Criminal Law

Officer Jackboot?s pretextual stop (video)

Posted on November 07, 2010
If you haven’t seen this cartoon of a defense attorney cross-examining Officer Jackboot, you really should. I laugh harder every time I see it. It has it all the greatest hits officers recite religiously nearly every time they take the stand: welfare check, experience and training, officer safety, etc...

Long Overdue Links

Posted on November 06, 2010
It’s good to have a post here every six months or so, don’t you think? In that spirit, and in case you missed these, here are a handful of great public defender stories from, oh, well, the last couple of months: Pubic Defender cited for contempt in Rochester, MN, for being unable to appear in two [...

Public Defender Store: Now open!

Posted on June 20, 2010
Are you looking for the perfect card to send to your favorite public defender friend, or a sticker for your trial notebook or car, or perhaps a poster for your office? Then look no further than the Public Defender Store from Public Defender Revolution! Open now for your purchasing and gift-giving delight...

U.S. Attorney General calls for stronger Sixth Amendment right to counsel

Posted on June 19, 2010
U.S. Attorney Eric Holder spoke today in Wilmington, NC, about the need for more resources for public defenders and more substance in the Sixth Amendment right to counsel: “Today the Sixth Amendment right to council is quite simply, not a right at all...

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Apologize for calling a cop a liar? I don?t think so!

Posted on June 16, 2010
Minnesota Judge Gregory Galler clearly doesn’t understand the criminal justice system: When criminal defense lawyers cross-examine police officers on the witness stand in court, its not unusual for the questioning to becomes aggressive and testy...

Taking the fight a little too literally?

Posted on June 04, 2010
We’ve all been there: You walk out of court seething with anger and frustration over what just happened to your client. The prosecutor just misrepresented something to the court or snuck in a devastating line of questioning over your objections or a thousand other possible dirty tricks and you’re so angry you just want to [...

Around the blawgs

Posted on May 15, 2010
What did you miss in criminal defense blogging this week? Probably a lot. With that in mind, here’s a very limited (I only have so much time!) selection of the best the blawgosphere has to offer: Not for the Monosyllabic is running out of pens to jam into her eyes because of too much [...

So long, Trial Theory

Posted on May 13, 2010
Trial Theory, described as a group blog written by trial lawyers on the subject of trial practice and creative trial preparation, is calling it quits due to lack of participation. There were many great posts there, so if there were any you’d like to save for posterity, head over and do a few control-c’s before [...

What is your client thinking?

Posted on May 03, 2010
Jeremy Pippenger at McSweeney’s says your client is thinking “This really nice suit is going to get me acquitted. Yeah, I could have gone with black, but purple just has so much style. Remember when Mario Van Peebles wore one in New Jack City? He didn’t? Oh well...

Public Defender Revolution: The How-To Series

Posted on April 18, 2010
Carol D at Public Defender Revolution is setting the gold standard for public defender advocacy and activism — at least in the blogosphere. I don’t want to demean or give short shrift to all those great activists and advocates out there about whom I know nothing, but one of Carol D’s great innovations is simply [...

Now that?s a difficult case

Posted on April 16, 2010
How would you like it if this. landed on your desk Monday? ?Jacoby Laquan Smith says he will turn himself in to St. Paul police this week for what must be the most unmanly crime on record: domestically abusing his armless, legless girlfriend. Yeah. That could be a tough one.

Minnesota Public Defenders grieve excessive caseloads

Posted on April 15, 2010
We all work hard, but sometimes, no matter how hard we work, we can’t keep up with the avalanche of new cases. That’s where public defenders in southeastern Minnesota apparently find themselves; they filed a union grievance over excessive workloads: A legislative audit report issued in February said public defender workloads in Minnesota are too high [...

Know those immigration consequences, people!

Posted on April 01, 2010
This news is already everywhere, but in case you haven’t heard, the SCOTUS held yesterday in Padilla v. Kentucky that criminal defense attorneys must give correct advice to clients about the immigration consequences of pleading guilty. Failure to do so will be ineffective assistance of counsel...

Public Defenders blogging on

Posted on March 25, 2010
Public defender blogs seem to come and go. PDs are always busy, plus, there seem to be so many risks. Some namby pamby biglaw lawyers claim that blogging demands “herculean efforts.” Yet, you can’t keep a great PD pundit down. Consider, for example, Skelly at Arbitrary and Capricious...

SCOTUS delays TX execution of Hank Skinner

Posted on March 25, 2010
SCOTUSblog has the story, but in sum: He was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to death for the slaying of his live-in girlfriend and her two mentally retarded, adult sons, in their home in the small town of Pampa, Texas, on New Year?s Eve in 1993. He was in the home during the murder rampage, [...

PD News Notes

Posted on March 22, 2010
In Santa Clara County, CA, the district attorney is systematically removing one judge from all criminal cases in retaliation for the judge’s decision to dismiss a prosecution because the judge found that the prosecutor had lied and concealed exculpatory evidence...

