Blogging Criminally For Over Ten Years
11/30/2005
Throught the Looking Glass
11/30/2005
Fun & Games with Habeas
Of course, there are still a ton of things that need to be squared away. I'd set aside Tuesday afternoon to deal with a bunch of it and planned to wrap up the rest this morning.I'll let ya'll pick which of the following fits best:
1. No plan survives contact with the enemy.I open my P.O. box yesterday and there on the top is a manila envelope from the Attorney General's office - never a good sign.
2. The great god Murphy frowned upon me.
3. The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
Sure enough, a former client has filed a habeas petition against me, To make it worse, the AG office mailed it to an old address (it got forwarded) so it's getting to me late. I get to spend my afternoon up to about 8 p.m. putting together an answer and am thus thrown back at least a day for the start of vacation. Wonderful.
Anyway, the habeas is put together better than most I've seen. The writing is clear and it even includes copies of the case law and secondary sources Petitioner is relying on. And, for all its ill timedness, I can't blame Petitioner for taking her shot. Still, she did mange to irk me with some parts.
The primary complaint is that I was ineffective because I neither asserted the single larceny doctrine nor informed her about it prior to her guilty plea. This is a doctrine under Virginia law which says if you steal a key ring the prosecution cannot charge you with larceny for each key on the ring - only one larceny for the entire ring; the important factors to this limitation are that it all happens in the same time and place. Petitioner was extradited from Wyoming to face three charges: petit larceny (dad's wallet) and two charges of credit card theft (all from dad's wallet); there was never any doubt as to the facts of the case. The prosecutor dropped the petit larceny and Petitioner pled guilty to the two credit card thefts.
But wait, you think to yourself, that means Ken did screw up! Nope, while Petitioner has a good grasp on the basics of the single larceny doctrine she obviously didn't research its later development too well. Under Scott v. Commonwealth, precedent in Virginia holds that because the crime of felony credit card theft was created by the General Assembly it abrogates the common law rule that "stealing" a chose in action is not a crime. Going further it reasons that the creation of a brand new larceny by the General Assembly does not carry with it the single larceny doctrine restriction which applies to all the other larcenies. Not my favorite opinion, but it is binding precedent.
Anyway the strongest bolt in Petitioner's quiver pretty much shatters against Virginia's precedent. However, she made some other accusations which are basically downright strange.
The main reason she is upset and filing the habeas is that she got 10 years with 5 suspended on each charge (to run concurrently) and she got 3 more on a show cause from another jurisdiction. Her sentence was far above the guideline recommendation and I think it was extremely disproportionate. However, it was entirely legal. I have my theory as to how Petitioner got that much time, but I shan't air that right now. Of course, Petitioner has her own explanation for the disproportionate sentence: Ken Lammers sucks.
She makes the claim that I told her that a couple days before I had screwed up a case in front of the very same judge, that he was angry over that when he sentenced her, AND that I was shaking in fear during her sentencing hearing. Now, I don't remember talking about another case with her but it's always possible - sometimes I use general descriptions of other cases to explain how I think other actors in the court will act and react. The problem is, my calendar doesn't show me as having been before that judge for two months prior to Petitioner's sentencing date (which is fairly typical since I usually have one day per term) so there's no case I could have been talking about.
Gotta admit that my blood started to boil when I saw the accusation that I was shaking in fear. Shaking in fear??? You've got to be kidding me. How in the world do you answer that?
Then I realized that she might have merely misunderstood my trembling in anticipation of springing into battle, crushing the enemy, seeing him driven before me, and hearing the lamentation of the women. Or maybe I was just agitated because, under the terms of the guilty plea, I wasn't going to be able to join in mortal combat with the prosecutor. Or maybe there was a minor earthquake. Or maybe she made a bet with another inmate to see who could make the more ridiculous claim in her habeas petition.
Obviously, I don't know what the back story on that claim is. All I know is that it is incredibly insulting, Of course, the whole thing is a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel so I should be insulted by all of it. Still, this is the part which got under my skin.
I go now to gather and calm myself. Then I will continue prepping for my trip. I figure I can probably still get on the road by noon Thursday (God willing).
11/30/2005
Another Try...
The state prosecutor in Shelby County, Tennessee added two more violent crimes to his list of violations that he won't make a plea deal for. District Attorney Bill Gibbons now won't negotiate on carjacking and attempted first-degree murder cases. Gibbons hasn't allowed deals in murder, rape and aggravated robbery cases since 1997. Here is his official website
11/29/2005
New LexCast
Listen to the to the audiocast by clicking play on the player (sorry, no video this week).
11/28/2005
In the News...
Man convicted on DNA evidence for 1973 rape gets up to 46 years in prison."A woman's testimony was not sufficient in 1973" to convict a rapist.
“Good Kid”
An 18 year old Chicago man was arrested after allegedly kidnapping two young children to perform a satanic ritual. The suspect’s grandfather, called the accusations "ridiculous", saying that his grandson was a "good kid."
Sex Offenders in the Wind
Dozens, possibly hundreds, of registered sex offenders remain unaccounted for in Mississippi and Louisiana. Authorities say most are likely still displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Extreme Pro Bono
Oklahoma attorneys who represent death-row inmates are warning they'll refuse to take some cases unless an appeals court intervenes. The state doesn't pay attorneys for some legal work included in representing indigent inmates awaiting execution. Attorneys could go uncompensated for representing inmates in clemency hearings and 11th-hour court proceedings.
11/27/2005
SexLaw - Consent
[On cross examination] she admitted "emitting a pleasurable groaning sound" at one stage, but added: "I was unconscious. I stopped groaning as soon as I knew something was happening."The prosecutor folded his case admitting "drunken consent is still consent" and the judge directed the jury to return a not guilty verdict.
As you might imagine, every politician and and wag who sees any possibility of making hay with this has come forward.
Labour MP Vera Baird, said the judge was incorrect.And while that's pretty obviously a politician making hay, some have laid out the case more eloquently.
"He is wrong, there is no doubt about that, it is a dreadful error. The judge is utterly and totally wrong, he needs to be spoken to and sent on some re-training. This is a dreadful outcome because women will now think they cannot have a single glass of wine - I think this is going to put women off coming forward again and again."
Until the 2003 Act came into force, a man would normally be acquitted if he could show that he "honestly" believed that consent had been given, even if a woman claimed that she had protested.All-in-all, a disturbing shift from the prosecution proving guilt to the prosecution proving opportunity and then forcing the defense to prove innocence. However, I am not an expert on the laws of the U.K. so I cannot comment on whether that's an accurate assessment of the law.
But this "honest belief" defence made juries reluctant to find defendants guilty in date rape cases and the conviction rate fell from one in four reported rapes in 1985 to one in 14 today.
The Government thought that more guilty verdicts would be returned if the consent provision was tightened, so it replaced the old defence with a new test: if the prosecution could prove that there was reasonable room for uncertainty over whether consent was given - and the defendant did not take reasonable steps to ensure that it was - he would have committed a rape.
