Imagine that the police have searched your car, your computer, your purse, or your phone. Imagine that they have recorded your phone calls, your conversations, or your movements in public. Can they do that? What can you do about it? How do you defend yourself? The U.S. Constitution guarantees its citizens will be “secure in [...]
12
Jan
Innocent or Not Guilty- A Distinction with a Difference?
The question for the jury in a criminal trial is not a question of whether the defendant is guilty or innocent, it is a question of whether they are guilty or not guilty. Likewise, when a defendant is arraigned by a judge, the judge does not ask the defendant if they are innocent, they ask [...]
12
Jan
False Confessions, a Real World Example
As a follow up to the previous post on false confessions, I wanted to discuss a case that I was involved in where all three of the false confession errors—misclassification, coercion and police provision of key details—occurred and resulted in a lengthy period in jail for an innocent man. This case demonstrates how easy it [...]
12
Jan
False Confessions
A recent article from USA Today illustrates why your 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination is so essential. When the police interrogate a suspect, their goal is not to determine the truth about a given situation, it is to illicit incriminating statements that they can use against the suspect. The USA Today article shows just how [...]
28
Dec
Maybe Unseemly, But Not Illegal. Good Attorneys Know the Difference.
Some attorneys will tell their clients that their case just looks bad, so they should take a bad plea deal. Good attorneys know how to fight cases that have bad facts, and win them. A Pennsylvania prostitution case illustrates this point very well. Often, the police charge crimes they shouldn’t, states prosecute them blindly, and [...]
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12JanWhen Reasonableness is Unreasonable Imagine that the police have searched your car, your computer, your purse, or your phone. ...
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12JanInnocent or Not Guilty- A Distinction with a Difference? The question for the jury in a criminal trial is not a question of whether ...
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12JanFalse Confessions, a Real World Example As a follow up to the previous post on false confessions, I wanted to discuss ...
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19NovA Novel Criminal Defense – Factual Innocence Today in Miller v. State, the Utah Court of Appeals ruled that district courts must ...
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04MarNegotiating plea bargains. From the blog Barking up the wrong tree: A threat is "I will do something ...
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04NovCan you sue prosecutors for framing you? Today, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, asks the Supreme Court of the United States to reverse an ...
