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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

You never know who is listening to your telephone calls

Posted on March 19, 2009
Federal prosecutors in Miami attempted to get a criminal defense lawyer to fall for witness bribery in a secretly recorded telephone call. See US prosecutors accused of misconduct in case: U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta on Wednesday called the situation "regrettable" and said the allegations have been referred to the U...

Cross-examination better than sex

Posted on March 18, 2009
Yesterday morning I had a witness in an ugly trial who admitted on direct as a government witness to testifying differently in the case case before. She did not mention on direct for the government that it was 80 pages worth of testimony in two hearings (detention and suppression) going to the heart of the case, and which thus came in as substantive evidence under F...

CA2: Defendant's own lies to defense counsel led to his trial, not defense counsel

Posted on March 14, 2009
Defendant’s lies about the quality of the defense and the facts to defense counsel that led defense counsel to determine that defendant should not enter a plea agreement with the government and go to trial was essentially decided in the prior appeal and showed that defense counsel was not ineffective because of defendant’s own actions...

CT: Expert testimony usually required in malpractice cases

Posted on March 13, 2009
Statute of limitations for a sentencing error of a criminal defense lawyer runs from the sentencing, and here was time barred. Moreover, expert testimony is normally required in criminal defense malpractice. Pagan v. Gonzalez, AC 28841 (Conn. March 17, 2009): The exception to the need for expert testimony is limited to situations in which the defendant attorney essentially has done nothing whatsoever to represent his or her client’s interests, resulting in such "an obvious and gross want of care and skill that the neglect would be clear even to a layperson...

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Defense lawyer's scuffle with off-duty officer in court results in hospitalization

Posted on March 12, 2009
A criminal defense lawyer got into a scuffle in court with an off-duty police officer in Michigan, and he was hospitalized. Detroit Free Press: Court fight lands Macomb County lawyer in ER / Officials silent about alleged clash with cop: Court officials wouldn't comment on the incident Tuesday afternoon, citing the ongoing police investigation...

GA: Indigent defense budgetary concerns do not obviate state's duty to pay conflict defenders

Posted on March 11, 2009
Lawyers appointed to represent an indigent accused as conflict defenders were not paid under the trial court's order. The state contended the county should pay. The State's funding problems and budgetary concerns do not obviate that the lawyers be paid...

Lawyer's impatience as juror leads to bar complaint

Posted on March 10, 2009
On March 5th is this post: Criminal defense lawyer's actions as special judge lead to license surrender. In California, a lawyer is under bar investigation for his actions as a juror. See Lawyer’s Impatience as a Juror Could Lead to Disbarment.

Criminal defense lawyer's actions as special judge lead to license surrender

Posted on March 05, 2009

IN: Disbarment for false swearing on tax returns

Posted on March 04, 2009

Article: The Role of Trial Counsel in Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Claims: Three Questions to Keep in Mind

Posted on March 03, 2009

IL: Moonlighting lawyer breached fiduciary obligation to firm

Posted on March 02, 2009

OK: Personal and financial relationship with client justified disqualification

Posted on March 01, 2009

NY1: Repeated federal sanctions remaining unpaid results in disbarment

Posted on February 27, 2009

SC: False expense billing results in 9 month suspension

Posted on February 24, 2009
False billing of expenses to a client resulted in a nine month suspension in South Carolina for misrepresentation and fraud. In re Gray, 26602 (S.C. February 17, 2009).

Rule 1.10 amended by the ABA

Posted on February 22, 2009
At the Winter ABA meeting in Boston, the House of Delegates adopted a revised Rule 1.10, a rule change that was long debated. This rule permits the screening of a lawyer who moves laterally from one private law firm to another, so that conflicts of interest that apply to the moving lawyer under Model Rule 1...

TX3: Assaulting lawyer during trial not necessarily ineffective assistance

Posted on February 21, 2009
Defendant cannot assault his lawyer during trial and then necessarily successfully contend the lawyer was ineffective. The lawyer's actions showed that he was being effective. Berry v. State, 03-08-00031-CR (Tex. App.--Austin February 4, 2009): In his second issue on appeal, Berry argues that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel during the punishment phase because a conflict of interest arose when the State presented evidence of Berry's assault on counsel...

Massachusetts court funding leads to postponing criminal trials, too

Posted on February 20, 2009
Even criminal trials are being postposed in Massachuetts due to state budget cuts from lack of courtroom security. See Trial Court seeks to restore funds.