Are your jurors capable of murder?

Posted on March 22, 2010
Researchers in France recently created a “reality” quiz show “to see how far people would go in obeying authority, especially if television reinforces that authority.” The fictitious game show had all the trappings of a real TV quiz show, including a beautiful and well-known hostess, and a raucous audience...

NYCLU sues for better indigent representation

Posted on March 19, 2010
Legislators and local officials typically love to starve indigent defense. The New York Civil Liberties Union has had enough: the lawsuit is a broad challenge to a patchwork system that has been described by decades of studies and commissions as dysfunctional, underfinanced and ?in crisis,? with often poorly trained and poorly supervised lawyers handling huge caseloads...

Um, just don?t. (At least on the sex w/clients part.)

Posted on September 23, 2009
Ok, it’s probably never even crossed your mind, but just in case it has, um, don’t have sex with a client! If a private practitioner has sex with a client, it might be pursued as an a legal ethics violation. But because of his governmental role, a former assistant public defender in [...

Blogging PDs: A dying art?

Posted on September 12, 2009
It was with great sadness that I recently noticed that Skelly has hung up the keyboard at Arbitrary and Capricious after five years of leading the ranks of blogging public defenders. Skelly consistently posted terrific links, thoughts, observations, and musings about being a public defender, about the profession, and about the many changes in society [...

The real story of the PD crisis

Posted on August 26, 2009
Last week NPR caused a minor uproar among public defenders with its hatchet piece on the state of the profession featuring perhaps the nation’s worst public defender, Bob Slameka. Now, Woman of the Law gives us the beginning of the real story with her simple statement of what it really means to be a public defender...

Newbie PD Pick-Me-Up

Posted on March 10, 2009
If you find yourself feeling jaded or discouraged by the grind of your caseload, pause for a moment and take a look at your job and your profession through the enthusiastic eyes of newly-minted PD Not for the Monosyllabic who says being a public defender is pretty much the coolest thing ever: My job kicks so [...

New pd blog posts

Posted on February 19, 2009
Here are the new public defender blog posts: a public defenderA Public Defender’s Life in AlaskaA Year in the LifeAbolish the Death PenaltyArbitrary and CapriciousBetween A Laugh And A TearCook County Public Defenders BlogDemonstrative Evidencethe Dream AntillesFifth Circuit BlogGo West Young Texthe imbroglioIndefensibleInfinity RanchlawbabeakNinth Circuit BlogPD JayPreaching to the ChoirRabid SanitySecond Circuit BlogSwan Lake Samba GirlTales [...

Welcome to the fold

Posted on February 19, 2009
From BRAND NEW public defender blogger Not for the monosyllabic: I GOT THE JOB!! I’m officially an assistant public defender! I’m starting on March 4th! I’ll post more info about it later–I’ve got to call about a bajillion people at the moment! HOOOOOOOORRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!! Hooray indeed!

A stark contrast in courts: Coleman-Franken lawyers v. public defenders

Posted on February 19, 2009
From the MinnPost: Michael Kunkel’s work was done. For the moment. The young lawyer with the Joe Mauer sideburns was trying to relax. His hearing before the Minnesota Court of Appeals, including rapid-fire, rugged questioning from the three justices, was over...

Coalition calls for reforms in public defender system

Posted on February 19, 2009
From the Lansing State Journal: Today, the Campaign for Justice, a coalition of Michigan legal groups and human rights and faith organizations, launched an effort to reform Michigan’s system to prevent further miscarriages of justice. The effort builds on a report issued in June that found the state’s system of providing court-appointed attorneys for indigent defendants, now [...

Ga. public defender system faces challenge

Posted on February 16, 2009
From the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer: Georgia’s cash-strapped public defender system, which already struggles to pay a growing backlog of legal fees, could be faced with a new round of bills stemming from a case under review by the state’s top court...

Supervisors may create Office of Indigent Legal Services

Posted on February 16, 2009
From the Kingman Daily Miner (AZ): A new plan is in the works to take some of the confusion out of indigent defense at the County Superior Court. The County Public Defender’s and Legal Defender’s offices will present a plan during Tuesday’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting that will create an Office of Indigent Legal Services...

A PD win!: Probation is possible under Jessica?s Law

Posted on February 15, 2009
From Kansas Defenders, an appellate victory: Sarah Morrison and I won in State v. Gracey, No. 99310 (Kan. Feb. 6, 2009), holding that Jessica’s Law defendants are eligible for probation when their crime was committed before July 1, 2008. The court held, “[f]or defendants convicted of certain sexually motivated or sexually violent crimes committed before July [...

Pop quiz: Name that charge

Posted on February 15, 2009
From public defender Doubtslinger: Okay I just lost a trial last week. Here is a fair statement of the evidence, see if you can guess what charge my client was convicted of: 1) My client has no prior criminal history 2) The “victim” gave over seven different versions of the story (and never told the same story twice...

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