Once the prosecution has proved that sexual activity took place in one of the precluded circumstances, it would be for the defendant, on the balance of probabilities, to persuade a jury that consent had been given.
I get a few hits here daily from the U.K. Anybody able to explain what the actual state of the law is?
11/27/2005
SexLaw - The States
2) Triple Jeopardy - The New York Legislature refuses to pass "civil confinement" laws so that NY can commit sanctioned double jeopardy. The governor takes it upon himself to start acting like the law is there anyway. A judge says "No" and orders evaluations for mental illness and release if it is not found. The first guy is set to be released from the mental hospital. So what happens? He is transferred directly back to prison.
Note, this guy has served all of his time and, under the judge's order, two court-appointed psychiatrists have found him not mentally ill or a danger to himself or to society. Welcome to the USsr!
11/27/2005
SexLaw - International
2) In India a 75 year old man was found guilty of raping his own daughter. The trial court gave him five years. On appeal, the trial court was reversed. On further appeal, the appellate court was reversed and the sentence was raised to life in prison. Now he's back in court with an affidavit from his daughter stating that it never happened - she was induced by her mother to make the claim.
3) 26 years later South African law enforcement figures out who a rapist is.
4) "A Delhi court has sentenced a man to rigorous imprisonment of four years for attempting to rape a 13-year-old girl." [Can anyone tell me what "rigorous imprisonment" entails?]
5) A Portugese soccer player is cleared of rape charges in London.
11/26/2005
DeathLaw - Singapore
Although efforts are still being made to persuade Singapore to choose a different path, Australia "has ruled out an appeal to the International Court of Justice, believing that would fail." Some are basically writing it all off to "when in Rome . . ." The Catholic Bishops from Australia have written Singapore's Prime Minister to ask for clemency. And opposition members are blaming the fact that the Australian will be killed on the fact that Singapore isn't a democracy (because, as we all know, democracy was the reason we got rid of it here in the States).
And, finally, the situation has cost Singapore's hangman his job. Australian press reports ran pictures revealing who he was and the government removed him. He regrets the fact he will no longer be earning his $400 per execution.
11/26/2005
At a Glance...
A Maryland lawyer was sentenced to 20 years in prison for plotting to murder her former husband.
2) When Judges Go Bad
A Huston, Texas judge must serve probation for two years after being found guilty of using her dead mother's name to apply for a handicapped parking permit.
3) When Governors Go Bad
A portrait of former Connecticut governor John Rowland is now hanging at the State Library. The painting was hung Wednesday with no ceremony or fanfare. Rowland is serving a yearlong prison sentence in Pennsylvania for corruption.
4) Can Prosecutor’s “No Deal” Policy Be Bad?
The state prosecutor in Shelby County, Tennessee added two more violent crimes to his list of violations that he won't make a plea deal for. District Attorney Bill Gibbons now won't negotiate on carjacking and attempted first-degree murder cases. Gibbons hasn't allowed deals in murder, rape and aggravated robbery cases since 1997. Here is his official website.
11/26/2005
DeathLaw - The States
2) Wisconsin hasn't had the death penalty for 152 years and, despite efforts to put the punishment back in place for crimes with DNA evidence, it looks like it still won't. Even the State AG won't support it.
3) The Massachusetts House rejected the death penalty almost 2-1.
4) "In the past 23 years, since New Jersey reinstated the death penalty, no inmate has been executed. Of the 60 death verdicts returned by juries, most were replaced with life terms. Ten people are on death row today.
But there has been one clear result of New Jersey's death penalty: The state's taxpayers have lost out on $253 million."
5) Pittsburg - "As for fairness, ask yourself this: If I were charged with murder, would I rather be poor and innocent or rich and guilty?"
6) A $5,000 reduction in bond is taken by the lawyer as partial payment of fees. The lawyer doesn't hire an expert to rebut the DUI breath test. The attorney was incompetent and the defendant gets a new trial.
7) Kill a sex offender in prison - get a pass on capital charges.
11/26/2005
DeathLaw - Religion
2) In Australia, Catholics are urged to take up their faith and oppose the death penalty because "opposition to the death penalty is a part of the Christian witness to the Gospel of life."
3) From Rome, the Catholic Community of Sant'Egidio is organizing and coordinating opposition to the death penalty in 320 cities: "Whoever wants to be there will try to think of how it is possible now to have a higher level of justice, justice without revenge and a restorative justice than never denies life."
11/26/2005
DeathLaw
Around the World
Around the World
2) Taiwan - Not only were the men who raped, killed, and canabalized an insurance agent sentenced to death, they lost their right to vote as well.
11/25/2005
1,000 Feet as a Crow Flies
When I was in Junior High School (7-9th grade) there was a road that was barricaded off behind both the Junior High and the High School; it went about 100 feet further to the High School parking lot and I'm sure it was blocked off because the local suburbanites complained). It was the quickest way for those of us who walked to get to school and the area around that gate got clogged every morning with kids who hung out there - mostly the kids who viewed themselves as "cool" (though many of us just thought of them as the "dopers") and there was usually a funny odor in the air as I walked through them (I just wanted to get to school). These guys would pull up in a car out on the street and deal pretty brazenly. Then, in the 8th grade I was sitting in my homeroom about 5 minutes before school started and a kid, whom I remember as a big time doper, came dashing in the door. The police had raided the area, coming out of houses at the end of the street and arresting a bunch of kids and catching the guys who were dealing from their car. Doper swore that cops had even come down out of this huge tree which was out there. After that nobody hung out at the end of the street anymore and, I think the psychic shock caused the class years around mine to have less drug penetration then normal (beer & whiskey, on the other hand . . .).
Anyway, the dealers' car was parked on the street. As you walked to the High School, I'm pretty sure it was over 1,000 feet from the buildings, even as a crow flies. However, there was one row of houses between where they parked and the Junior High School. Walking around these houses probably put them over 1,000 feet from the school. As the crow flies, I doubt it was 500 feet. As I think back on it, there is no doubt in my mind that they were preying on the kids as they walked in to school. I've got no problems with the 1,000 foot safety zone.
Next time in the Strange Things in Ken's Life Theatre: Someday I'll have to tell ya'll about the day I was approached and asked to deal.
11/25/2005
Oh Goody!
More Ways to Screw With Airport Travel
More Ways to Screw With Airport Travel
11/25/2005
1st Amendment Anyone?
11/25/2005
Come One, Come All!
11/25/2005
Doesn't this sound real familiar?
(for those of us in the States)
(for those of us in the States)
EU officials insist that new powers to set criminal punishments for breaches of European law will remain minimal with a "strict test of necessity" applied at all times.Hmmm . . . What other federal government can I think of that has taken (originally non-federal) criminal powers unto itself? It's on the tip of my tongue . . .
"We do not want to have criminal measures everywhere. We do not want to criminalise Community law," said an official.
Oh, well, it'll come to me sooner or later.
11/24/2005
Happy Thanksgiving!
11/23/2005
Vacatur
Why quote from Webster instead of Black? Because the three legal dictionaries I have in my office don't have this in them.
