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Criminal Law

Law Of Criminal Defense

News, information, ethics opinions and analysis relating to criminal defense, legal ethics and professional responsibility.
By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Post Frequency: 11.2/day

Last Entry: March 25, 2011 at 18:32:28

WA: Three year suspension for failing to file CTR; client ratted out lawyer

Posted on September 23, 2009
Disbarment is the presumptive sanction for a conviction for failing to file a CTR. Here, mitigating circumstances led to a three year suspension. The client, a former lawyer, paid his criminal defense lawyer in cash in a paper bag, and the lawyer put the money in his home safe...

Kuenhe oral argument today in CA11

Posted on September 23, 2009
Ben Kuehne's dismissed indictment was heard in oral argument by a "skeptical" panel of the Eleventh Circuit today on the government's appeal. Kuehne was retained to vet the legality of a Columbian drug lords fee, and he was indicted for apparently good faith advice...

Lawyer outted for sloppy pleading drafting

Posted on September 22, 2009
A Florida lawyer is chastised for a sloppy pleading. Benchslap: Judge Orders Local Attorney to ‘Re-Read … FRCP’, and it is going around the internet. The judge marked up the offending pleading, and put the mark up on PACER, and it's linked in the article...

The walls have ears

Posted on September 21, 2009
In the Ukiah, CA Daily Journal today is an article entitled Judicial Follies, with a tale from a 1952 murder case in San Angelo TX where the defendant called his lawyer in Dallas and admitted to killing his wife in San Angelo. The operator just happened to have listened in and testified to overhearing the conversation, despite attorney client privilege...

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SC criminal defense lawyer allegedly hired hit man for former office mate

Posted on September 20, 2009
A Conway, SC criminal defense lawyer is accused of hiring a hit man to kill a lawyer he shared space with. See ABAJournal.com: Attorney Accused of Trying to Hire a Hit Man to Kill Another Lawyer. The Sun News article is here. (He's not a member of NACDL...

Stanford gets CJA counsel

Posted on September 19, 2009
Stanford gets Kent Schaffer at taxpayer expense. See Laurel Brubaker Calkins and Andrew M. Harris, Stanford Gets Champagne Defense on Beer Budget as Public Pays, on Bloomberg.com: R. Allen Stanford, the Texas financier accused of leading a $7 billion fraud, will be defended by some of Houston’s most talented lawyers at taxpayer expense...

"My Cousin Vinny" cited by 7th Cir.

Posted on September 18, 2009
Lawyer jailed for contempt during trial was not shown to have denied defendant of effective assistance of counsel because counsel was sleep deprived in the county jail. Sutherland v. Gaetz, 08-1404 (7th Cir. September 14, 2009). Footnote 1: Defense counsel’s obstinate behavior and the court’s exasperation with it may be reminiscent for some of the contentious interplay between the fictional characters of Vincent LaGuardia Gambini and Judge Chamberlain Haller in the film “My Cousin Vinnie...

Boston.com: Lawyer acquitted of smuggling heroin into priston

Posted on September 17, 2009
Back in 2007 is this post about a Massachusetts lawyer charged with smuggling heroin into a prison. He was acquitted today: Lawyer not guilty in drug delivery on Boston.com: A Norfolk judge has acquitted a Boston lawyer of charges he sought to deliver heroin to an inmate at MCI-Cedar Junction in Walpole...

Stanford gets FPD

Posted on September 15, 2009
R. Allen Stanford in Houston ends up with the FPD for the S.D. Tex. Dick DeGuerin quoted a $20M fee, but Stanford no long had money.

NYT: Blogging about judges; FL lawyer catches a beef

Posted on September 13, 2009
Another lawyer blogging ethics complaint article in today's NYTimes: A Legal Battle: Online Attitude vs. Rules of the Bar. A Florida lawyer blogs about judges and he catches an ethical beef: Sean Conway was steamed at a Fort Lauderdale judge, so he did what millions of angry people do these days: he blogged about her, saying she was an “Evil, Unfair Witch...

"Gideon: Right to Counsel?: Landmark Decision Falls Short of Promise"

Posted on September 12, 2009
Bob Kemper, Gideon: Right to Counsel?: Landmark Decision Falls Short of Promise, D.C. Bar's Washington Lawyer (Sept. 2009).

Blogging PD catches a disciplinary beef

Posted on September 11, 2009
A former public defender who blogged about clients and judges is in disciplinary trouble for ID'g clients on the blog, presumably not calling some judges assholes. See ABAJournal.com: Blogging Assistant PD Accused of Revealing Secrets of Little-Disguised Clients.

CA8: Giving sentencing counsel one week to read 24 volumes of co-defendant's trial record was not denial of counsel

Posted on September 08, 2009
Giving sentencing counsel one week to read 24 volumes of the co-defendant's murder trial before sentencing was difficult and could have been handled better, but it was not a complete denial of counsel on this record. United States v. Clay, 2009 U.S. App...

Peter Baird, one of Miranda's lawyers, dies

Posted on September 03, 2009
Peter Baird, one of Ernesto Miranda's lawyers from Phoenix, died last week. He defended Miranda on remand. His obituary appears in various papers across the country. NLJ here. He apparently was the last surviving lawyer.

