Criminal Law

So much for Obama and change, as he continues pursuing obscenity prosecutions.

Posted on July 19, 2010
When Barack Obama ran for president, I predicted that despite his overgeneralized talk of change that I would be no more satisfied with him than with Bill Clinton, with whom I was only moderately satisfied.   On the obscenity prosecution front, it turns out that Barack Obama?s administration continues pursuing obscenity prosecutions, whereas Bill Clinton?s administration apparently instituted few if any new obscenity prosecutions...

My "Nightline" interview should air next week (not tonight).

Posted on July 16, 2010
My ABC news contact informed me that my Nightline interview should air tonight. (UPDATE: It will be next week. That's what happens when an item is not late-breaking news.) More details are here. Here is an article on the segment, including a quote from me...

Second Circuit stunningly finds FCC's indecently policy unconstitutional.

Posted on July 15, 2010
Last year, I blogged about the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision permitting the FCC to fine broadcasters for fleeting expletives, and leaving the Second Circuit to consider remaining Constitutional matters.  On July 13, 2010, the Second Circuit found that the FCC's indecency policy is unconstitutionally vague...

Resisting an unlawful arrest.

Posted on July 14, 2010
On the one hand, it can be very risky to resist a police arrest that a person believes to be unlawful. Nevertheless, once the alleged resistance takes place, it is time for the criminal defense lawyer to review the applicable law for support for using reasonable force to resist an unlawful arrest...

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Can humans detect unburnt cocaine odor?

Posted on July 13, 2010
DEA image in the public domain. Can humans detect unburnt cocaine odor? The Maryland Court of Special Appeals said in 2003 it is "scientifically impossible that the confiscated drug could be detected because the cocaine seized and the caffeine with which it was cut had no detectible odor...

If they leave, will they find refuge?

Posted on July 12, 2010
My high school freshman social studies teacher was a smart, caring, humorous man, who also was pro-Reagan. He was fond of saying that a barometer of the level of a nation?s freedom is whether its populace is free to emigrate. That resonated with me until I learned how heavily restrictive immigration law and policies are in the United States and other countries ?- particularly by the time I joined my law school?s immigration law clinic and experienced the thrill of victory helping one client obtain political asylum, and the agony of defeat with the denial of asylum at an administrative trial with another client, both of them from Ethiopia during the administration of Reagan, who did not like Ethiopia?s then-Marxist government -- even with people who have escaped war and otherwise terrorized lives...

Past victories.

Posted on July 11, 2010
In criminal defense, victories sometimes can be defined beyond acquittals, for instance by dismissals and inactivations of charges, sometimes through negotiated guilty pleas to minor misdemeanors from major felony charges, and low sentences where high ones were very possible...

Bill Kunstler on camera.

Posted on July 09, 2010
Disturbing the Universe, by William Kunstler's daughters Emily and Sarah.  The late William Kunstler was a radical lawyer who, like myself, started out practicing mainstream civil law (in his case, small business and family law, and, in my case, civil litigation and regulatory work for financial institutions and transportation companies)...

Private law practice: Getting the numbers and dollars in the right place.

Posted on July 09, 2010
When I was sworn to practice before the United States District Court in Maryland, one of the judges present wished the admittees a wealthy client with plenty of legal problems. I liked more the pro bono service emphasis at my Maryland Court of Appeals  swearing-in several months before...

Jon Katz is appearing on ABC's Nightline, soon.

Posted on July 08, 2010
Early this afternoon, I interviewed at ABC's Washington, D.C., studio for its Nightline segment on exotic cabarets -- also known as strip clubs -- in the light of Missouri's recent silliness in passing a law banning full nudity, liquor, and tipping while topless at such establishments...

Stop excessive bail and excessive sentences.

Posted on July 07, 2010
I often hear people, including criminal defense colleagues, rallying around candidates for judges and chief prosecutors. Rarely do I hear talk in such promotions, and during confirmation hearings, about the extent to which the judge will be overly harsh with setting bonds and setting sentences...

"Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders." -- Albert Camus

Posted on July 06, 2010
The Death Penalty News ("DPN") blog -- which sadly is over-riddled with cookies, popups and a mousetrap, so I do not post its automatic link here, but instead spell it out as deathpenaltynews[dot]blogspot[dot]com -- has a great list of quotes about the death penalty, running from Sister Helen Prejean's spot-on quote below, to Justice Scalia's chilling quote that follows it...

Let fireworks be sparks for more social justice, and not bombs bursting in air.

Posted on July 04, 2010
Today?s blog entry follows up on my entry from two days ago about July 4.   In the Washington, D.C., area alone, many fireworks displays are happening tonight beyond the main event on the national Mall that follows live music, whose main downside is the little alternative to being sardined on the subway on the way out, unless one has a home or hotel room within walking distance of the display, or wants to wait out the crowds at a bar or restaurant...

Give me a serious discussion on civil liberties over July 4 pomp and circumstance any day.

Posted on July 02, 2010
NOTE: Following is a reprint of what I wrote for July 4 in 2007 and reprinted in 2008 and 2009: Whenever I look around on July 4, the scene is long on fireworks, beer, and merrymaking, and too short on discussion of what Independence Day is all about...

Breath tests for blood alcohol level should engender no confidence.

Posted on July 01, 2010
Image from National Institute of Standards & Technology. A silver lining in the District of Columbia?s breathalyzer debacle  is that it may further convince judges and jurors that breathalyzers amount to junk science, or else that their results are highly unreliable, due to unreliability of the machinery, and by the fallibility and sometimes carlessness of humans that maintain and operate them...