Anyway over at Volokh and Balkinization there is a discussion of the doctrine behind this. The background is pretty simple. The government is holding someone without charging him with anything. The person files a habeas. The government has purposefully held the individual in possibly the only jurisdiction which would rule in its favor. The courts in that jurisdiction do rule in the government's favor. The person appeals to the Supreme Court where the outcome is far from certain. At this point the government files charges against the person in order to moot the case before the Supreme Court and keep favorable precedent in place.
The argument is that in the case of one party purposefully abusing the system, unilaterally, and causing a case to become moot the underlying precedent can also be made moot.
I'm not an expert in this, and I haven't been following the case, but here are the issues which stick out in my mind:
1) Mootness - As we all know, mootness is not an absolute. If it were there would be absolutely no precedent regarding abortion because no one gets from a trial court, through the appellate courts and to the Supreme Court in 9 months. Now, I don't know what nook or cranny a case wherein one party purposefully set out to void the Court's jurisdiction could fit into but I suspect that a Court not particularly thrilled with being manipulated might bite on it. And, if it did the whole trick might backfire on the government because at this point there is no pressure on the Court to find in the government's favor. If he's charged then what difference does it make if a habeas is granted setting precedent against holding someone without a charge?
2) Applying Vacatur -
The parties in the present case agree that vacatur must be decreed for those judgments whose review is, in the words of Munsingwear, "'prevented through happenstance'"--that is to say, where a controversy presented for review has "become moot due to circumstances unattributable to any of the parties." Karcher v. May,484 U.S. 72, 82, 83, 98 L. Ed. 2d 327, 108 S. Ct. 388 (1987). They also agree that vacatur must be granted where mootness results from the unilateral action of the party who prevailed in the lower court.The appeal above was argued specifically as to Vacatur caused by settlement and denied. However, the dicta above would seem to strongly favor use of vacatur in a case such as this if, and this is a huge IF, you could get the court to accept cert. solely and specifically vacatur. Maybe the Court will be upset enough with the manipulation to grant cert. but I'm not holding my breath.
U. S. BANCORP MORTGAGE COMPANY v. BONNER MALL PARTNERSHIP, No. 93-714
(I'd like to take credit for having found this but it's in the arguments on both blawgs).
As well, does it really accomplish anything? The next guy who's being held in the government friendly jurisdiction is going to get the same treatment. When his case reaches the Circuit Court it may not say it's following precedent but you can pretty much figure they're going to pull out the other decision from an old computer file and just change the names.
If this were a less prominent case so that all the judges in the Circuit didn't already know the result vacatur might make more sense. Perhaps, if there are no more people being held without benefit of the courts for 50 years or so everybody will forget the current case. However, the case is too prominent and I fear this is an issue we will revisit sooner rather than later.
11/23/2005
The Silly & Strange
2) It may not track exactly, but anyone who walks past a parked police car into a gun store to rob it deserves his Darwin.
3) The dreaded underwater bike riding bandits.
11/21/2005
Doughnuts Not Pistols
via the Conspiracy
11/21/2005
New LexCast: In Memory of Professor Groot
11/21/2005
MoBuzz Crimlaw
11/21/2005
The Infallalibility of Dogs
Thanks to NS for the tip.
11/21/2005
If You Abandon 33 Kittens in Ohio . . .
11/19/2005
Weekend Review...
2) What? Did you lose a bet? Three University of Texas business students are free on bond after being accused of cutting down a century-old tree to settle a bet after a basketball game.
3) Whatever happened to just putting a frog in the teacher's desk? Police in Hampton, Virginia charged a second eighth-grade student in a plot to poison their social studies teacher. The 13-year-old boy is believed to have helped in one of three attempts to sicken the man by placing a cleaning agent in his coffee. Police discovered the plot Nov. 7 after another student told them about it. The teacher had reported vomiting a few days before the discovery.
4) District Attorney gets taken for a ride by the internet. A Philadelphia District Attorney has filed a federal lawsuit against a dealer who sold him a 1969 Corvette over the Internet. His lawsuit cites 40 significant defects in the car. He says it was advertised as a great-looking vehicle that gets a lot of attention.
11/18/2005
11/18/2005
Imputed Asportation
11/18/2005
Cigarette Not Probable Cause
11/17/2005
Don't Break the Law?
Go Directly to Jail
Go Directly to Jail
Nobody caught it.
Thanks to MD for the heads up.
11/17/2005
Can't beat Notre Dame Legal Ed.
11/17/2005
Moments in the Life of a Criminal Defense Attorney
Well, I was asleep in my apartment and I heard someone in the parking lot yelling for the police. My first thought is you've got to be kidding me! I think that someone had a fender bender. I get up and throw my uniform on and go outside. There's a lady in the parking lot who they had just tried to rob.Apparently, a couple guys tried to jump in the lady's car but she put it in reverse and almost ran one of them over.
I couldn't believe it. My car was sitting right there and everything and they still did it. Not that I should be surprised - it's the same spot where they robbed that other guy two weeks ago.You've got to be kidding me. I moved out of Richmond to get away from that stuff. I comment to the officer that I imagine it happened over by his building because it is the last one in the complex and they could make an easy get away.
Yeah, but when they ran away they ran through the pool area (the center of the entire complex) and jumped into a car they had waiting over by your building.Wonderful. Well, at least it explains why there have been police patrols through our parking lots so much lately. I've actually had a couple cars start to follow me until they realized that I was walking the dogs (or, more accurately, being walked by the dogs).
2) Overheard discussion:
Attorney: You can tell Judge Smith was never a criminal defense attorney.[note] The undercurrent here is the perception by the defense bar that if you're going to win you need to win in the trial court. Only a judge with a prosecutorial background (or perhaps civil) would think that you were trying to set things up so you could win later in the appellate courts.
Lawyer: Why?
Attorney: Because he says things at trial like: "I realize you're preserving your argument for the appellate court and I'm happy to let you make a record but I'm ruling against you."
Lawyer: *chuckle*
Attorney: Yeah. I feel like asking him if he's read any opinions from the Court of Appeals lately.
3) Former Client hired a "paid attorney" to represent him on a show cause. I had represented him on a prior show cause and got his time resuspended but he thought he needed better this time. I'm in the lockup area talking to a client whom I still represent and he starts waving like crazy at me through the glass. A little surprised to see him (he was on the street all the time I was dealing with him) I ask the deputy to get him out. He wants to tell me what happened: "He got me a year. I paid him all that money and he got me a year." etc. I listen for a couple minutes and say some words of sympathy before excusing myself. I can't say the "paid lawyer" did a bad job. Given the facts and the judge that was the probable outcome from the beginning whether I handled it or he did. And, to be honest, I can't generate a whole lot of sympathy because I think (without knowing) that the reason he hired the "paid lawyer" the day before he was supposed to go to court represented by me was to buy himself another month of freedom before getting sentenced (paid lawyer could not be in court on one day's notice). Still, I gotta admit that I find it interesting that he wanted to chat with me about the results.
11/16/2005
Since When is it Not a Crime . . .
Hmmm . . . obviously not a Southern law school.
