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Criminal Law

Palm Beach Criminal Defense Blog

Information about law and order in Florida for both practitioners and potential clients. Also some discussions about evidence and the death penalty.
By Ron Chapman

Post Frequency: 0.8/day

Last Entry: October 15, 2020 at 18:08:06

Florida's New DNA Law: Is It Constitutional?

Posted on June 28, 2009
Earlier this month, Florida's governor, Charlie Crist, signed Senate Bill 2276 which permits the police to take a DNA sample from anyone who is merely arrested for a felony offense. In an article entitled "Crist signs law ordering DNA tests for all arrested in felonies, raising privacy fears," Palm Beach Post staff writer Dara Kam observed that a Minnesota appellate court held a similar law to be unconstitutional...

Rush Limbaugh's Pretrial Intervention Agreement

Posted on June 24, 2009
In 2006, political commentator Rush Limbaugh was charged with committing the crime of Withholding Information from a Practitioner. On May 1, 2006, Limbaugh entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the Office of the State Attorney...

What Happens When a Judge Sets a Bond that is the Equivalent of No Bond?

Posted on June 15, 2009
It is an all-too-frequent occurrence in Florida's criminal courts that a judge will set a bond in a given case, yet the accused individual continues to remain in jail because he cannot afford to pay that bond...

When is it Illegal to Search a Student?

Posted on June 07, 2009
In the case of New Jersey v. T.L.O., the United States Supreme Court stated that "[u]nder ordinary circumstances, a search of a student by a school or other school official [is permitted] when there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence that the student has violated or is violating either the law or the rules of the school...

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When Does Police Trickery Cross the Line?

Posted on June 05, 2009
On March 4, 2008, I wrote an article on this blog entitled "Are the Police Allowed to Lie to Get You to Confess?" I answered that question by saying, "[Y]es, the police are allowed to lie to you to get you to confess...

When is a Police Roadblock Illegal?

Posted on May 31, 2009
You have probably seen police roadblocks when you were out driving your car, and you may have even been stopped at one, but did you know that before the police are allowed to actually set up a roadblock they are first required to prepare written guidelines so that the officers conducting the roadblock do not violate motorists' rights by, for example, stopping motorists because of their race or ethnicity? In the case of State of Florida v...

What is an Administrative Expunction?

Posted on May 29, 2009
Sometimes a person will be arrested, yet the case never actually goes to court either because the police do not file the case with the State Attorney's Office or because the State Attorney's Office decides not to prosecute the case...

How the FBI Misidentified a Suspected Terrorist Using Fingerprint Evidence

Posted on May 25, 2009
<p> In May 2004, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation">Federal Bureau of Investigation</a> (FBI) arrested <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Mayfield">Brandon Mayfield</a>, a lawyer, as a <a href="http://en...

Prosecutors Fight Access to DNA Tests for Convicts

Posted on May 22, 2009
The following article appeared in the New York Times earlier this week: In an age of advanced forensic science, the first step toward ending Kenneth Reed's prolonged series of legal appeals should be simple and quick: a DNA test, for which he has offered to pay, on evidence from the 1991 rape of which he was convicted...

The Entrapment Defense in Federal Court

Posted on May 17, 2009
In the case of United States v. Francis, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit stated that the defense of entrapment consists of the following two elements: 1...

Minnesota Supreme Court Orders Prosecutors to Turn Over Computer Source Code for Breathalyzer

Posted on May 15, 2009
On January 25, 2009, I posted an article on this website entitled "Judge Throws Out More Than 100 Breathalyzer Tests." The article discussed how two different appellate courts affirmed the rulings of Manatee County Court Judge Doug Henderson that evidence of breath alcohol tests in more than 100 drunk-driving cases could not be presented at trial because the company that makes Florida's breathalyzers, CMI, Inc...

What Can You Do When the Police Break the Law? Sometimes Nothing at All Says the U.S. Supreme Court

Posted on May 08, 2009
Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Herring v. United States in which the issue presented was whether evidence found during a search incident to arrest must be excluded in a later prosecution when that evidence was seized by the police in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U...

U.S. Supreme Court Modifies Search-Incident-to-Arrest Exception to Warrant Requirement

Posted on April 30, 2009
The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly stated that searches conducted by the police without first obtaining a search warrant are unlawful unless those searches fall within certain recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement contained in the Fourth Amendment to the U...

When Can a Judge Increase Your Bond?

Posted on April 24, 2009
When a person is arrested for a State crime in Florida, he is typically taken before a judge within twenty-four hours of his arrest so that the judge can set the conditions of his release from jail...

