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Words of Wisdom

Posted in Criminal on Friday December 14 2012 @ 5:39pm

"It's a lot easier to outrun a knife than it is a speeding bullet."

De-fense!

Posted in Criminal on Thursday April 05 2012 @ 5:11am

We've said this already on our facebook page, but we'll say it here, for good measure: self defense is a defense.

Self defense is a defense to a charge that allows the defendant to justifiably use force just great enough to overcome the force used against him. Thus, one who is threatened by someone wielding a spork could not retaliate with an Uzi.

This is true in all cases. It matters not that the defendant is in a jurisdiction honoring the age-old castle doctrine, or Florida, which has expanded that doctrine to include any ground on which the defendant stands -- the stand your ground law. Both of these allow a person to defend oneself using force.

Note, though, that the Florida law (776.032) provides for immunity from criminal prosecution and civil action for justifiable use of force. Justifiable is determined by the law enforcement agency investigating the incident. It is the immunity, not the bulk of the law, that is an issue in the Treyvon Martin death. Self defense is a defense to a charge, not a shield from prosecution.

For further insight, from a retired prosecutor no less, please see Minnesota's Proposed Castle Doctrine Expansion Worse Than Florida's Shoot First, Thomas Weyandt, Minnesota Post (March 29, 2012).

Plea Plea Me

Posted in Criminal on Friday March 23 2012 @ 6:50am

Kudos to the SCOTUS for using statistics in thinking about plea bargaining. While the numbers are probably not as pointy as one would like, it is abundantly clear that most criminal cases do not go to trial. While some statistics are fuzzy and ill-gotten, subject to morphing over time, this number has been firm and unbending for decades.

Because the pretrial may be all there is, the SCOTUS has determined that the right to effective counsel applies. Doug Berman of Sentencing Law & Policy asks: Are SCOTUS rulings in Lafler and Frye as revolutionary as Gideon? Could be.

Justice Scalia may be right when he says that plea-bargaining law may be the next trendy trend. But -- thank goodness! Plea bargaining, prolific as it is, has usually been practiced in the shadows, more art than science, more serendipitous than procedural. It was rarely written about, almost never studied (exception: Alaska, which did away with plea bargaining for a time and thus provided ripe ground for comparison). The bible of plea bargaining was written in 1981 -- the year MTV was born. Frye (though, we wish people with the last name of Frye would stop making important caselaw -- we will get all mixed up) and Lafler are welcome updates to the murky, yet prolific, practice of plea bargaining. That the Justices relied, in part, on established statistics, makes our day.

p.s. Apologies to Simple Justice for not reading the title of Scott's post before we wrote ours. Great minds, ya know?

Mythological

Posted in Criminal on Friday December 16 2011 @ 6:25am

More frightening than any mythological creatures are the myths that end up wrongfully convicting innocent people. In his book False Justice: Eight Myths that Convict the Innocent, former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro lists the following dangerous myths:

1. Everyone in prison claims innocence

Our system almost never convicts an innocent person

3. Only the guilty confess

4. Wrongful conviction is the result of innocent human error

5. An eyewitness is the best testimony

6. Conviction errors get corrected on appeal

7. It dishonors a victim to question a conviction

8. If the justice system has problems, the pros will fix them

To illustrate, Petro refers to a recent real-life example of a union supporter whose supervisor wanted revenge. An unsolved series of rape cases was the supervisor's ticket -- together, with a lying cop, the crime-free defendant was convicted and sentenced from 22-56 years. He has since been exonerated by University of Cincinnati law students. See UC Law Students Celebrate Overturned Conviction, Janice Morse, Cincinnati Enquirer (December 15, 2011).

Death Declines

Posted in Criminal on Wednesday November 23 2011 @ 7:54am

Every year, inexplicably, the president of the United States pardons a turkey.

As holiday-friendly as this tradition is, what about actual people who face the death penalty? Since 1976, when the death penalty was re-established, 1277 people have been put to death in the U.S. But now, their numbers are dwindling, and not only in jurisdictions you'd expect.

