A Public Defender: Public Defense

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Public Defense Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Public Defense

A Public Defender

Criminal law news from Connecticut and around the country.
By Gideon

Post Frequency: 10.1/day

Last Entry: March 31, 2011 at 12:17:35

Preempting Strickland

Posted on May 09, 2010
The Sixth Amendment right of the ?accused? to assistance of counsel in ?all criminal prosecutions? is limited by its terms: ?it does not attach until a prosecution is commenced.? McNeil v. Wisconsin, 501 U. S. 171, 175 (1991); see also Moran v. Burbine, 475 U...

Frankly arresting

Posted on May 07, 2010
[W]hen the Fourth Amendment demands a factual showing sufficient to comprise `probable cause,’ the obvious assumption is that there will be a truthful showing” (emphasis in original). This does not mean “truthful” in the sense that every fact recited in the warrant affidavit is necessarily correct, for probable cause may be founded upon hearsay and [...

Prove the defendant?s bad character, not the crime

Posted on May 06, 2010
Let’s play a game. I will give you two quotes, both on the same issue. One is from an erstwhile liberal northeast state, the other from a state in “flyover country”. You guess which is which. Compare: Nonetheless, we recognize that crimes of a sexual nature are unique and distinct from crimes of a nonsexual nature because [...

The defendant?s right to trial by jury

Posted on May 04, 2010
Article III, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution of the United States states: The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be [...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Pretextual trespass

Posted on May 03, 2010
In an effort to combat drug crime in “minority high crime neighborhoods”, police long ago adopted the “pretextual stop”, which was later condoned by SCOTUS in Whren. In Whren, Scalia wrote: Not only have we never held, outside the context of inventory search or administrative inspection (discussed above), that an officer’s motive invalidates objectively justifiable behavior [...

Every day is Caturday

Posted on April 29, 2010
Cats are popular. They’re even more popular on the internet, which was, as we all know, invented just for cats. Every day is Caturday [here's the ED version of Caturday, which means it's totally NSFW. I mean it, really. Not. Safe. For. Work]. Sometimes, though, the internet bleeds into real life (shocking, I know)...

A witchhunt by men who molest the law

Posted on April 29, 2010
Raise your hand if you’ve never heard of Tonya Craft. I hadn’t either, until I stumbled across this post at change.org. Tonya Craft is the latest lightning rod in that modern day witch-hunt: the sex offender. But, from all accounts, this isn’t a normal case...

Institutional coddling

Posted on April 27, 2010
Lawyers are coddled, writes Rick Casey of the Houston Chronicle, because they can’t be sued unless a client’s conviction is overturned. They’re coddled because they’re not monetarily liable for any errors they make that result in a conviction...

All drivers are dangerous and the police are the Borg

Posted on April 26, 2010
Consider the facts: On April 1, 2006, Officers Craig Miller, David Rivera and Charles Gargano of the New Haven police department were patrolling the Fair Haven neighborhood as part of their duties with that city?s drug interdiction unit. The neighborhood was known for frequent drug trafficking activity...

How hard is too hard?

Posted on April 25, 2010
In response to my previous post on lawyer misadvice, a longtime PD and friend of the blog asks: when does counseling end and coercion begin? How hard can you push the client to make a certain decision before it crosses the line? To be sure, it is an important question and a difficult one...

The downfall of parody

Posted on April 25, 2010
(subtitles contain profanities) For the story behind this and the latest furor (GET IT!?!?!). The original: H/T

Effective misadvice is ineffective

Posted on April 23, 2010
[Or: Leave your ego in law school] When Ahmed Kenyatta Ebron was told by his lawyer that he should reject the State’s offer and instead plead guilty without an agreement because “he couldn’t do much worse or words to that effect”, he did what all of us usually hope our clients do: take our advice...

The other Michigan bailout

Posted on April 21, 2010
Much has been written over the last two years or so about bailouts: bailouts of Wall Street, banks and of course the auto-industry, formerly of Detroit, Michigan. This blog has also focused on bailouts, but those of a different kind: the bailouts of public defender systems which are not forthcoming...

It?s criminal!: an analysis of CT Supreme Ct opinions

Posted on April 19, 2010
Two long years ago, on a bored Saturday afternoon, spurred by my (now AWOL) muse Miranda, I wrote this post which superficially analyzed Connecticut Supreme Court decisions. The analysis was pretty limited: how many times did the State win and how many times did the defendant win...

I see crumb people

Posted on April 16, 2010
Yes, that’s a play on words. And a clever one, if you think about it. If it’s April, it means it’s time for the new year’s first edition of “Follow the Crumbs“. You search, I ridicule, in a nutshell. Let’s get on with it, shall we? alfred doctrine: “such rot sir, why you’re the very model of [...

Skakel loses the battle, but the war looms?

Posted on April 15, 2010
In a mind bogglingly long opinion released earlier this week, CT’s Supreme Court upheld the denial of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel’s motion for new trial. There is a concurrence and a dissent as well. The decision is long and I don’t care enough to dissect it...