11/15/2005
At a Glance...
2) File under: Don't hold your breath! Prosecutors dropped trespassing and disorderly conduct charges against a George Mason University student who protested a campus visit by military recruiters. College officials had requested the charges be dropped. The student now says he wants an apology as well.
3) Trying to pull a legislative end-run? Here's the latest on the constitutionality of Virginia’s DUI laws. The State Crime Commission is recommending legislation to get around a judge's ruling that a key component of the state's drunken driving law is unconstitutional. If you'll remember, a Fairfax County General District Court Judge ruled that the DWI law denies a defendant's right to presumption of innocence. The bill proposed by the commission says that when a lawyer challenges the constitutionality of a law in general district court, the case is automatically moved to circuit court.
4) Crack or Meth? Pick your Poison. Authorities in a Kansas community say crack cocaine use increased recently while law enforcement focused on the methamphetamine problem. Police say they'll devote more resources to stopping crack use.
11/15/2005
Catholic Doctrine & the Death Penalty
"It is true that those who argue that a doctrinal development has occurred do not all assert that the death penalty is immoral in principle. The precise change, they argue, is that the current teaching substantially limits the purposes for which the death penalty can be imposed. The new teaching is that, unless it is necessary to defend society against further harm, the death penalty should never be used. Under the traditional teaching, as expressed in the 1994 version of the Catechism, the death penalty was given more expansive use—a retributive function, not just a defensive function—and could be inflicted as a proportional punishment to redress particularly grave crimes. In a manner of speaking, this is a development to the extent that a change has occurred that is not contradictory to previous teaching. The development, however, is not necessarily predicated on any doctrinal change, as argued above. Thus, even in this sense, the argument that Evangelium Vitae’s teaching on capital punishment represents a development in doctrine is unfounded."142
------------------- ------------------- -------------------
142 "Although Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger announced at the publication of Evangelium Vitae that it contained a 'development of doctrine,' his subsequent explanation makes it clear that he was only speaking loosely: 'Clearly, the Holy Father has not altered the doctrinal principles which pertain to this issue [the death penalty] as they are presented in the Catechism, but has simply deepened the application of such principles in the context of present-day historical circumstances.'"
------------------- ------------------- -------------------
"In the absence of a blanket prohibition against the death penalty, it would be over-reaching to assert that Catholic judges and attorneys are barred from participating in any capital proceedings whatsoever. In order to conform properly one’s mind and heart to this teaching, however, and in light of the reasonableness of the prudential judgment concerning the medicinality of the death penalty in our own times, extreme circumspection is necessary."
Interesting. This is what I've plucked out of an extremely quick reading (after I stumbled over this by accident). I urge ya'll to take more time then I have at the moment and read it more thoroughly.
For further discussion see my videocast, read Tom's reply and my quick reply to him.
11/15/2005
Moments in the Life of a Criminal Defense Attorney
At this point Wife stiffens in shock she looks over my head at Client. Client, in the world's worst stage whisper, says "Yes, I do."
I freeze and spend about half a second thinking what my ethical obligations are here. The judge catches it and before I can do anything (like move to withdraw) he steps in and asks my client a few questions about whether he will get back with his wife and then takes the case under advisement.
2) Arguing whether three dismissed charges and one prior conviction can be used as evidence in a check cashing case, the prosecutor first argues that it should be allowed in to identify. I point out that there is no doubt my client cashed the checks - no identity issue, only permission - and that Virginia law has only identity as the major theme in allowing this kind of evidence. The prosecutor then gets up and reads from Friend the statement that prior acts can be introduced to prove any element. After he finishes, I start to ask for sur-rebuttal because he raised new issues but the judge tells me to "sit down, you've proven your point." He then rules in my client's favor, excluding all the prior acts: "All that horn-book stuff is nice theory but it's too prejudicial for anything outside of proof of identity."
3) I get to sit and watch a prosecutor and a judge bump heads. First, despite dubious looks from the judge, the prosecutor drops a DUI charge because he has determined that the checkpoint didn't adhere to the requirements under the law. Later that same prosecutor, in a case I'm not in court to hear, so angers the judge when he refuses to prosecute another case that Judge stops court and takes a 30 minute recess. You know you're in a rough courtroom when the prosecutor is defending people.
4) Two comments which have stuck with me from the last week:
~~ At jail one inmate points me out to another: "There's that lawyer who got me off on that thing."
~~ After winning a motion in limine Client is put back in lockup with other defendants. As the bars close, he points me out to the other guys and yells in joy: "That attorney out there is slicker than sh!t!"
Not exactly the way I've ever wanted to be described but I appreciate the sentiment.
11/14/2005
And Now, the News
2) Craigslist is a fad by which trendy urbanites try to find apartments, people, and things. And, of course, underage prostitutes.
3) If you have a marijuana grow farm in your house you shouldn't agree to a search, even if someone tried to break in.
11/14/2005
MADD Judge Witch Hunt
11/14/2005
Passing of an Extraordinary Man
Professor Roger Groot
Professor Groot scared, entertained, and - most importantly - taught everyone who went through Washington & Lee Law School. Who can forget the fear of being a 1L in his 8 a.m. criminal law courses? And who can forget the amount of law we learned because he pushed us? He was an extraordinary man and every single W&L grad is better for having known him.
A current student has set up this page in memory.
11/14/2005
New LexRadio
Articles commented upon:
Changes considered
To prevent lower courts from tossing cases:
Issue involves Fairfax judge who ruled DUI law unconstitutional
Reforming the Bench:
State Court System Should Seek Efficiency, Convenience
The mp3 should play in the player to the left in real time, but if it doesn't under "Lex Radio" Odeo will.
11/13/2005
The U.K.
2) A girl in Worcester doesn't have to wear the ankle bracelet while on pretrial because it clashes with her skirt.
both via UK Crim Justice
11/13/2005
Canada
Duh. Politicians passing "tough on crime" measures for the sole purpose of getting votes. Never saw that coming.
2) Living up to the stereotype - Canadians really are nice. They're so nice that they turn themselves in when charged with murder.
11/13/2005
Australia
2) Wow, are they really going to criminalize peaceful dissent?
11/13/2005
New Zealand
2) People are upset because a man who tried to kidnap someone is working at some place called the "the Beehive." Tons of jokes come to mind but, with my luck, it would turn out to be the government's blogger assasination centre.
11/12/2005
In the News...
2) Police in Michigan arrest 846 sex offenders during a statewide roundup of people accused of violating the requirements of Michigan's sex offender registry law, authorities say.
3) New York Prosecutors are angry over the actions of a reputed mobster while out on bail. The man is being held under house arrest while awaiting trial but began filming a reality T.V. show for HBO called "House Arrest".
4) Another teacher sex scandal... High School teacher Kimberly Ann Cordrey-McKinney, 32, of Chestertown was charged with sexually abusing a 16-year-old student from the school.
5) Another priest sex scandal... Former Catholic priest Jerome Toohey, 59, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a high school student in 1987 and 1988. At the time, Toohey was a priest and chaplain at Calvert Hall College High School.
