Criminal Procedure

Media Event Irks Judge, Who May Gag Counsel for PI Lawyer Charged re 3rd-Party Attacks on His Wife

At a press conference earlier this week, a defense lawyer for a Texas personal injury lawyer accused of masterminding three failed contract murder attempts against his wife contended that his client, defendant Jeffrey Stern, is now in fear for his own life. That’s because Stern’s jailed ex-mistress, Michelle Gaiser, is…

Jun 15, 2012 8:14 PM CDT

Chemerinsky: Effective Assistance of Counsel Now a Right in Plea Bargaining

As the flurry of end of the term decisions is about to begin from the U.S. Supreme Court, it is important to not lose sight of two cases that are likely to have a dramatic effect on lawyers and judges. In Missouri v. Frye and Lefler v. Cooper, the Supreme…

Jun 4, 2012 1:45 PM CDT

Probing Questions: Experts Debate the Need to Create Exceptions to Rules on Coerced Confessions

Former FBI Special Agent Coleen Rowley didn’t exactly shout out “I told you so!” But she gloated when she scribbled it atop a blog account after officers caught and questioned the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing. “After so many years of waiting and warning,” Rowley told the Huffington…

Jun 1, 2012 10:10 AM CDT

Please Plea Me: Court Expands Effective Assistance of Counsel

The headlines seem like they were ripped out of the era of Chief Justice Earl Warren. “Supreme Court decision expands defendants’ rights,” said the Washington Post. “Justices expand right of accused,” said the New York Times. Of course, these weren’t from the Warren court’s pro-defendant heyday but from the current…

Jun 1, 2012 8:20 AM CDT

Supreme Court Reinstates Accomplice Conviction, Says 3rd Circuit Failed to Respect Jury Role

The U.S. Supreme Court has reinstated the accomplice and co-conspirator conviction of a Pennsylvania man accused in a 1995 shotgun death. The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction of defendant Lorenzo Johnson. The Supreme Court reversed in a per…

May 29, 2012 2:54 PM CDT

Some Jurors in John Edwards’ Trial—and the Defendant Himself—Sport Red Attire

Was it a red-letter day for John Edwards? John Edwards wore his lucky green tie four days in a row during jury deliberations last week in his trial on campaign finance charges, the Washington Post reports. On Friday, his tie was red. The same day, two jurors and four alternates…

May 29, 2012 1:08 PM CDT

Kansas Attorney Cleared of Ethics Violation Files Complaint Against State Official

An Kansas attorney filed a complaint this week accusing a state legal ethics official of professional misconduct in retaliation for the lawyer’s public revelation of sexual abuse at a state prison. Keen Umbehr, who was cleared in November of professional misconduct allegations for bringing a reporter into a prison to…

May 25, 2012 8:30 PM CDT

Ex-High School Football Star Is Exonerated of Rape After Accuser Friended Him on Facebook

A former high school football star who spent five years in prison has been exonerated after the former classmate who once accused him of rape friended him on Facebook and later recanted. A California judge dismissed the conviction of 26-year-old Brian Banks on Thursday, report the Los Angeles Times blog…

May 25, 2012 1:00 PM CDT

Forewoman’s Report of Deadlock on Lesser Charge Doesn’t Bar Retrial for Murder, Supreme Court Rules

The double jeopardy clause doesn’t bar the murder retrial of an Arkansas man accused in the death of his girlfriend’s toddler son, even though the jury forewoman had announced a deadlock on a lesser charge before deliberations ended, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.…

May 24, 2012 2:56 PM CDT

Florida Jurors Banned From Using Social Media to Discuss Criminal Cases

The Florida Supreme Court banned jurors from using electronic devices or social media to talk about their cases Thursday. The detailed opinion adopts the work of the court’s Committee on Standard Jury Instructions in Criminal Cases, which builds on more broad-ranged 2010 juror instructions prohibiting the use of social media,…

May 21, 2012 11:00 PM CDT

More Than 2,000 Exonerations for False Convictions in the US Since 1989, New Report Says

An unprecedented report asserted today that more than 2,000 falsely convicted people of serious crimes have been exonerated in the United States in the past 23 years. In the most complete database of exonerations ever compiled, the new national registry closely examines 873 exonerations from 1989 through March 1, 2012…

May 21, 2012 9:08 PM CDT

Top Neb. Court OKs 90-Day Contempt Term for Claimed Rape Victim, But Prosecutor May Use Discretion

Upholding a trial judge’s power to compel a witness to testify, the Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday said a Kansas woman who says she was raped at age 7 can be jailed for 90 days if she refuses to cooperate with the prosecution of the case. However, the court noted…

May 11, 2012 9:31 PM CDT

Man Charged in Decades-Old Murder After Estranged Wife Gives Authorities Permission to Search

Authorities in Elkridge, Md., didn’t have probable cause to search the lot around Robert Arnold Jarrett Jr.’s home after his then-wife disappeared in January 1991. Nor could they get his permission to do so. But after he and his second wife separated, he moved elsewhere. Last month, she gave authorities…

May 10, 2012 11:04 PM CDT

Waxman Amicus Brief—One of Six Urging Cert in Rubashkin Case—Raises Questions of Bias

Corrected: Former Solicitor General Seth Waxman has filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to accept cert in the case of Sholom Rubashkin, an executive at a kosher meatpacking plant convicted in a multimillion-dollar bank fraud that came to light after a large-scale immigration raid. The brief is…

May 10, 2012 5:15 PM CDT

Longtime Client Died in His Prison Cell, But Lawyer Still Wants Top Calif. Court to Rule on Appeal

For nearly 20 years, Scott F. Kauffman has been representing Dennis Lawley in an appeal of his 1989 first-degree murder conviction. Lawley, who was found guilty of arranging a contract hit on a convicted felon, insisted he was innocent of the crime and the admitted triggerman says it was a…

May 9, 2012 4:05 PM CDT