Ohio

Case Update – Supreme Court Edition

Posted on August 31, 2009
Two weeks ago, I was whining about the lack of decisions from Columbus; now, I’m whining because there’s so many.  Make up my mind, why don’t I. The big decision out of Columbus was State v. Hunter, which concerned the viability of the repeat violent offender specification after State v...

Friday Roundup

Posted on August 28, 2009
Reach out and touch someone.  I ran into one of my buddies in the prosecutor’s office the other day.   He’d been the subject of a laudatory editorial in the Plain Dealer the other day.  He was handling a rape case — a particularly nasty one; the victim was retarded – in which the defendant had [...

JLWOP

Posted on August 27, 2009
One of the major goals of capital punishment opponents has been to offer penalty alternatives to death, one being life imprisonment without parole.  As I mentioned three years ago, studies have shown that the availability of LWOP has had virtually no effect on the imposition of the death penalty...

Coming soon to a courtroom near you

Posted on August 26, 2009
The Columbus Seven’s summer fiesta ends next week, with a full slate of oral arguments running well into October.  Here’s a gander at the cases I’ll be writing about sometime in the near future: State v. Hunter (link is to appellate decision):  Another foray into Crawford:  question is whether child rape victim’s statement to social worker is [...

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What’s up in the 8th

Posted on August 25, 2009
If you wind up on trial for murder, it’s best if the prosecution is not able to introduce a picture from your MySpace page showing you holding a gun, next to the inscription, “Pow!  One in the head, now you’re dead.”  This was one of the lessons provided by the 8th District’s decision this past [...

Case Update

Posted on August 24, 2009
The only real decision from Columbus this past week was one imposing an indefinite suspension upon a lawyer for, among other things, a child pornography conviction.  According to the attorney’s doctor, the attorney suffered from paraphilia, defined as “a condition generated by the clash between individual sexual interest and social rules governing sexual behavior...

Friday Roundup

Posted on August 21, 2009
Something for the Crager court to read.  The other day I talked about the Ohio Supreme Court’s impending reconsideration of their decision in State v. Crager, in which they held a defendant’s confrontation rights weren’t violated by testimony about a DNA result by an analyst other than the one who’d actually performed the test...

The Machinery of Death

Posted on August 20, 2009
In 1991, Troy Davis was convicted by a Georgia jury of killing a policeman two years earlier, and sentenced to death.  No gun was found, no forensic evidence linked Davis to the shooting, and within a few years seven of the nine witnesses against him had recanted, claiming that they’d been coerced into making false [...

Taking a second look – en banc proceedings

Posted on August 19, 2009
Back in April, I chastised the 8th District for its decision in State v. Norman.  On further reflection, I should have kept my mouth shut.  In Norman, the defendant had pled guilty to failure to comply, drug trafficking, and tampering with evidence.  The law requires that any prison sentence for the former offense has to be [...

What’s Up in the 8th

Posted on August 18, 2009
The constitutional ramifications of “hey little girl, want some candy?” are the centerpiece of this week’s work by the 8th District, as misdemeanor defendants fared very well, civil appellants did pretty good, but felony defendants… not so much...

Case Update

Posted on August 17, 2009
Summertime… and the blogging is easy…  Actually, no, because there’s not that much to write about.  The only “decision” of consequence by the Ohio Supreme Court this past week was the dismissal of the appeal from the 8th District’s decision in State v...

Friday Roundup

Posted on August 14, 2009
More on sex offenders.  The constitutionality of Ohio’s Adam Walsh Act, the latest effort to impose ever more Draconian sanctions on sex offenders, is presently pending before the Supreme Court in State v. Bodyke.  The odds for setting aside the law are grim, every appellate district in Ohio having rejected various constitutional challenges to it...

Do the right thing

Posted on August 13, 2009
Nancy Smith and Joseph Allen were convicted of numerous child rape counts back in 1994, and essentially sentenced to life in prison.  The Ohio Innocence Project had gotten involved in the cases, and planned on filing a motion for new trial.  In June, Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge stunned everyone by granting a judgment [...

Crager revisited

Posted on August 12, 2009
Early last year, in State v. Crager (discussed here), the Ohio Supreme Court held that the testimony of laboratory analysts wasn’t subject to Crawford v. Washington:  the defendant did not have a right to confront and cross-examine the person who actually performed the test...