6) Maryland State prison officials filed charges against several correctional officers and visitors for smuggling contraband into prisons. Banned items include drugs, tobacco and cell phones. Correctional experts say the black market in contraband inside prisons fuels violence.
11/12/2005
Dial "G" for murder...
11/11/2005
San Francisco Ballot Measures...
"Measure I", dubbed "College Not Combat," opposes the presence of military recruiters at public high schools and colleges. The proposition encourages city officials and university administrators to exclude recruiters and create scholarships and training programs that would reduce the military's appeal to young adults.
Okay. I know I'm just a lowly 1L, but can someone out there explain how a local ordinance can supercede the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution? Also, if the city bans military recruitment- of federal soldiers/sailors/airmen, can the federal government withhold federal dollars in funding?
11/11/2005
No Perjury for Rafael Palmeiro
11/11/2005
Is it the Bat Computer?
11/11/2005
Police know who the Murderer was . . .
11/11/2005
What is a Vet?
__________________________
What Is a Vet?
War makes strange giant creatures out of the little routine men who inhabit the Earth.
- WWII correspondent Ernie Pyle.
Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg -- or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's alloy forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can't tell a vet just by looking.
What is a vet?
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudia Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.
He is the Nebraska farmer who worries every year that this time the bank really will foreclose.
He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 39th Parallel.
She -- or he -- is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another or didn't come back at all.
He is the Quantico drill instructor who never has seen combat -- but who has saved countless lives by turning slouchy no-'counts into soldiers, and teaching them to watch each others' backs.
He is the parade-riding legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.
He is the anonymous hero in the Tomb of the Unknowns, whose presence at Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the other anonymous heroes whose valor died unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket -- palsied now and aggravatingly slow -- who helped liberate a Nazi death camp, and who wishes all day long his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.
He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being -- a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs. He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.
11/11/2005
Veteran's Day
With warm regards to my fellow Army veterans.
And, I also want to extend my thanks to those who served in the other branches.
11/10/2005
At a Glance...
2) Sex offenders in Kentucky would face harsher sentences, including life in prison without parole for repeat offenders, under recommendations by a state task force. It called for repeat sex offenders to face life sentences without parole, all felony sex crimes to be considered violent offenses, and juvenile sex offenders to be treated as adults.
3) A Montgomery, Alabama man who held 110 children and adults hostage at a private Tuscaloosa school in a 1988 standoff that lasted nearly 12 hours was denied parole. Some of the hostages told the state parole board how the takeover affected their lives. No one spoke at the hearing on behalf of hostage taker, now 60. He had claimed he took the hostages to demand help for the homeless.
4) Washington D.C. Police say their relationship with Crime Solvers is paying off. Since the program was launched in the capital in 1981, nearly $5 million in cash and $15 million in illegal drugs have been seized or recovered. U.S. Attorney Kenneth Weinstein said the program has provided information leading to 1,000 felony arrests. In the past 14 years, Crime Solvers has awarded about $60,000 in the District.
11/10/2005
Georgia v. Randolph
The poor kids doing the first session I judged got me, Tom (Seeking Justice), and the head prosecutor from Richmond's south side (Manchester). While every other contestant was getting questioned by civil lawyers (posing as judges) these kids had a little bit of a hot bench. The second session was just me and Tom and those kids might have actually had it a little rougher. They all did fine; I just felt sorry for them pulling the only criminal lawyers that were judging.
Anyway, Orin has addressed theory with far more depth than I have time to cover here. However, here are the rules of thumb which I think most courts have found:
1) If there are multiple residents of a house each resident can give permission to search if the other resident is not present.
2) The person giving permission cannot give absolute permission. If there is some thing or place which is restricted from the person giving permission (i.e. a forbidden room, an unshared safe, a computer with files that the permittor cannot access) then permission does not extend to a search of it.
3) The standard applied is not solely whether the permittor has actual authority; the standard is whether the permittor had actual or apparent authority. Hence, police can rely on Mom's permission to search her adult child's room, even if she has not gone in the room for two years. A search reliant on the claims of a woman that she is a daughter of the accused (and who opens the door with a key) would be valid even if she were only the nosy neighbor who had found the emergency spare (unbeknownst to the police). However, when a male gives permission to search that will not extend to the female resident's purse. Likewise, the search of the room above should not be valid if the door were locked and mom told the police she didn't have a key.
All that said, I think the standard which has been assumed for a long time is that if a person with authority gives permission it is valid against all comers. When we were discussing the moot court arguments with the law students in the after argument critique everybody was commenting on how the pro-Randolph argument was the "loser" argument.
Personally, I think the equities are in favor of the Randolph decision. Allowing the police to do what they did in this case is to allow them to game the system. Of course, they could have gamed the system anyway by asking to search when he wasn't present. And police gaming the system hasn't exactly been a powerful argument in recent years (see any of my various rants about Whren sanctioned clearly pretextual stops). It'd be nice if the Court stepped up and said, "The Constitution does not directly address this question and when there is an ambiguous area that relates to personal rights guaranteed under this document we must always err in favor of protecting the citizen against the overwhelming power of the State. Therefore, we find the search unconstitutional." It'd be nice, but I'm not holding my breath.
11/10/2005
And Now - The News
2) When you steal the identities of your co-workers and charges so you can charge $10,000 under their names you will get caught.
3) My question is - Can mink survive if you break them out and dump them in the wild?
4) Stealing $540 in $10 increments. I guess patience can also be a vice.
5) A J.D.L. member, convicted of trying to bomb a congressman's office, is murdered in prison.
6) 40 burglaries since May - someone's an overachiever.
7) Spread computer viruses - get no bail. Hear that Sony?
8) If you are able to morph from prisoner to Texas official to jogger to Katrina victim you might escape jail (for a short period of time).
9) Witness recantation will not stop DOJ.
11/09/2005
Governor Postpones Execution 2nd Time
11/09/2005
Ripped from the Headlines
Whoops. The Court of Appeals held that without the erroneous testimony, jurors might have found her not guilty by reason of insanity and spared her the death penalty.
Fret not; the prosecutor assures us he will pursue the capital charges again and put Yates back on death row.
11/08/2005
Election Results I Care About But You Don't
For some reason both the prosecutor and sheriff were voted out of office in Colonial Heights; the more shocking of this was that the Commonwealth Attorney was officially backed by the Republican party while the successful challenger ran as an independent. I've met both men (though none of us are drinking buddies) and both seemed pretty decent to me, but I haven't worked in Colonial Heights for a year or so. Thus I don't know the reason for this.
To everyone's shock, there is a new Sheriff in Richmond. The current sheriff has been a steady source of corruption stories, or perhaps just incompetence, in the local paper over the years. Still, everyone seemed to think she was bulletproof. The reason for the loss seems pretty clear: the jail.
And that's this year's political commentary.
11/08/2005
The Ever-Improving Blog
11/08/2005
If you haven't voted yet . . .
Go Vote!
I don't care if you write me in as your vote for governor, just vote. It is your most basic duty and privilege as a citizen of the Republic and the Commonwealth.