CA requires disclosure of malpractice insurance starting in '10

Posted on September 03, 2009
California requires disclosure of malpractice insurance, starting January 1st. See California Rules of Professional Conduct 3-410. It exempts house counsel and government lawyers. What about CJA lawyers? Nobody asked before the rule was adopted, it seems.

W.D.La.: Defense counsel's strategy to deny knowledge of drugs hidden in a car was reasonable

Posted on August 30, 2009
Defense counsel's decision to argue in a conspiracy case that a hidden compartment was unknown to him was reasonable. It was also reasonable to advise the defendant not to testify on this record. United States v. Villalovos, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75913 (W...

Mexican drug wars now killing criminal defense lawyers

Posted on August 30, 2009
The Mexican drug wars have led to the murders of two criminal defense lawyers. See LATimes today: Prominent defense lawyer is stabbed to death. Why would defense lawyers get killed? Because they are arguing for somebody's control?

CA8: Completely bungled defaulted by IAC death case may have no relief left

Posted on August 29, 2009
A habeas petitioner represented in his state post-conviction proceedings by an incompetent convicted felon from another state (the licensing state did not know about the conviction until he was convicted of fraud in federal court) defaulted his claims...

In re Sawyer

Posted on August 25, 2009
An attorney actively engaged in the conduct of a trial is not merely another citizen. He is an intimate and trusted and essential part of the machinery of justice, an "officer of the court" in the most compelling sense. --In re Sawyer, 360 U.S. 622, 668 (1959)

Charles Dickens: ?If there were no bad people there would be no good lawyers?

Posted on August 24, 2009
“If there were no bad people there would be no good lawyers.” --Charles Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop ch. 56, at 350 (1841) The full passage, p. 349-50: It's a very pleasant world we live in, yes sir, a very pleasant world. There are bad people in it, Mr...

Tacoma WA lawyer arrested for dealing marijuana from home/office

Posted on August 24, 2009
A Tacoma, WA lawyer was arrested for allegedly dealing marijuana from his home/office.

Are your moral standards are flexible?

Posted on August 23, 2009
Society is indeed fortunate that there exists among lawyers those whose moral standards are sufficiently flexible so as to enable them to practice criminal law. --John G. Milburn, President, NY City Bar, 1920. (Judy Clark uses this quote in CLEs, and that's where I got it...

NPR: "Not Enough Money or Time to Defend Detroit's Poor

Posted on August 22, 2009
NPR's "All Things Considered" on indigent defense in Detroit: Not Enough Money Or Time To Defend Detroit's Poor. A sad story about indigent defense funding and the client. Detroit has a hybrid system with appointed counsel.

Stanford case goings on over fees

Posted on August 22, 2009
In the Stanford case, the Houston Chronicle reports that lawyers in the case were involved in an altercation while discussing fees about a month ago. Accounts differ; nobody's pressing charges. The fee in dispute? Allegedly $30M.

Simels convicted in E.D.N.Y. after seven days of deliberation

Posted on August 20, 2009
Criminal defense lawyer Robert Simels was found guilty in Brooklyn federal court today of conspiracy to commit witness tampering. See Bloomberg News: Lawyer Convicted of Plan to ‘Neutralize’ Witnesses. See also NYPost.com, NYTimes, NY Lawyer Guilty of Witness Tampering in Drug Case, SD Union-Tribune...

Phony lawyer gets 51 months

Posted on August 17, 2009
Howard O. Kieffer, convicted of being a fake lawyer in jury trials, was sentenced to 51 months in federal court on Friday. P rior post is here and here about the trial.

Gentile a special prosecutor in NV

Posted on August 12, 2009
Dominic Gentile, of Gentile v. State Bar of Nevada fame, has been retained to be a special prosecutor in the fraud case of Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, for $415,000.

GA: Making faces not contempt, at least in this case

Posted on August 11, 2009
Monroe Freedman in BNA, posted on Legal Ethics Forum that a juvenile defender in a child welfare proceeding who allegedly made faces as she was writing down the judge's comments could not be found in contempt because there was no likelihood the actions, if true, interfered with the administration of justice...

NYT: In China, they arrest lawyers

Posted on August 10, 2009
In China, they arrest lawyers: See NYT today: Lawyer’s Detention Shakes China’s Rights Movement: China’s nascent legal rights movement, already reeling from a crackdown on crusading lawyers, the kidnapping of defense witnesses and the shuttering of a prominent legal clinic, has been shaken by the detention of a widely respected rights defender who has been incommunicado since the police led him away from his apartment 12 days ago...

Accused NYC criminal defense lawyer testifies in his own behalf

Posted on August 05, 2009
The case of the NYC lawyer on trial in Brooklyn, posted here, had the accused defense counsel testify in his own behalf yesterday, denying that he planned any harm or to bribe a witness. He was repeatedly recorded by a snitch, wired by the FBI. He testified he used "kill a witness" in the context of cross-examination, particularly since he is recognized for his prowess as a cross-examiner...

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