Criminal Law

Revolutionary Communist Party and I.

Posted on March 01, 2008
My life in and out of the law practice has brought me in contact with many interesting people, including those with whom I vehemently disagree.  The Revolutionary Communist Party is a group with which I very much disagree. Nevertheless, I have had two very interesting interactions with some members of this Maoist communist group...

Wikileaks.org is back.

Posted on March 01, 2008
  Computer hard drive. (Image from Pacific Northwest Laboratory's website). Following up on my February 24 blog entry, my closer reading shows that the permanend injunction issued for the Wikileaks case plaintiffs was by consent of one of the defendants, but not by Wikileaks...

Meeting Revolutionary Communist Party members

Posted on March 01, 2008
My life in and out of the law practice has brought me in contact with many interesting people, including those with whom I vehemently disagree.  The Revolutionary Communist Party is a group with which I very much disagree. Nevertheless, I have had two very interesting interactions with some members of this Maoist communist group...

The Supremes on legal writing and advocacy.

Posted on February 28, 2008
   Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) Thanks, Scott Greenfield, for posting this link to interviews of eight Supreme Court justices talking about appellate writing and advocacy. Regardless of one's personal opinion about a particular judge, justice or court system, when a lawyer chooses to enter the courtroom arena, the lawyer must know the judge...

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One percent of adults are behind bars in America.

Posted on February 28, 2008
 Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) One percent of adults are behind bars in the United States (see the 2008 Pew Charitable Trust report here and a related news article here). Imagine the financial, psychological, and social drain illustrated by such a statistic...

"Chicago 10" on screen.

Posted on February 27, 2008
 Among my many influences from the Sixties are the Chicago Seven/Eight trial (the number of trial defendants went to seven after Bobby Seale was separated from the remaining defendants, but not before the trial judge ordered him bound and gagged); Ram Dass and his heavily influential Be Here Now; Bhagavan Das, who introduced Ram Dass to being here now; and Jack Kerouac, whose 1950's On the Road approach to life and writings heavily influenced the hippie movement...

The real McCoy

Posted on February 27, 2008
A Jon Katz(l) and the legendary McCoy Tyner (r) (Thanks to my brother Jeff Katz for manipulating this photo from the underexposed cell camera original.)   One thing I love about digital photography is that it reduces the need for using gelatin (ordinarily from slaughtered animals), which is common in the printing of photographs from film...

May Ruark's prosecution make prosecutors more sensitive about collateral consequences.

Posted on February 26, 2008
 Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). Wicomico County, Maryland, chief prosecutor Davis Ruark risks losing his seventeen-year post if convicted for his February 22 arrest for drunk driving and possessing a handgun while under the influence of alcohol...

Thanks and goodbye, Percy Julian.

Posted on February 26, 2008
When I joined the First Amendment Lawyers Association in 2001, one of the longtime members who stood out as a welcoming figure was Percy L. Julian, Jr. He came across as a skilled lawyer with no big ego.  Sadly, Percy died this past Sunday, at 67.  Fellow FALA member Jeff Scott Olson and close friend to Percy said: "He was a model for other lawyers in how to be a good lawyer and a kind heart at the same time," and "how to live a full, full life...

Impeachment with prior inconsistent statements.

Posted on February 25, 2008
 Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) On February 7, 2008, Maryland's intermediate appellate court issued a lengthy opinion on the rules governing the admission into evidence of a witness's prior inconsistent statements for impeachment purposes...

This week in D.C.: "Practicing Human Rights Law in America"

Posted on February 25, 2008
 Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) Thanks to a listserv member for announcing this week's seminar on "Practicing Human Rights Law in America," which runs February 25-28 at the George Washington University Law School (from where I graduated) in Washington, D...

When prosecutors get prosecuted.

Posted on February 25, 2008
 The Bill of Rights.should apply no more nor more less to an arrested prosecutor than to anyone else. (Image from the public domain.) Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto./I am human: nothing human is alien to me - Publius Terence. So many prosecutors and cops so often sneer when I make arguments to them or to sentencing judges in the above vein...

Where's the sleight-of-hand man's third hand?

Posted on February 24, 2008
 This 2005 video shows how McCoy Tyner plays as if he had a third hand, including at the 6:45 through 7:40 minute mark.  My inextricably intertwined connection to jazz and criminal defense practice is explained here. My related deepening fascination with John Coltrane and his music are covered here...

Wikileaks continues at .cx domain.

Posted on February 23, 2008
Computer hard drive. (Image from Pacific Northwest Laboratory's website). On February 15, 2008, a federal trial judge in San Francisco ordered that wikileaks.org be closed. Although wikileaks.org no longer functions -- after its sitehost apparently carried out the judge's order to close down the site -- wikileaks...

To ride or not to ride?

Posted on February 23, 2008
This video retraces part of Robert Pirsig's route recounted in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, on the very R60 ridden by John Sutherland along with Pirsig.  NOTE: As is sometimes more common on weekends than the rest of the week, today's blog entry is less law-related, which is the side of my life that helps enrich the law practice side of my life...

