Criminal Law

Keeping the wonder of the child within.

Posted on April 25, 2008
 Recently, my wife, 2-year-old boy and I went to a local puppet theater production from part of the Jungle Book. The walking puppeteers and production were very good; fortunately I have not yet had to have a Barney moment with my boy, who does not yet know who that annoying person is in a purple dragon suit and, worse, his entourage...

Moore no more - Never Moore.

Posted on April 24, 2008
  Bill of Rights (From public domain.) When the U.S. Supreme Court granted cert in Virginia v. Moore, _ U.S. _ (April 23, 2008), that did not sound good. Yesterday, five years after the Supreme Court unanimously crushed a great Maryland high court probable cause case like a potato chip, Maryland v...

When a jailer suffers the justice system's injustices / How prepared should a prosecutor be?

Posted on April 23, 2008
  Bill of Rights (From public domain.) When I started practicing criminal defense, I spoke with a very experienced criminal defense lawyer who told me that he had never prosecuted, but expected he would love it if he had such a job; this was a variation on a theme of some former prosecutors who recommended that I precede my criminal defense career by prosecuting, which I refused to do...

Have you been inundated with "undeliverable" emails?

Posted on April 23, 2008
Computer hard drive. (Image from Pacific Northwest Laboratory's website). Starting this past Monday night and running into yesterday morning, I got flooded with a few hundred e-mails -- many from Russia and elsewhere overseas, and many with attachments that I did not open -- proclaiming that e-mails I never sent were undeliverable...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Do you have any wisdom to share with me?

Posted on April 22, 2008
  Some of my greatest teachers have been within arms reach. The key is to know who are those teachers, to be open to new teachings, to have an idea of what teachings might be vital to receive and learn, and to welcome their teachings if they will share them...

In praise of Ernie Lewis.

Posted on April 21, 2008
Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). Every criminal defense lawyer should attend the National Criminal Defense College's Trial Practice Institute, known in shorthand as Macon for the program's location. At least when I attended in 1994, competition for each Macon slot was very high among state-level public defender lawyers...

Underdog is two years old / Happy 420

Posted on April 20, 2008
  Today, Underdog is two years old. We launched on 4/20/06.with this tribute to 420:    Since our 2006 launching, Underdog has blogged every weekday, except for holidays and a few vacation days (sometimes I blog a few articles in advance of vacation days, and pre-program the articles to upload each day I am away)...

Some of this week's critical appellate opinions.

Posted on April 18, 2008
    Bill of Rights (From public domain.) In addition to my April 17 review of the Supreme Court's Baze lethal injection case, here is a brief overview of some additional critical criminal appellate decisions from this week:  - In Burgess v. U.S., _ U...

A vote for McCain will further shred civil liberties from the federal courts.

Posted on April 17, 2008
  Although I am not fond of Barack Obama and am less fond of Hillary Clinton, I absolutely oppose John McCain. For starters, he will keep the Iraq war going and will disrespect civil liberties more than Obama or Clinton will do. For starters, McCain undoubtedly will tap into the bucket of Bush I and Bush II appointees, who in general are more hostile to civil liberties than those who served under Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter...

Michael Maggio lives on.

Posted on April 16, 2008
 On February 10, I wrote about the passing of Michael Maggio, who was one of the people who inspired me to a legal career focusing on social justice.  Above is a YouTube picture montage of Michael, created by his nephew. It provides some more of Michael's essence...

Palfrey. Spitzer. Enough already!

Posted on April 15, 2008
Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). Consenting adults should be able to engage in private sexual conduct without fear of prosecution, including when money exchanges hands for such activity, also known as prostitution. The United States Supreme Court has already recognized the broad hands-off approach the government must take with private consensual adult sexual activity...

What are your favorite cross examination publications?

Posted on April 14, 2008
Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). On a trial lawyers' listserv recently, a member passed on a law student's request for publications for learning effective cross examination in criminal cases. While nothing replaces learning cross examination through live training and in the courtroom, some high quality publications do exist, including Larry Pozner's and Roger Dodd's presentations, videos, and cross examination book...

Cops and governments: Don't hand over torch security to China-supplied security.

Posted on April 13, 2008
 Too often, too many American police run roughshod over people's Constitutional rights. Why, then, did the San Francisco government permit a group of strongarm, China-trained, China-selected men (did sexism permeate the selection process?) to encircle and enforce the non-human Olympic flame's protection during the San Francisco leg of the Olympics torch relay? That just pours acid into the wounds already inflicted on civil liberties by the United States federal, state and local governments...

When a death penalty defendant smears feces on his face, in front of the jury.

Posted on April 11, 2008
  Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). The death penalty is a barbaric system thinly masquerading in the United States as something not barbaric.  A legitimate debate among the most skilled of criminal defense lawyers has taken place before -- and probably still continues and rages -- about whether refusing to defend capital cases is more justified than defending them...

Connecting wtih our clients, with their fears, and ours.

Posted on April 10, 2008
Rather than Charles Manson causing Alfred Hitchcock the most fear, it was getting stopped by the police for speeding. See Hitchcock at minute 3:38 of this video. Numerous potential criminal clients' first words to me include: "This is my first time seeking a lawyer...

One World / One Dream / Free Tibet!

Posted on April 09, 2008
 This week at the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco. Today, the Olympics torch relay approaches in San Francisco, This city is the sole United States location for the relay. Demonstrators for human rights in China will be out in force; hopefully all peaceful in the footsteps of Gandhi The sign unfurled in the above video from the Golden Gate Bridge reminds me of the sign held in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D...