Federal Appeals Judge Declares Capital Punishment System to be Broken Beyond Repair

Posted on April 20, 2009
In the case of Wiles v. Bagley, Boyce F. Martin, Jr., a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, stated that "[c]apital punishment in this country remains 'arbitrary, biased, and so fundamentally flawed at its very core that it is beyond repair...

When Does the Government Cross the Line Between Trapping an Unwary Innocent Person Versus Trapping an Unwary Criminal?

Posted on April 12, 2009
In the case of Jacobson v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the conviction of Mr. Jacobson after finding that agents of the federal government entrapped him when they overstepped the line between trapping an unwary innocent person and trapping an unwary criminal...

Federal Appeals Court Overturns Lower-Court Rulings that Found Sex Offender Registation Act Unconstitutional

Posted on April 05, 2009
In the two cases of United States of America vs. Powers and United States of America vs. Buckius, both Mr. Powers and Mr. Buckius were indicted for failing to register as sex offenders as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (otherwise known as "SORNA")...

See My New Website That Answers Your Frequently-Asked-Questions About Sealing or Expunging Florida Criminal Records

Posted on March 26, 2009
I'm launching a new website that answers your frequently-asked-questions about sealing or expunging Florida criminal records. Many people who contact me about sealing or expunging their criminal records ask the following questions: 1...

My New Website: Florida Criminal Records FAQ

Posted on March 26, 2009
I'm pleased to announce the launch of a new website for my law firm, the Florida Criminal Records FAQ. The purpose of this new website is to answer many basic questions about criminal records in Florida, with an emphasis on how to seal or expunge such records...

DNA Evidence is Only as Reliable as the People and Methods Used to Examine It

Posted on March 16, 2009
DNA profiling is a method used by forensic scientists to help identify a criminal suspect based upon his unique genetic code. If you watch some of the crime-scene shows that appear frequently on television, you would think that DNA profiling is infallible...

60 Minutes on Eyewitness Testimony & False Memories

Posted on March 11, 2009
The television show "60 Minutes" recently presented a very interesting segment on eyewitness testimony and false memory. Contained in this article are three video segments and a PDF printed version of the story's text. Eyewitness Testimony, Part 1: Watch CBS Videos Online Eyewitness Testimony, Part 2: Watch CBS Videos Online Exclusive, The Bunny Effect: Watch CBS Videos Online Here is a PDF capture of of the story's text.

Florida Cases Where Jurors Were Allowed to Hear Evidence of Previous False Accusations

Posted on March 05, 2009

Why Florida Jurors Are Rarely Allowed to Hear Evidence of Previous False Accusations

Posted on February 23, 2009
In many criminal cases, the evidence presented at trial boils down to one witness accusing the person on trial of committing an illegal act. For example, in some rape cases, the prosecution's main evidence consists of the alleged rape victim's testimony that the accused individual is the man who raped her...

Unless You Object to the Police Searching Your Home Now, You May Not Be Able to Complain Later

Posted on February 13, 2009
Wayne R. Lafave, a noted criminal-law scholar, has said that "there is no dispute that [police searches based upon consent] affect tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people every year...

When is Consent to a Police Search Invalid?

Posted on February 06, 2009
In many cases in which the police want to search someone's car or home, they try to obtain the owner's verbal or written consent so that they do not have to get a search warrant from a judge or otherwise be concerned about the lawfulness of conducting a search...

Judge Throws Out Evidence Obtained by Police at DUI Checkpoint

Posted on January 28, 2009
Manatee County Court Judge Doug Henderson recently issued an order suppressing all evidence that the police obtained at a sobriety checkpoint in 2008. According to an article that appeared at BradentonHerald...

Judge Throws Out More Than 100 Breathalyzer Tests

Posted on January 25, 2009
Two years ago, Manatee County Court Judge Doug Henderson ruled that evidence of breath alcohol tests in more than 100 drunk-driving cases could not be presented at trial. According to an article that appeared earlier this month at BradentonHerald...

When is Self-Defense Not a Defense?

Posted on January 01, 2009
Several Florida cases in which defendants claimed self-defense have been overturned on appeal because the trial judge incorrectly read to the jury what is sometimes referred to as a forcible-felony jury instruction...

Self-Defense and Dismissal of Charges

Posted on December 24, 2008
It is the law in Florida that when a person accused of committing a crime claims that he acted in self-defense, the case should be dismissed by the trial judge when the prosecution's evidence is legally insufficient to rebut the claim of self-defense...

Self-Defense and the Right to Bear Arms

Posted on December 16, 2008
The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution states that "[a] well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed...

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