Police abuse in Shreveport.

Posted on February 21, 2008
 The only silver lining I know of about this police station beating is that the assaulting police officer was terminated. Thanks to Jonathan Turley for covering this story. Jon Katz.

When an arrest is on an inapplicable roadway.

Posted on February 20, 2008
   Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). In driving-related prosecutions, an initial critical question is whether the driving was on a roadway that even applies to the criminal statute involved. The analysis starts with the text of the applicable criminal statute (e...

How many journalists is the U.S. holding?

Posted on February 20, 2008
 Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) The United States military learned much from the negative Vietnam War news coverage, to make more effective efforts at making people think subsequent wars are more like detached Space Invaders games than the bloody scenes of carnage they really are...

Confessions are inadmissible without interpreters' testimony.

Posted on February 19, 2008
 Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) Foreign language interpretation is an art rather than a precise science (which helps explain why the Chevy Nova sold so poorly in Latin America, seeing that "no va" means "no go"). Consequently, it would seem obvious that suspects' statements made through a foreign language interpreter are inadmissible against the suspect at trial if the interpreter does not testify to said statements...

Fifth Amendment protects right to withhold computer password.

Posted on February 18, 2008
Computer hard drive. (Image from Pacific Northwest Laboratory's website). The Fifth Amendment protects one from disclosing his or her computer password. In re Grand Jury Subpoena (Boucher), 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87951 (D. Vt. Nov. 29, 2007) ) (Niedermeier, Mag...

Marijuana myth-smasher John Morgan joins co-conspirator Lynn Zimmer in the hereafter.

Posted on February 18, 2008
Image from public domain. John P. Morgan, M.D., was a pharmacology professor and advocate for marijuana legalization. With the late Lynn Zimmer, he wrote Marijuana Myths Marijuana Facts: A Review Of The Scientific Evidence (Lindesmith Center), going head on against such myths as the notion that marijuana is a gateway to more harmful drugs...

ACP recognizes benefits of medical marijuana.

Posted on February 17, 2008
Image from public domain. In a recent position paper, the American College of Physicians recognized real benefits of medical marijuana, called for continuing research, and acknowledged the importance of rescheduling marijuana from its Schedule I status...

Here a scanner, there a scanner, everywhere a scanner scanner.

Posted on February 16, 2008
 Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) An entire generation of people now as old as their twenties and older grew up with so many intrusions into their privacy that too many of them probably accept such a state of affairs unquestioningly, and thus are more willing to impose the same oppression on others...

Tragedy at Northern Illinois University

Posted on February 14, 2008
Yesterday's tragic shooting at Northern Illinois University has been widely covered in the news. My initial inclination was to limit this blog entry to express my horror over yesterday's violence and to express my sympathy to the shooting victims and their loved ones...

In Maryland, subsequent offender papers can't be filed for the first time on an appeal to Circuit Court.

Posted on February 14, 2008
Photo from website of U.S. District Court (W.D. Mi.). In Maryland, District Court prosecutors in the larger counties get inundated with cases, to the point that sometimes they might inadvertently overlook filing timely pretrial subsequent offender notices while the case is in District Court...

Scalia and torture.

Posted on February 14, 2008
Constitutional rights seem to be tortured enough by Justice Scalia's votes and pen. Now -- thanks to Scott Greenfield for posting on this -- we have an audio where he leaves open the possibility of permitting government torture in some instances. Chilling...

Keep the light shining on cops.

Posted on February 13, 2008
 On February 12 came the story about the Baltimore cop assaulting a teen in broad daylight at a major tourist attraction. Also on February 12 came the story of the Florida deputy who dumped a quadriplegic from his wheelchair (thanks to Jonathan Turley for blogging on this atrocity)...

Something about Valentine's Day, courts, and sexual devices.

Posted on February 13, 2008
Molly Ivins on the stupidity of Texas's ban on the sale of sexual devices. She did not live to see the Fifth Circuit's ban on this ban.  Happy Valentine's day. When we set aside the commercial hype around the holiday, it is a day and state of mind that focuses on the power of loving and caring, and thus -- when practiced daily -- a way to reverse the violence, nastiness and heartlessness that has run rampant in human society since the beginning...

People are humans, not aliens, Part II.

Posted on February 12, 2008
Cesar Chavez: A champion for the empowerment of workers and immigrants.   In May 2007, I decried the continuing and widespread use of the terms "illegal aliens" and "illegals". After a fellow criminal defense listserv member disagreed with my view against using the term "illegal aliens" (he apparently does not say "illegals"), I decided to see the extent to which statutes and regulations use the phrase "illegal alien," and was saddened to learn how frequently it is used, including in the following instances: - A federal statute provides for reimbursing states for incarcerating "illegal aliens" after conviction for a felony...

If Mickey Mouse were a criminal court judge.

Posted on February 12, 2008
 Bill of Rights. (From the public domain.) Yesterday, the Lansing State Journal interviewed me about the legitimacy of a disciplinary action against students where not all the disciplinary board members had been legitimately seated in their positions...

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