to find the right language in support of an argument.  For years I have been looking for language that captures the problems — the ambiguity and the over-inclusiveness – posed by use of the police officer’s favorite catch-all phrase, “furtive gestures.”  Today I found what is probably the best language I …

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Constructive Possession: Intent Required, Not Just Proximity and Knowledge

Jamison Koehler Criminal Procedure, Legal Concepts/Principles, Opinions/Cases

That a controlled substance can be possessed constructively as well as actually is a court-made decision. As Judge Ruiz put it in her concurring opinion to Rivas v. United States, 783 A.2d 125 (D.C. 2005), the “doctrine of constructive possession is a judicially developed theory of liability designed to be a ‘proxy’ for actual possession.” The government needs to prove …

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Lee v. United States: Mistaken Jury Instructions on the “Defense of Others”

Jamison Koehler Defenses to Criminal Charges, Legal Concepts/Principles, Opinions/Cases

The D.C. Court of Appeals was apparently feeling charitable. In Adrian Lee v. United States, 61 A.3d 655 (D.C. 2013), a decision issued last week, the Court bent over backwards to justify and explain mistaken jury instructions issued by the trial judge. Even as it reversed him. Adrian Lee was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and of carrying a dangerous weapon …