What’s up in the 8th

Posted on August 11, 2009
A couple of good criminal decisions, a couple questionable ones, and I’ll even talk about a civil case this week, as I wade through the two dozen or so decisions handed down by the 8th last week. Although not defined in the statutes, most defense lawyers understand the crime of “aggravated shoplifting:”  someone will pilfer a [...

Case Update

Posted on August 10, 2009
Only one decision from the Ohio Supreme Court this week.  We all know that insurance doesn’t cover intentional torts.  If you punch your neighbor in the mouth, your homeowner’s policy isn’t going to cover you.  But what if your kid punches the neighbor — or, in this case, stabs her — and the neighbor sues [...

Friday Roundup

Posted on August 07, 2009
Talk about environmental “impact.”  If your first thought at looking at this picture of California’s Cold Spring Canyon Bridge was, “Boy, I’d sure like to jump off of that,” you’re not alone:  at least 47 people have committed suicide by doing so since it was built in 1963...

Supreme Court Review – 4th Amendment update

Posted on August 06, 2009
It’s unusual when the Supreme Court hands down three major 4th Amendment decisions in the same term.  It’s more unusual when one suggests a major limitation on the exclusionary rule, while another is one of the most pro-defendant cases in recent memory...

Heller update

Posted on August 05, 2009
You’ll remember that after the Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, affirming an individual 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, I made all sorts of predictions about how this was going to have a major impact on gun regulations...

Case Update – Court of Appeals Edition

Posted on August 04, 2009
Here’s what was on tap in the appellate cases last week… Criminal.  2nd District says battered woman defense not available where defendant testified that husband never hit her and she wasn’t afraid for her safety, but that he was “controlling”… 1st District says that trial court, in resentencing due to improper imposition of post-release controls, erred [...

Case Update – Supreme Court Edition

Posted on August 03, 2009
Slight change of schedule.  The Columbus Seven came down with several notable opinions, so we’ll discuss those today.  The 8th had a slow week, so instead of doing a post on those decisions tomorrow, we’ll combine them with a case update for all the appellate decisions from last week...

Buyer’s remorse

Posted on July 31, 2009
“Well, we’re going to find out how many cases I can competently handle in one day,” I told Bill, the prosecutor.  “How many you got?”  he asked.  “Six.”  He nodded, then thought for a moment.  “I’ll take the under...

A second look at Foster

Posted on July 30, 2009
Since Oregon v. Ice came down in January, I’ve written numerous posts arguing that the US Supreme Court decision upholding Oregon’s law, which permitted judicial factfinding for imposition of consecutive sentences, implicity overruled State v...

Supreme Court Recap

Posted on July 29, 2009
It’s that time of year again.  Here’s my wrap-up of the just-concluded Supreme Court term, focusing on criminal cases and some others of note.  They’re arranged alphabetically, and include links to the opinions, as well as to other posts I’ve written discussing them in more detail...

What’s up in the 8th

Posted on July 28, 2009
Party-goers in Cleveland will be shocked — shocked – to learn that such events often degenerate into gunfights, at least according to the 8th District’s most recent spate of decisions.  Rare reversals on evidence, one for insufficiency and the other for manifest weight, plus the lesson for judges that if you’re going to screw up [...

Case Update

Posted on July 27, 2009
The US Supreme Court’s concluded its term, and I’ll have a recap of the significant decisions on Wednesday.  Down in Columbus, big news for personal injury lawyers, and the doctors/chiropractors/clinics that treat their clients.  It’s not unusual for a medical provider to have a patient sign a form assigning the provider rights to payment for the medical [...

Closed for Vacation

Posted on July 20, 2009
            We’ll be open again on July 27.  See you then.

8th District roundup

Posted on July 17, 2009
I know, usually I do the 8th District stuff on Tuesdays.  But I’m going on vacation for a week tomorrow, and there’s a ton of stuff I’ve got to do today.  I do a weekly post for the listserves of the OACDL and the CCDLA on the 8th District criminal cases, so I’m just going to [...

Oregon v. Ice update

Posted on July 16, 2009
I’ll be on vacation next week, and I’m going to put off doing a comprehensive review of the USSC cases until after I get back.  One of the cases on that list is Oregon v. Ice, and I wanted to get a jump start on that, since that could have a big impact on Ohio sentencing law...

Let’s make a deal

Posted on July 15, 2009
The guy on the elevator shook his head.  “Got to get me a new lawyer,” he said to no one in particular.  “All this one talks about is doin’ a plea.” I could relate.  I’d worked out what I thought was a good deal in Harry’s machete case, but he wanted no part of it...

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