Why should reality be an obstacle on the trial battlefield?

Posted on May 31, 2010
   Jon Katz in front of a boarded-up Northern Virginia courthouse.   The above-displayed video follows up on the one displayed in today's earlier blog entry.   My criminal defense mentor SunWolf asserts that reailty is no obstacle, and I agree. Certainly, incantations, palm reading and voodoo dolls are useless in trial battle...

War is not fair. Battle onward.

Posted on May 31, 2010
Jon Katz in front of the old Manassas, Prince William County, Virginia courthouse.  Trial is war, and war is not fair. Therefore, trial warriors must transcend the unfairness on the road to victory, by focusing on being battle-ready at all times with knowledge, skill, persuasiveness, hard work, having all necessary weapons, knowing how to use them, and knowing when to keep them sheathed and unsheathed...

What does Memorial Day mean?

Posted on May 31, 2010
Here is what it means to me.  Jon Katz - Criminal defense and DWI defense lawyer practicing in Fairfax County, Virginia, Montgomery County, Maryland and beyond. 301-495-7755. http://katzjustice.com. 

Rwanda: Release Peter Erlinder now.

Posted on May 30, 2010
 Peter Erlinder (May 7, 2010, Washington, D.C.) Three weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting up again with Peter Erlinder (whom I first wrote about here), this time at one of the talks he was involved in organizing for the Japan Communist Party. I briefly videoed Peter here...

Entering the circle of the story.

Posted on May 28, 2010
I frequently write about the persuasive power of storytelling. Here is a nice addition to my storytelling links: Asheville lawyer Stephen P. Lindsay's article on "Storytelling: Why We Do It & How to Get Better."  One of the article's best parts is Lindsay's discussion of entering the circle of the story:  Entering The Circle: In order to be effective as a story teller, you must get inside the circle of the story, viewing the story from within, being an actual part of the events...

Miranda violations depend on whether the cop's words and actions might reasonably elicit an incriminating statement.

Posted on May 27, 2010
   Bill of Rights (From public domain.) Yesterday, Maryland's intermediate appellate court confirmed that, absent a Miranda  waiver, a suspect?s statement must be suppressed where ?any reasonable police officer could have reasonably anticipated that [the suspect] would respond to the substance of [a police officer?s accusation], and that the response could be incriminating...

Peace. Smile.

Posted on May 26, 2010
 With my family in front of Blue Cliff Monastery's largest meeting hall.     A nice alternative to Kerplunk Avenue.   As much as t?ai chi and meditation are great internal methods for achieving powerful harmony, it is great to reconnect with quiet and beautiful natural surroundings among dozens of people into the same...

When site filters block "marijuana".

Posted on May 26, 2010
Image from public domain. When Internet site filters are a client's only option to use the Internet while on pretrial supervision or on probation, I ask courts for the filtering option, if my client is willing.  A recent vacation hotel brought me to the hotel's desktop computer, where I learned that its SiteCoach filtering system blocks my entire blog and some pages of my website...

If you want online privacy, stay offline.

Posted on May 25, 2010
Privacy has become a quaint concept with many, and a reviled principle with plenty of others.  Suffice it to say that online, you have no privacy. Your Internet service provider tracks your every move and archives your emails. Your intended anonymous visit to a website tells the website not only your Internet service provider's identity, but also your modem's identification number, which is just one step away from tying your website visit to your physical address and computer...

Failure to use a properly certified court interpreter invites reversal of convictions.

Posted on May 24, 2010
Failure to use a properly certified court interpreter invites reversal of convictions:Absent a properly-translated jury form, our case is identical to Duarte-Higareda, and we have no reason to resolve the question apparently left open there--whether the district judge must conduct a colloquy where the defendant has signed a properly translated form...

Welcome to my war room.

Posted on May 23, 2010
 For those who have not yet visited my law office/war room, here are two photos from my reception area (here and here), and a recent framing of John Iorio's Portrait of Coltrane that exudes the chi both of Iorio and Trane.  I have appreciated when doctors' and dentists' offices have tried to offset assaultive images and smells of needles and alcohol...

Trials are war, and require reducing fear and stagefright.

Posted on May 21, 2010
Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.).  A Japanese warrior was captured by his enemies and thrown into a prison. That night, he was unable to sleep because he feared that the next day he would be interrogated, tortured, and executed. Then the words of his Zen master came to him, ?Tomorrow is not real...

Since when is Elena Kagan another Thurgood Marshall?

Posted on May 20, 2010
Although President Obama's Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, that hardly makes her another Thurgood Marshall. For instance, as the New York Times reports: "In analyzing why Justice Marshall was adamant about siding with the poor family in the busing fee case, for example, Ms...

Distribute your cellphone number at your own risk.

Posted on May 19, 2010
   Bill of Rights (From public domain.) For decades, prosecutors have been able to avoid hearsay hurdles in presenting trial testimony about anonymous phone calls intercepted by police to alleged bookies and drug dealers. On May 18, 2010, Maryland's highest court affirmed this hearsay-skirting doctrine in allowing testimony about an anonymous caller who called the defendant's cellphone asking "can I get a 40,? which the trial judge allowed the police to describe as slang for a $40 quantity of cocaine...

"False Positives Equal False Justice".

Posted on May 19, 2010
DEA image in the public domain.Thanks to the Marijuana Policy Project for distributing free copies online of John Kelly's "False Positives Equal False Justice". The report asserts that: "This two-year scientific/legal investigation reveals a drug testing regime of fraudulent forensics used by police, prosecutors, and judges which abrogates every American?s Constitutional rights...

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