Criminal Law

Dealing with fish tales from witnesses and politicians.

Posted on March 24, 2008
 For criminal defense lawyers, Hillary Clinton's Pinochiotales featured in the above YouTube video -- thanks to Jonathan Turley for posting it -- are but variations on themes that many clients and opposing witneses bring our way.  Until I last checked around 7:00 p...

For the thousandth time, you don't need to consent to searches nor be interviewed by the cops.

Posted on March 23, 2008
 When I spoke on the March 11 "Know Your Rights" panel at the University of Maryland, I told the audience how often potential clients say "Oh, sh*t" or something to that effect when I play them the Busted video to explain that they gave up rights that they had no obligation to give up...

When the Recording industry sues for copyright infringement.

Posted on March 22, 2008
The Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) Copyright infringement brings the risk of significant money damages and, sometimes, criminal prosecution. The First Amendment fanatic that I am, I feel very comfortable defending people accused of copyright infringement...

Justice Alito surprises by strengthening Batson.

Posted on March 20, 2008
Bill of Rights (Image from the public domain.) Once a person becomes a Supreme Court justice, no concern should exist about being pleasing enough to senators and the president to get onto a higher court (and getting elevated to a higher court or retained on the existing court, when it comes to some state courts, should not be a concern with any judge on any court); this is the highest court the United States ever has had...

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Joe Ligotti leaves theguyfromboston.com. He is a price of a robust First Amendment.

Posted on March 19, 2008
A price of a robust First Amendment is protecting Joe Ligotti's rants. (Bill of Rights image from the public domain.) Last December 21, I blogged about xenophobic (at best) Joe Ligotti, who posted his rants every Wednesday on www.theguyfromboston.com...

BUENAS NOTICIAS Y MALAS NOTICIAS EN MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Posted on March 18, 2008
Image from NASA's website.Tuve el agrado de reunirme junto a otros abogados con el director del centro de detención ?7 Locks?  y sus tenientes.  El motivo de nuestra reunión fue la preocupación de parte de nosotros los abogados sobre la tendencia de los oficiales de detener ilegalmente a los emigrantes a causa de los ?Detainers? de la Migra...

Meeting Winter Soldiers, Amy Goodman, and James Yee.

Posted on March 18, 2008
         Amy Goodman and James Yee (March 18, 2008). Both photos by Jon Katz, Thanks to my brother Jeff Katz for manipulating these photos from the overexposed cell camera originals.    How many people, when asked "What were you doing during [some major historical event]?" can only shrug their shoulders to say they missed it all, during the daily grind of work, the commercial monster, commuting, eating, sleeping, and beer? It is easy to do; my biggest motivator for doing the opposite comes from kicking myself for having chosen law school studies one night over what turned out to be my only life's chance to meet the late Abbie Hoffman, who spoke just two blocks away...

If your email to us bounced yesterday.

Posted on March 17, 2008
Computer hard drive. (Image from Pacific Northwest Laboratory's website). This follows up on this morning's blog entry about problems for a few hours yesterday afternoon and evening with e-mails to us bouncing back to e-senders. If you received an email that your email to us could not be delivered, it is best to re-send it to us...

Kudos to victorious pro se murder defendant Harold Stewart.

Posted on March 17, 2008
Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). Congratulations to pro se first degree murder defendant Harold J. Stewart not only for winning his retrial last month in Prince George's County, Maryland, Circuit Court, but also for doing so with a jury deliberation that lasted less than one hour...

Fighting for immigrants.

Posted on March 17, 2008
Image from NASA's website. NOTE from Jon Katz: Our immigration partner, Jay Marks, has submitted some legal articles in Spanish to Radio Zol 99.1 FM, which has posted them directly to its website and to a blog set up for his articles, which address Maryland probation agents helping set up non-U...

Our email is working, after being down a few hours Sunday evening.

Posted on March 16, 2008
Computer hard drive. (Image from Pacific Northwest Laboratory's website). On rare occasions our email gets bottlenecked for one or more hours before we receive the messages, and on even rarer occasions it bounces back to the sender (that apparently has only happened twice in the two years we have had our current sitehost...

Tibet is but one reason to consider not watching the Chinese Olympics.

Posted on March 16, 2008
Image from NASA's website. Every government violates human rights to one extent or another. Consequently, every choice for an Olympics game site involves the political, unless the games are limited to an Olympics-governed parcel of land set aside exclusively for all Olympics games...

When courts apply 1+1=3 to the Constitution.

Posted on March 13, 2008
The Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) When I applied to law school, I was excited about the prospect of overlapping my then-future law career with my obsession with human rights work. I expected that part of my law studies would involve learning the language of the oppressive enemy, so that I could more successfully battle that enemy...

Boston College law professors say no to Mukasey.

Posted on March 13, 2008
The Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) When then-attorney general Dick Thornburgh had been invited as my law school's commencement speaker, I was none too pleased. To me, Thornburgh's Justice Department continued where the Ed Meese Justice Department left off, with rampant disrespect for immigrants' rights, a First Amendment-trampling anti-obscenity campaign, advocating drug-testing of its employees, and, of course, continued assault on women's right to choose abortion...