11/07/2005
At a Glance...
2) A Saint Louis, MO woman, who was about to be arrested on suspicion of fatally poisoning her boyfriend, was found dead in her house. Police said they planned to charge the woman, 52, in the death last year of boyfriend. Lab results showed he died of a massive dose of arsenic. Police said they don't know how she died but don't suspect foul play.
3) The lone law enforcement officer in a small Idaho town has stopped patrols after local officials couldn't pay $20,000 for stationing the sheriff's deputy in town. A contract between the county sheriff and the town stipulated that the town and its local school would each pay $10,000, but the school couldn't come up with the money.
11/07/2005
Rose Gets Convicted
11/07/2005
File Transfer Prosecution
That's going to prove problematic. Many legitimate shows are distributed via Bit Torrent (see TWIT or diggnation or CommandN) so attacking the software won't work. And it's peers to peer so locating the exact person to prosecute for distributing is going to be very, very difficult. That leaves attacking the tracker sites which put the peers together and some of them are located in places where they can't be touched. In fact, Pirate Bay even publishes the threat letters it receives and makes fun of them.
11/07/2005
Getting That Law Professor Job
11/06/2005
New LexCast
11/06/2005
oFF pOINT: TIkI bAR
My favorites are episode 1, 8 & 9. However, I suggest you watch them in order because otherwise you might miss some important plot twists.
11/05/2005
Petition for Appeal Freak Out
So, I'm rereading a copy of the statute I have laying around and think I spot an error. Something is not in the statute which I thought was there - something which will change the entire argument. I freak out. I've given this thing to the prosecutor. I've got a gazillion copies printed up and ready to mail out to the court of appeals and my client. I go into panic mode. I look to all the sources I can find online free - no help. I look on VersusLaw - no help. I get on to WestLaw and pay the extortionate rates. $4.50 to do a keycite. I copy the info I need and get off of WestLaw as quickly as I can just in case it's charging me more for each second I'm logged in.
I look over the West history of the statute. It doesn't show the change which is freaking me out. I look over the history again. It still doesn't show the change. For a second I start to think that it's no wonder I missed the change if WestLaw did. Then I think again. Something's wrong. I look at the typed out version of the statute which freaked me out and *ping* I finally get it. When I copied the statute I took out the non-relevant addition which the General Assembly added as of 01July 2005. I also took out the phrase immediately before it which should have still been in the statute. What an idiot. I wasted an hour on this garbage just to find out I hadn't made an error.
11/05/2005
Around the Web
2) In Russia they appeal jury acquittals.
3) And finally, we get to see the wizard behind the breath machine.
4) Most of the time when another defense attorney tells a difficult client story I have one which is almost exactly the same. However, I've never heard of the baking soda defense.
5) Aaarrrrggggg! shudder This story not suitable for reading by males.
6) Should prosecutors be required to explain their plea agreements? In most cases the answer is no. However, in Virginia the judge has to agree with the deal. If the prosecutor has agreed to a weekend in jail for a double homicide the judge is going to need to hear something.
11/05/2005
Pirates?
What year is it?!? Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp. reported that one of their ships was attacked by pirates. The pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade and machine guns Saturday when they attacked the luxury cruise liner. Two armed boats approached the Seabourn Spirit and fired on the ship as the pirates attempted to get onboard.
The crew initiated a trained response to avoid being boarded and the ship eventually outran the attackers.
11/05/2005
Libby, Libby, Libby on the Label, Label, Label
2) Before the trial has even started the main discussion seems to be about punishment. Some think the government is charging low and will try to get a high sentence. Some wonder if Libby's long government service might get him a pass. Others are sure of a pardon.
11/04/2005
At a Glance...
2) Another escaped inmate captured in his quest for food! A grocery store shopper recognized an escaped inmate from news reports and called police, who captured him without incident. The convict was still in the prison uniform he wore when he escaped from a van taking him to a corrections system hospital.
3) Is trapping a coyote in a steel-jawed leg trap illegal? A Montgomery County, Maryland Circuit Court judge ruled that a coyote trapper acted legally when he used steel-jawed leg-hold traps to capture coyotes in a city neighborhood. The local Humane Society contended that the method was cruel and unnecessary.
4) A part-time police officer in Pennsylvania was suspended after being arrested last week for allegedly selling steroids he ordered from overseas. Reports say the officer was suspended without pay pending the outcome of his criminal case.
5) In Lexington, Kentucky, a university librarian, has sued four men involved in an earlier robbery of rare books and art. She says that the robbers caused her emotional and physical distress when she was stunned, tied up and blindfolded during the heist.
11/04/2005
Moments in Court
A couple days later I go to the circuit court and there's a civil matter going on before I'm due. I walk in and it's Library Guy having a go at it pro se and he is all over the judge:
" . . . And, I want to note my appeal right now, 'cuz I know how you're gonna rule. Even though you should find in my favor because (waving at empty table) no one has even bothered to come to court to oppose. I note my appeal right now."At this point I look up and wonder how much time Library Guy is going to get for contempt. However, the judge is in "patience of Job mode."1 He looks up and comments:
Judge: "You've sued me Mr. Smith. Should I even be hearing this case?"
"No, you shouldn't. In fact, you shouldn't have heard any of this and if you knew what you were doing you'd know you shouldn't ever have had anything to do with the case.
"Mr. Smith, you can raise insulting to an art form . . ."The judge then stands up and leaves the courtroom before Library Guy can say anything else.
Library Guy: "I wasn't being ins . . .
"Now hold on, remember our agreement. I don't talk when you talk and you don't talk when I talk. You had your chance to speak - now it's my turn. I'm taking this case under advisement and I'll have to determine whether I can hear the case or not. Court will now take a 5 minute recess and then we will hear Mr. Lammers' matter."
Y'know, most of the time I think it would be great to be a judge, but every once in a while I get this feeling that even judges have rough days.
1 This is a special behavior which judges must be trained in when they first take the bench. However, it is generally reserved for young attorneys who are given dispensation while they figure things out and pro se participants.
11/03/2005
Escaped Felons Done in by Pizza Craving
11/03/2005
Ego Booster
Wow. Someone actually taking something I said as authoritative - surely one of the signs of the apocalypse.
11/03/2005
In The News...
Best Man burns down newlywed's home. A Hampton, Virginia man will remain in jail until his Jan. 11 sentencing after pleading guilty to burning down a couple's home- two days after serving as best man at their wedding.
Frozen snack ends in murder. A teenager accused of killing his father after becoming enraged that his parents didn't buy him a "Sno-Ball" frozen treat pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
11/03/2005
11/03/2005
Practitioner's Hypothetical
The "serious" case re-convenes in a week. Assume the prosecutor will tell you he is in fact prepared to charge her with perjury or at least obstruction if she continues to claim she did not make statements which he has on video. The evidence in the case indicates this witness is in no way implicated in the "serious" event.
What is your advice to her?
11/02/2005
Daring Prison Break- Even More Daring Capture...
11/02/2005
When Your Client Turns on You
11/02/2005
Magic v. Dye Pack
11/02/2005
Tech Question
Any suggestions?