Padilla: It?s not that complicated, really

Posted on April 11, 2010
[Yes, another Padilla v. Kentucky post. Sorry, suck it up.] Padilla is what some might call a “landmark” case; altering the landscape at least for the defense practitioner. So, with reason, it has generated much discussion among those of us who’ve chosen to make our views and opinions public...

Enough already

Posted on April 11, 2010
I can’t read the news anymore, nor can I watch it. Perhaps this is why I exclusively read blogs. News is depressing these days and local news more so. The headlines are practically the same every week: “2 shot in New Haven”, “Man found dead in Hartford”, “Summer is around the corner; violence is spiking”...

Aww, you shouldn?t have

Posted on April 11, 2010
I’m proud to announce the addition of a new section to the blog. What with credibility on the internet being a hot topic these days, I’ve enlisted the help of some dear friends to help prove mine. In the testimonial section of the blog, you can read what others are saying about me and this [...

Bysiewicz in brief

Posted on April 11, 2010
[Yes, another Susan Bysiewicz as AG post. But these are hit-machines, so I'ma milk this cash cow till it comes home.] Thanks to the good folks at CT News Junkie, we get to read the trial brief submitted to Judge Michael Sheldon by Bysiewicz’s attorney Wesley Horton [I guess someone at CTNJ went to the clerk's [...

Dealing with Padilla v. Kentucky

Posted on April 09, 2010
SCOTUS’ decision in Padilla v. Kentucky has generated a lot of discussion and rightly so. As I noted in one post, some are concerned about the additional burden being placed on defense lawyers to learn and be informed of the highly complex area of immigration law...

Guilty of being poor

Posted on April 06, 2010
There is a myth that persists among criminal defendants that is well known to all of us: if you are poor, there’s a greater likelihood you’ll be found guilty of something. This myth – and a myth it is, because the rate of conviction is so damn high that you can’t honestly carve out any [...

Bye bye Bysiewicz

Posted on April 06, 2010
The transcripts of Susan Bysiewicz’s deposition have been released after her lawyer, the renowned Wesley Horton, conducted a cursory 5 minute search of the relevant law and determined he couldn’t block their dissemination. It’s not looking good...

The presumption of guilt

Posted on April 04, 2010
Ammianus Marcellinus relates an anecdote of the Emperor Julian which illustrates the enforcement of this principle in the Roman law. Numerius, the governor of Narbonensis, was on trial before the Emperor, and, contrary to the usage in criminal cases, the trial was public...

Announcing the apd iPhone and iPad app

Posted on April 01, 2010
As some of you know, I’m an iPhone aficionado. Long have friends and colleagues complained that I am attached at the hip to this marvel of modern technology. I have a lot of apps on my phone and a lot of links. I have a link to Google Reader to track my favorite blogs, a link [...

Choice quotes from Padilla v. Kentucky

Posted on April 01, 2010
Here are a few things that I noted in Padilla v. Kentucky that I left out of my last post, which I wanted to focus mainly on the immigration issue itself. But these are worth mentioning. First, for the habeas practitioner, Justice Stevens delivers a powerful statement: In [the Supreme Court of Kentucky's] view, ?collateral consequences are [...

Padilla v. Kentucky: If it is clear, it is clearly your duty

Posted on April 01, 2010
Yesterday, in Padilla v. Kentucky, the United States Supreme Court finally got around to affirming and acknowledging that which most of us in the field already knew: immigration consequences matter. Writing for a 5-4 majority (7-2, if you count the concurrences), Justice Stevens opined that when the immigration consequences of a plea are clear, it is [...

Vengeance at its most shameful

Posted on March 30, 2010
Jordan Brown, a resident of western Pennsylvania, is charged with shooting Kenzie Marie Houk and her unborn child. Police say that Brown shot her once at point blank range. Today, a judge ruled that the prosecution against Brown can remain in his court and denied the defense’s motion for transfer of venue...

All it takes is one

Posted on March 30, 2010
One witness, one complainant, one word. That’s all it takes for your life to start tumbling down the rabbit hole. One accusation, one prosecutor to believe it and one judge who is laissez-faire. That’s all it takes. For some cosmic reason, this has been the most frequent topic of conversation with clients that I’ve had in [...

Monday Morning Jumpstart

Posted on March 29, 2010
You know the drill: A 6-minute verdict in a capital felony trial. Ex-offenders want a seat at the funding table. 9th circuit okays use of taser on pregnant woman. MD venireperson brings lawyer to “failure to appear” hearing. 10 rules for dealing with the police...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

World-renowned Dermatologist Warns Public of Botox Dangers
Beverly Hills, CA: Dr. Arnold Klein, a world-renowned dermatologis...

NO TRIMMING IN PUBLIC PLACES
In the Village of Scarsdale, you're not allowed to &quot...