Ooh, ooh that smell... Can you REALLY smell that smell?

Posted on April 09, 2008
 Bill of Rights (From public domain.) On April 8, 2008, Virginia's Court of Appeals affirmed a "plain smell/plain feel" search mainly on the basis of the alleged smell of unburnt marijuana confirmed by the feel of a bag of marijuana during a Terry weapons patdown...

Necessity defense prevails in Texas marijuana case.

Posted on April 08, 2008
Image from public domain. Congratulations to medical merijuana user (for HIV symptoms) Tim Stevens, for winning his legal necessity defense against a marijuana possession prosecution. The Texas jury took only eleven minutes to deliberate.  Marijuana is powerfully beneficial medicine...

Is a great trial lawyer only born, or can one be taught?

Posted on April 07, 2008
 Can great trial lawyering be taught, or is one only born with it?  When I was a college senior struggling to figure out whether to go to law school or business school (I preferred saving the world with a law degree, but saw a business career as a safer way to financial security), and what to do with my life in either discipline ?- rather than taking a t?ai chi harmonious approach, not having learned t?ai chi yet -- a close relative panned my consideration of possibly being a trial lawyer...

Our website was temporarily down a few weekend hours.

Posted on April 06, 2008
Our website -- and other websites using our sitehost -- was down on April 5 from around 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and on April 6 from around 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., as was our email during the latter April 6 timeframe. I await word from our sitehost how this happened...

Reporters and misquotes should not be like peas in a pod.

Posted on April 04, 2008
  Image from Library of Congress's website. As I have said previously, journalists are fallible humans, so lawyers should resist the temptation to treat them as confidants.  One reason to beware of talking with journalists about a client's case is the risk of being misquoted, whether by direct misquote (e...

Court permits stop of a dark blue car despite lookout for a tan car.

Posted on April 04, 2008
Bill of Rights (Image from the public domain.) During the 2002 Washington sniper manhunt, too many police abandoned the Fourth Amendment by stopping white truck after white truck, based on erroneous eyewitness tips. However, the now-convicted sniper defendants were found in a non-white sedan...

For the ten thousandth time, don't waive your right to remain silent.

Posted on April 02, 2008
Bill of Rights (Image from the public domain.) Susan Smith apparently would not have been convicted had she not spoken to the police. Mark Castillo smoothed prosecutors' path towards a murder conviction -- unless he successfully argues insanity -- by calling the police this past weekend to tell them he had killed his three children, who lived in the town where my law firm is located...

When the spotlight turns to the judge and lawyer who did not foresee a homicide coming.

Posted on April 01, 2008
Bill of Rights (Image from the public domain.) With the help of an attorney, Mark Castillo successfully convinced judges in Montgomery County, Maryland -- where our law firm sits and where I live -- to deny his wife's begging to the court to deny unsupervised visits between Mr...

Happy birthday, Cesar Chavez / Some staff out in celebration.

Posted on March 31, 2008
Cesar Chavez: A champion for the empowerment of workers and immigrants.   In honor of Cesar Chavez's March 31 birthday, most of our support staff will be out of the office in celebration. Our lawyers -- Jay and myself -- will be working. My assistant will be out, so please be patient while I get calls returned today and tomorrow; I will be in court most of today...

Return to Forever

Posted on March 30, 2008
 As I have said before, jazz is improvisation, spontaneity, feeling, being in the moment, tight interaction, entertainment, pushing the limits of excellence, creativity, expanding into new frontiers, fun, inspiration, and discovery. That also is what my criminal defense work is about, albeit with frustration frequently challenging the fun part...

The ambiguity of silence; the silencing of ambiguity.

Posted on March 27, 2008
Bill of Rights (Image from the public domain.) Undoubtedly, cops have legions of tricks to convince suspects to give up their Miranda right to remain silent, starting with delaying an arrest and detention so as not to need to give such rights yet, proceeding to intimidating body language (including patting the cop's handgun and handcuffs), and proceeding to leaving the suspect the choice between languishing in a depressing, decrepit, smelly, and confining lockup while waiting the weekend to see a judicial officer for a bond review or to be taken on a McDonald's field trip with unlimited Coca Colas and fries in exchange for spilling the beans...

Macon and Dubois

Posted on March 26, 2008
 Yin Yang.  Practicing life and law as a harmonious whole.  The best multi-day trial lawyer seminars that I know of are the National Criminal Defense College's Trial Practice Institute (also known as Macon, which I attended in 1994 for two weeks) and the Trial Lawyers College in Dubois, Wyoming, which I attended for four weeks in 1995...

Criminal penalties for not reporting a felony that one has concealed.

Posted on March 25, 2008
Bill of Rights (Image from the public domain.) Every once in awhile, the media reports on federal prosecutions for "misprision of felony". This blog entry seeks to debunk any notion that it is a crime merely to fail to report a crime, as opposed to concealing a felony cognizable by a federal court and not reporting it...

To self-execute or not self-execute, that is the question! Or is it?

Posted on March 25, 2008
Bill of Rights (Image from the public domain.) Yesterday saw five of the most conservative of the Supreme Court justices refusing to require a state court system (in Texas) to let an International Court of Justice ruling cause Texas to deviate from its law that does not permit more than one state-level habeas corpus proceeding...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.