Criminal defense lawyer informing drug dealers of who snitches are

Posted on February 20, 2009
An Austin TX area criminal defense lawyer was convicted of teaming up with drug dealers to tell them who were snitches. See Austin American-Statesman's Testimony: Defense lawyer teamed with drug dealers, posted Friday night: Noe Perez said he was skeptical when a woman who sold drugs for him brought then-Austin criminal defense lawyer Bruce Garrison to a South Austin motel room in 2006...

Baton Rouge criminal defense lawyer murdered

Posted on February 20, 2009
Baton Rouge criminal defense attorney Chiquita Patrece Tate was found murdered in her downtown office at 6 a.m. Friday morning. Baton Rouge attorney found dead in her office. She had not come home from work that night before. She was at work preparing for a jury trial starting Monday.

Client suicide

Posted on February 18, 2009
I lost an appeal of a Fourth Amendment issue in a federal appeals court about three months ago. I filed a motion for bail pending a writ of cert which was denied on February 8th. He was to surrender February 16th at Texarkana FCI. Pretrial services called today to say that he had not surrendered as scheduled...

CO moves to suspend lawyer CI

Posted on February 04, 2009
The State of Colorado has moved to suspend Francis M. Pignatelli, previously discussed here on Jan. 26. Today's Office of Attorney Regulation press release: DENVER – The Colorado Supreme Court Office of Attorney Regulation today announced that it has filed a petition to immediately suspend Colorado lawyer Francis (Frank) M...

Remember when the police mistreated you in college?

Posted on January 31, 2009
How a young person's interaction with the police creates career choices. See the Philadephia Inquirer's article today of my friend Bill Buckman: Lawyer who took on profiling at it again.

Stanford law grad pleads to tax evasion on prostitution income

Posted on January 28, 2009
A Stanford law grad was convicted of tax evasion for prostitution to pay for student loans. See LATimes.com Tuesday: Stanford law graduate who allegedly was a call girl pleads guilty to tax evasion / Cristina Warthen once boasted that she paid off student loans by working as an escort, a search warrant affidavit says...

ABAJ.com: Defendant Gets New Lawyer and Trial After Smearing Feces on PD

Posted on January 27, 2009
On ABAJournal.com is this disconcerting story: Defendant Gets New Lawyer and Trial After Smearing Feces on PD. It's a felony to do that in jail in most states, but apparently not in court. I just might, however, be a contempt of court.

SCOTUS cert. grant: Appealability of order of production on a claim of attorney-client privilege

Posted on January 27, 2009
SCOTUS cert grant, from Willamette School of Law: Mohawk Industries, Inc. v. Carpenter Certiorari granted: 1/26/09 No. 08-678 Court Below: 541 F.3d 1048 (11th Cir. 2008) ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE (Whether a party can immediately appeal a lower court’s decision compelling the production of privileged documents based on a finding of waiver of the attorney-client privilege) Carpenter (Respondent), an employee of Mohawk Industries, Inc...

Brady at large in the D.Mass.

Posted on January 27, 2009
From the NLJ's web version today: Federal judge considers sanctions for Boston U.S. attorney's office. The court is considering sanctions for a Brady violation. We say Brady, they say "it wasn't exonerating." Brady to us means the entire Brady doctrine from Brady to Kyles, with all the permutations...

Criminal defense lawyer worked as CI against clients

Posted on January 26, 2009
A lawyer from Ohio, now reportedly practicing in Denver, has been working as a governing informant for the last three years, resulting in the arrest of several clients and seizure of drugs and cash. Attorney stings 30 defendants / Authorities credit work by informant; latest drug suspect gets 15 years in prison: A high-stakes Akron drug dealer has become the latest suspect stung by an attorney who became an informant for federal agents...

Saying too much on exiting a case?

Posted on January 24, 2009
Governor Rob Blagojevich's lead criminal defense lawyer exited Friday: Blagojevich plans to take his public relations campaign national on Monday with back-to-back appearances on ABC's morning shows "Good Morning America" and " The View," followed by an evening stint on CNN's "Larry King Live...

NY2: Lawyers should not be prosecuted for good faith legal advice

Posted on January 19, 2009
A lawyer should not, indeed, cannot, be prosecuted for giving good faith legal advice. Here, the lawyer advised a job action by nurses that led to all their prosecution for abandoning patients. "It is an assault on the adversarial system of justice upon which our society ...

Peter E. Fleming, Jr. has died

Posted on January 18, 2009
Peter E. Fleming, Jr., former Attorney General John Mitchell's criminal defense lawyer, died in NYC: A People magazine profile of him during the Mitchell trial described how, “while interrogating former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman G...

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