Thanks to Carl Reynolds at CourTex, we learn that capital cases in Texas are declining, a lot. See Capital Punishment, Carl Reynolds, CourTex (October 13, 2011). Is this due to life without parole (LWOP)? No, because, as Carl notes, LWOP was not around until 2005, well after the trend began.

The savvy Grits for Breakfast gives this more attention, and poses some challenges to LWOP generally. See Texas Death Sentences Plummeted Duringi Bush, Perry Tenures, Grits for Breakfast (October 14, 2011).

And while it's difficult to ever compare Texas to Oregon, especially with regard to the death penalty, see Governor's Kitzhaber's statement establishing a moratorium: BREAKING: Governor Kitzhaber Issues Reprieve -- Calls for Action on Capital Punishment, DP9 (November 22, 2011). Maybe Oregon is simply following Texas's lead.

Retro Activity

Posted in Criminal on Wednesday July 06 2011 @ 8:51pm

The 80s are over.

Sure, Lady Gaga makes us reminisce about old-school Madonna, and we saw a kid with a fade at a skate park last weekend. Sure, we had to flee a place of business when Hall and Oates came on the soundtrack. But for the most part, it's a new century.

How do we know? First, crack! Remember crack? It didn't go anywhere, but the violent turf wars of the 80s have settled down. And, in response to a few decades of pleading, the U.S. Sentencing Commission finally realized it, too, had a crack problem, and modified the guidelines. See this nifty resource page (which has the Berman Seal of Approval) if you want to know (much) more.

That's not all -- the guidelines are retroactive. Really. Starting November 1, 2011.

Guess what else? These budgetary times have made taxpayers less likely to support tough on crime policies, and see such policies as the expensive short-term solutions they really were. The true cost of corralling people, re-entry, and the gap in families are now being understood. The SCOTUS supports this path, too, mandating a reduction in California's prison population in Brown v. Plata.

We all know where Greed is good got us. We are smart enough to realize that only a very small segment of the population looks good with shoulder pads. And our approach to crime -- tempered by the problem-solving courts movement, lack of funding, and common sense -- is on a new path.

Not Ready for Prime Time

Posted in Criminal on Tuesday July 05 2011 @ 8:01pm

It's a sad (?) fact that most of the legal world isn't very interesting! That doesn't stop us from blogging on about the lesser thrills of juror parking. Somebody has to, and it ain't CNN.

Meanwhile, the media has fallen flat twice (by our count) this week. Looking for excitement in the form of terrible moms who get tattooed and participate in wet t-shirt contests, or for lewd Frenchmen preying on hotel staff, these particular cases were blown up larger than life. Prosecutors, some of whom have an unnatural affinity for limelight, jumped in with all feet.

Back in the day we would speak with hundreds of media folks every year. The quickest way to get them to flee was to tell them the boring truth -- night courts aren't full of hijinks, they are merely a way for the court to help regular people to take care of business (such as a traffic ticket) at a more convenient time (say, 6:00 p.m.). Drug courts aren't much like Lohanic TV pitches (thank goodness for small favors). In courtroom reality, a team meets and notes the slow process of recovery, noting small victories (having a clean urine test or attending an AA meeting) or lapses (not), week after week.

As our friend and former co-worker Walt so nicely noted, The thing to remember about trials is that the jury or judge is not determining whether a person is guilty. The judge or jury is to determine whether the government proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Those last four words are key, and it's part of what made yesterday the Fourth of July, so worthy of celebration.

You want drama? Sex? Excitement? Watch the headlines. You want justice? Visit a courtroom.

The Night The Rights Went Out In Georgia

Posted in Criminal on Tuesday July 06 2010 @ 5:12am

How many ways can public defense go wrong in Georgia? Let us count the ways.

1. Recall that the county-based defender system failed. Atlanta, for example, is made up of several different counties. Someone on one side of the city got one public defender system, while someone down the road got another, etc. etc. Finally, a statewide system was introduced.

1.a. Now there's talk of going back to the old ways (the ones that didn't work in the first place). See Georgia's Public Defender System May Go Back Under County Control, Bill Rankin, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (April 6, 2010).

2. The Nichols case, in which a defendant shot up a courtroom (killing a judge and others) and fled, bankrupted the system.