11/02/2005
Items of Interest...
The defense rests in trial of a former college professor charged with supporting Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Closing arguments are expected to begin next week. Sami Al-Arian and three co-defendants are charged with using Palestinian educational and charitable entities in Tampa as fundraising fronts for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a U.S. State Department-listed terrorist group blamed for more than 100 deaths.
Another Teacher-Student Sex Arrest. This time, its a female student. A teenage girl claims to have had an 18-month affair with her female basketball coach. The teacher/coach has been charged with lewd and lascivious behavior, a felony that carries a maximum 15-year prison term.
11/02/2005
Church & the Death Penalty
I disagree with your contention that current Church teaching is utilitarian. I think that the element missed in that sort of analysis is the option of salvation. As long as someone lives he has the option open and a just people (who are protected) has a duty toward this salvation. Since acceptance of punishment is viewed as cleansing, maybe the Catholic position should be life in prison with the ability to accept the death penalty in order to absolve one's soul.
And now let's open another can of worms. Are you of a mind that you divide the magisterium into ordinary, ordinary universal, and extraordinary? If so, yes the various authorities you cite are ordinary. Under that sort of analysis, everything which has some support among some members is ordinary; of course, it would not be infallible.
I don't think support the death penalty can be a core universal teaching for an organization dedicated to extending the salvation of Christ's sacrifice to each of us. It can be an (or the) accepted necessary punishment to protect or to save (with acceptance by the sinner) but extending it beyond that doesn't make sense.
11/02/2005
11/02/2005
Thanks...
Again, thanks Ken, for the invite. I'll try not to get on here and boast when I whup on you in court.
11/01/2005
Ken Lammers: InvisoLawyer
[Warning: Some Foul Language]
[Warning: Some Foul Language]
Finally, I go back downstairs and a prosecutor meets me in the hall: "Judge Smith is looking for you about the Jones case." The District Court docket had finished before I got back from Circuit Court. They had the deputies call around on the radio to see where I was but the deputies in the Circuit Court didn't tell anybody I was in their courtroom. These were deputies who knew me and, as far as I know, don't have any grudges against me. By the time I get back to chambers the clerk has already explained to the judge where I was and he's pretty good about it; all he does is tell me to make sure his clerk knows if I have to go to another court before his.
After all that's over, I go catch lunch in the courthouse cafeteria and go to the law library to check my email.
At 1:00 I tell the clerk in the District Court that I have a case in Circuit Court and head back up there. When I walk into the Circuit Court the prosecutor fusses at me for blowing her off. Clueless, I ask what she's talking about and she tells me she called me on my cell phone this morning to see how we are going to handle this case. I tell her that I haven't been out of the courthouse since I arrived (cell phones banned) so I haven't checked my cell yet. Then I think for a second. I point out to the prosecutor that she was in the same Circuit Court courtroom I was in this morning (though not for my case); she should have known I was in the building. She tells me she never saw me. Anyway, we continue my client's case so she can try to come up with restitution.
Then I run downstairs. Client is to have a preliminary hearing for felon in possession of a firearm. Other cases are already in progress and I take my client out to the interview room outside the courtroom to discuss what is going on. The door is closed but I never leave the area of the courtroom. In fact, the rear-door deputy even looks in the room because he's looking for another attorney. When I finish talking to Client, we stand up to go into the courtroom. At that moment Client's girlfriend sticks her head in the door and tells us the judge has taken a recess. When I walk the whole 5 feet from the interview room into the courtroom I find out that the reason they took the recess is because they couldn't find me and my client. AArrrgggg!!!
Somehow I turned into the invisible man today. Hopefully, it's just a one day thing.
11/01/2005
Off Topic...
11/01/2005
Judge on Delay Case Removed
Ambush in Bartlette
Chapters 1 - 13
Chapters 1 - 13
Law & Theory
- LAWS
- Va.'s Versions of Mayhem (malicious wounding et al): 4 In One Statute ~ Graphic
- Aggravated Malicious Wounding
- The Moped Exception
- Rape by Lie: 1 ~ 2 ~ 3
- No Intent Needed
- Arresting in a House
- Common Law Trespass
- Certificate of Analysis Introduction
- Probable Cause: Car Passengers
- Obstruction of Justice Limited
- Stealing Electronic Items
- Stolen Value: Price Tags
- Stolen Value: No Price Tags
- Stolen Value: Electronic Items
- No Weekend Jail on Felonies
- Obstruction of Justice Limited
- No Trifurcation
- No More Beer at the Barbeque
- Respondeat Superior
- DUI & Reckless Driving
- Can You Steal From the Dead?
- Outlawry Outlawed
- Felony 2d Degree Murder
- Banishment
- Computer Fraud
- Insta-Deputy
- PROCEDURE
- Using Statements Made During Plea Negotiations: 1 ~ 2a ~ 2b ~ 2c
- Invoking Right to Attorney in Virginia
- Who Prosecutes Misdemeanors?
- Expungement
- Surrebuttal
- Virginia's Reasonable Doubt
- Reasonable Doubt II
- Instruction: Right to Arm
- Virginia Castle Doctrine1 ~ 2 ~ 3 ~
- Dismissed with Prejudice
- SENTENCING
- I. Limitations on Right of Judge to Alter a Sentence
- II. Limitations on Right of Judge to Alter a Sentence
- III. Limitations on Right of Judge to Alter a Sentence
- Probation & Suspended Time
- Advisement in Virginia
- Jury v. Judge (sentencing roles)
- Limits on Evidence Presentable to a Jury
- Jury Sentencing Possibilities
- &CETERA
- Witnesses & Writ of Actual Innocence
- Domestic Battery & Firearm Possession
- Domestic Battery & Testimony I
- Domestic Battery & Testimony II
- Domestic Battery & Testimony III
- Domestic Battery & Testimony IV
- Shall Doesn't Mean Shall
- Just Following Orders
- Lycurgus Not Welcome in Virginia
Practice Tips
Specific Cases
- Jones:Trespass = Search
- Shatzer:4th Amendment Expiration Date
- Gant: Limiting Car Searches
- Montejo: No more 6th Amendment Protections
- Padilla & the Prosecutor
- Ventris: Allowing Unconstitutional Questioning
- Carroll Doctrine
Legal Theory
- Best Way to Choose a Judge
- What's a Prosecutor?
- Defense Attorney Purpose
- Plea Agreement Actualities
- The Big 4: Why I can't Go To Jail: 1 ~ 2
- Liquor Use Laws
- How to Fix Va.'s Court of Appeals
- Punishment Scale
- Punishment Scale Explained
- Punishment: There but for the Grace of God
- Heavy Sentences (1)
- Heavy Sentences (2)
- Probation
- Change Felonies to Misdemeanors
- Do Justice?
- Kentucky v. Virginia
- Must Prosecutors Disprove Affirmative Defenses?