Appearing tonight at U. Maryland on "Know Your Rights"

Posted on March 11, 2008
 Here is more information from my last week's blog entry about my panel participation tonight at the "Know Your Rights" program, March 11, 2008, 7:00 p.m. at the Prince George's Room, Stamp Student Union, University of Maryland.  Here is the detailed event flyer...

When alleged child victims talk by videotape.

Posted on March 11, 2008
 Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) On March 10, Maryland's highest court addressed how prosecutors can get around Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004), in trying to present at trial videotaped conversations between alleged child abuse victims and social workders and other government employees...

Time to legalize prostitution.

Posted on March 10, 2008
 Why is it news that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer may have been a john of high-priced prostitutes? Because that would amount to adultery? Because prostitution is illegal everywhere in the nation except parts of Nevada? Because it raises questions about where he found the funds for such high-priced indulgences? Because it would be hypocritical for this man who crusaded against prostitution to turn around and use their services himself?  Like marijuana, prostitution needs to be legalized, along with gambling...

Have love songs made everyone love one another?

Posted on March 10, 2008
 Following are some Frank Zappa quotes relevant to this blog entry:  There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another. Frank Zappa responding to Tipper Gore's and friends' notion that explicit music lyrics would poison the nation's children...

Think before you drink tap water.

Posted on March 09, 2008
   I have long been grossed out about drinking tap water, which includes treated water originating from toilets. Filtering the water does not remove the toilet water.   Spring water is not a perfect solution, not being regulated sufficiently to know the impurities that are there, and often (if not always) being chlorinated, just as tap water is chlorinated...

Power through fearlessness.

Posted on March 09, 2008
 Fearlessness is a critical component of living powerfully as a criminal defense lawyer and as a person.  To be fearless, I take inspiration from t'ai chi master Cheng Man Ching, who spoke of overcoming our fears in terms of imagining that we are practicing t'ai chi while balanced atop a narrow pointed cliff...

Yow! I AM having fun.

Posted on March 07, 2008
Image from National Institute of Standards & Technology. Zippy the Pinhead is my favorite comic strip. Zippy spews non sequiturs, repeatedly proclaims "Yow!", and asks "Are we having fun yet?" in this overcommercialized society that tells people they won't be glad til they use Dial...

Bigoted words from clients, politicians, and talk radio.

Posted on March 06, 2008
 Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) In the past, sometimes I would lash out when hearing bigoted words. I learned that such an approach might satisfy me that I had expressed counter-speech, but that my lashed-out words may have barely been heard by the person speaking bigoted words...

IRS: Not so fast claiming tax evasion.

Posted on March 05, 2008
 Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) Kudos to the United States Supreme Court for unanimously reversing a conviction for tax evasion and filing a false income tax return, where defendant Michael Boulware claimed his company had no earnings or profits for the tax years in question, and asserted the defense of a return on capital (i...

Jon Katz appearing on "Know Your Rights" panel.

Posted on March 05, 2008
 Too many clients come to me after having urinated away too many of their rights with the police. Many say they did not know the relevant rights listed in our Know Your Rights webpage and demonstrated in the Busted video. I try to minimize such knowledge lapses by linking our Know Your Rights page to every page on our website...

"NO TRESPASSING" signs be damned in 4th Amend. challenges?

Posted on March 05, 2008
  Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) On February 28, 2008, Maryland's intermediate appellete court proclaimed that so long as the cops are on legitimate business, they can knock (and keep on knocking -- even banging, probably -- for minutes on end) in an effort to talk with suspects...

Bloggers and webmasters: Lend me your ears.

Posted on March 04, 2008
Computer hard drive. (Image from Pacific Northwest Laboratory's website). To my fellow bloggers and webmasters, and to Internet tekkies:  As you know from my earlier post, our entire website and blog were down during primetime this morning when a server was down at our websitehosting company...

Our site was down for an hour; now it is back.

Posted on March 04, 2008
Computer hard drive. (Image from Pacific Northwest Laboratory's website). Our law firm's website hosting company is reliable, to the extent that is possible for shared sitehosting without redundant servers to keep our blog, website, and email (to our *@markskatz...

Of Monty Python, Hormel, and unsolicited bulk email.

Posted on March 03, 2008
 Technical difficulties interfered with my including the following addendum to my blog entry this morning about the 4-3 Virginia Supreme Court decision upholding Jeremy Jaynes's nine-year spam sentence: In the face of this wrongly-decided Jaynes opinion, I offer the following spam humor...

Return of the Winter Soldier Investigation

Posted on March 03, 2008
 The vast majority of American soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere not only do not recall the countless American military atrocities in Vietnam as they happened, but were not even born yet. What a splendid way for the military to have recruited with a cleansed slate on Vietnam, let alone the invasions of Grenada and Panama, and the list goes on...

Four of seven Virginia Supreme Court judges uphold First-Amendment-violative criminal spam law.

Posted on March 02, 2008
  Computer hard drive. (Image from Pacific Northwest Laboratory's website). All spammers' eyes should be on Virginia -- where a high percentage of computer crime cases are prosecuted, due to Virginia's housing such major computer servers as America Online's --  after its Supreme Court wrongfully upheld the state's criminal anti-spam law that prohibits sending out bulk e-mail that hide the identify of the sender...

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