2.a. This would be a bit more understandable -- disasters happen -- if it were not for the complete failure of court security. So many things were wrong with security that it's amazing this didn't happen sooner and more often. The rest of the world woke up that Friday afternoon and took a good hard look at court security. Why does it take something so horrible for common sense to kick in? Or not, as the case may be. See Five Years After Nichols Shootings, Is The Fulton Courthouse Safer? Rhonda Cook, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (March 11, 2010).

2.a.1. At the same time, Nichols protested the use of cameras in the court during his trial. See Hair Today, Guilty Tomorrow, court-o-rama.org (July 2, 2008).

2.b. Yet, the Nichols case wasn't funded properly, either. See For The Defense? court-o-rama.org (January 25, 2008).

2.b.1. Part of the funding problems for Nichols could have come from the fact that two different judges had the case. See Damned If He Does court-o-rama.org (January 30, 2008), and New Nichols Judge, court-o-rama.org (February 4, 2008).

2.b.2. Due to juror gridlock, Nichols was sentenced to life. See Juror Gridlock, court-o-rama.org (December 12, 2008). Who knows whether more funding would have meant death for Nichols?

3. This (plus many other procedural and substantive mishaps throughout history -- let's not forget things like the group plea bargain, which may or may not still be in use in some courts) brings us to the Weis case. Here, when the state ran out of money to fund Weis's capital defense, the prosecutor recommended two local public defenders to take the job. Yes, you read that correctly. See Defendants Squeezed by Georgia's Tight Budget, Adam Liptak, NYT (July 5, 2010). H/T to court-o-rama's man of the house!

So, what now? The SCOTUS, if it takes the case, may or may not come up with a good solution for Weis and other similarly-situated defendants.

Meanwhile, perhaps they can learn a few lessons from fencing (the sport, not the reselling of stolen goods) via Simple Justice. See 7 Lessons From Atlanta, Scott Greenfield, Simple Justice (July 5, 2010).

On the Soccer Court

Posted in Criminal on Wednesday June 23 2010 @ 8:42pm

Ha, we know that soccer isn't played on a court! We just said that to introduce you to the World Cup Court.

Like spring break court (a real phenomenon in places like Daytona), World Cup Court exists to cope with the mayhem that ensues when thousands of people come to town rather suddenly.

Unlike the spring break courts, World Cup Court protects the international community from orange mini-dresses. See 2 Arrested in World Cup Minidress Flap, AP, KIDK.com (June 16, 2010).

Read/listen to the somewhat definitive South Africa's World Cup Court: Sudden Justice, Mike Pesca, All Things Considered (June 22, 2010).

But why try so hard to score a gooooooaaaaallllll against Cup-related crime? Is this an image thing, like hiding your homeless before the cameras roll? Fear not, area people were sequestered near a TV (and apparently serve as a captive audience for a pastor) so they can watch the games. See Bafana Bafana Bring Cold Comfort to Homeless, Kate Holton, Washington Post (June 16, 2010). See also Poor People's World Cup Shows Exclusion of Poor in South Africa, Huffington Post (June 21, 2010).

See also the somewhat unrelated (it's just an analogy -- the headline tricked us!) A World Cup Court of Appeals, Paul Clement, Slate (June 23, 2010).

Oh, and even more off-topic -- did you know that Betty White is a World Cup referee? The vertical stripes make her look taller.

Is Smart the New Tough?

Posted in Criminal on Tuesday June 22 2010 @ 7:36pm

Like the macarena, Tough on crime is soooo 1990's!

At least one prosecutor (sure, there may be at least one other!) is getting smart on crime.

See 'Smart on Crime' Mantra of Philadelphia Prosecutor, Erik Eckholm, NYT (June 19, 2010). See also 'Zone Courts' Proposed in Phila., Craig R. McCoy, Nancy Phillips, and Dylan Purcell, Philadelphia Inquirer (May 30, 2010).

It will be interesting to see how his efforts pay off. Taxpayers may finally have reached the point where they no longer wish to pay for expensive (and often ineffective) toughness.

It would also be interesting to know what Scott over at Simple Justice has to say. Surely he will chime in as soon as he's finished watching Karate Kid.

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