- Drug Schedules & Punishment
- Defendants & Situational Sincerity
- 1) Immorality in Pleading Not Guilty
- 2) Immorality of Pleading Not Guilty
- Posner v. Hart & Strict Liability
- More Posner & Strict Liability
- Pre-Stare Decisis
- Let Juries Find People Innocent
- Tell Jury Elements Pretrial
- Falsity of Malum Prohibitum (1)
- Falsity of Malum Prohibitum (2)
- Falsity of Malum Prohibitum (3)
- Brady
- Writ of Spite & Hatred
- Various Riot Acts
- Tazers
- Finding of Innocent
- No Appellate Oral Arguments
- CrimJustice Purpose
- Pro Se Defendants
- Misdirecting the Police
- Stress Seekers?
- Plea Agreement
- Faking Probable Cause I
- Faking Probable Cause II
- Faking Probable Cause III
- Faking Probable Cause IV
- Legalese: Name Changes
- How Could We Best Select a Judge
- RICO & Bin Laden
- Requirement of Defense Attorneys
- Should Lawyers Make Clients Confess?
- Crummy Hired Defense Attorneys
- Noble Defense?
Back When I was a Defense Attorney
FEB03
Jury
Jury
JUN03
A Week in the Life
A Week in the Life
JUL03
A Week in the Life
OCT03
A Week in the Life
DEC03
A Week in the Life
JAN04
5 Events
A Needed Sign
A Week in the Life
Trial Desperation
A Week in the Life
A Week in the Life
Quick Panic
FEB04
Supress Motion
A Week in the Life
A Week in the Life
MAR04
A Week in the Life
Closing Argument
APR04
A Week in the Life
A Week in the Life
A Week in the Life
A Week in the Life
MAY04
A Week in the Life
A Week in the Life
A Week in the Life
JUN04
Chocolate Chip Marijuana
A Week in the Life
High School Critique
JUL04
A Week in the Life
Cripple v. Cop
01 Long Week
02 Long Week
03 Long Week
04 Long Week
05 Long Week
I'm a Narc
AUG04
Frustrating Day
Damn Yankee Defense
A Week in the Life
SEP04
Angry Relative
01 Long Week
OCT04
01 Long Week
02 Long Week
03 Long Week
04 Long Week
-----
01 Long Week
02 Long Week
03 Long Week
NOV04
Client Families
DEC04
01 Long Week
02 Long Week
03 Long Week
04 Long Week
05 Long Week
06 Long Week
Surprise at Prelim
Confronted
JAN05
A Sentencing Hearing
Sales Lady Visits
FEB05
Purse Search Brief
Violent Insane Client
MAR05
Affidavit of Truthfulness
Juvenile Detention Visit
Moments in the Life
Fail to Visit
APR05
Trial of the Century
MAY05
Transcript: Court Argument I Won
A Day in Court
Moments in the Life
Angry Jury Day
Angry Jury 02
JUN05
Eureka Sentencing Moment
My Own PI
Innovative Jail Phone Call
A Moment in Court
A Moment in Court
JUL05
Huh?
Raccoon Attack
AUG05
Picking on a Prosecutor Intern
Moments in the Life
SEP05
Victory by Speedy Trial
OCT05
Kicking Myself
A Day in the Life
Insane Client & 15 Deputies
Torture by Judge
A Federal Habeas
NOV05
Invisolawyer
Petition Freak Out
Moments in the Life
Moments in the Life
State Habeas
DEC05
Moments in the Life
JAN06
Jury Trial Fizzle
FEB06
A Bench Trial
Bittersweet "Victories"
A Prosecutor Tries to do Right
MAR06
What Just Happened?
Va. Worse than Conn.
Illness as a Defense Attorney
Failed Prison Visit
APR06
Heard in a Courthouse
Appellate Court Argument 01
Va. Court of Appeals
MAY06
Heard in Court
JUN06
Bad Press
Entire History of a Trial
Bad Press 02
JUL06
I Must be too Good
AUG06
Announce Becoming Prosecutor
The Last Life in a Week
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Client Communication
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CYA Letter: Felony Client
CYA Letter: Appeal
-----
Dear Mr. Jailhouse LawyerConversation between Inmates about Lawyers
Innocent Client Pleads Guilty
Client Parents
Time as a Prosecutor
JAN07
The New Office
FEB07
Different Court Diferent Behavior
Competency
MAR07
Cats
Ma'am I'm the Prosecutor
JUN07
I know nothing
23 Felonies
JUL07
Cross
Cross II
2d Simplest Explanation
OCT07
Jury
FEB08
CrimLaw Prosecutorial Corollary #1
MAY08
Paranoia
JUN08
Why Not Drop?
JUL09
Buy Me Dinner First
AUG09
Jury Sentencing Argument
SEP09
Is Litter Patrol Jail?
OCT09
Paperwork Closing Argument
APR10
Bubonic Bob & the Creative Judge
JUL10
Finding the Perfect Witness
APR12
Small Town Cop : Big City Lawyer
JUN12
Maturity Ain't Orange
Criminal Law
Sentencing Law and Policy
FourthAmendment
Law of Criminal Defense
CrimProf
White Collar Crime Prof
4th Circuit
...
Simple Justice
Defending People
a public defender
Underdog
Indefensible
DUIblog
Southern District of Fla.
Criminal Defense
Harris Co. Crim Justice
...
Seeking Justice
Crime and Consequences
The Chicago Syndicate
Patterico's Pontifications
The Magistrate's Blog
Trials & Tribulations
Charon QC
Changing the Court
Virginia Blogs
SW Virginia Law
Va Poli Blogs
Vivian Page
Bearing Drift
Not Larry Sabato
Worthwhile
Bloggingheads.tv
Gruntled Center
WindyPundit
day by day
The Faculty Lounge
Legal Scholarship Blog
PrawfsBlog
Justice & Drugs
Ernie the Attorney
Bag & Baggage
TWIT Live
Spill.com
Tekzilla
Sentencing Law and Policy
FourthAmendment
Law of Criminal Defense
CrimProf
White Collar Crime Prof
4th Circuit
...
Simple Justice
Defending People
a public defender
Underdog
Indefensible
DUIblog
Southern District of Fla.
Criminal Defense
Harris Co. Crim Justice
...
Seeking Justice
Crime and Consequences
The Chicago Syndicate
Patterico's Pontifications
The Magistrate's Blog
Trials & Tribulations
Charon QC
Changing the Court
Virginia Blogs
SW Virginia Law
Va Poli Blogs
Vivian Page
Bearing Drift
Not Larry Sabato
Worthwhile
Bloggingheads.tv
Gruntled Center
WindyPundit
day by day
The Faculty Lounge
Legal Scholarship Blog
PrawfsBlog
Justice & Drugs
Ernie the Attorney
Bag & Baggage
In case anyone out there needs this warning: This ain't legal advice. Everything in the blog is off the cuff and no one goes back and reads all the cases and statutes before blogging. The law may have changed; cases misread and misunderstood two years ago can still lead to a clinging misperception. Courts in your county, city, or State probably don't operate as described herein. Feel free to be inspired, but YOU MUST ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH OR HIRE A COMPETENT ATTORNEY TO DO SO because I haven't.
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