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Bostonist (Free subscription) | 8 hours ago
The Bill of Rights. When the Supreme Court handed Martha Coakley her ass last month, it may also have opened a Pandora's box of illegitimate drug convictions . At issue in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts was a Massachusetts law that allowed forensics experts to skip testifying about their laboratory analysis of alleged drug samples. The law allowed prosecutors to admit notarized certificates...
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Daily Kos (Free subscription) | 11/27/2009
I'm not going all-in for the message of this Mayors Against Illegal Guns "Terror Gap" thing. But I'm struck by what I'll call the "Hypocrisy Gap" instead. I don't want to take up too much of your post-holiday time with this, but here's what's bugging me: the wingnuts have happily sold you out on your First Amendment rights, your Fourth Amendment rights,...
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CrimProf Blog (Free subscription) | 11/25/2009
Orin Kerr at The Volokh Conspiracy has an interesting post on this topic, prompted by some of the discussion of originalism versus stare decisis surrounding the recent briefing in the Court's pending Second Amendment case.
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Accidental Blogger (Free subscription) | 11/25/2009
Orin has a post up at Volokh Conspiracy posing a thought experiment (or something) to originalists. Essentially, it's been good constitutional law for a long time that the sixth amendment right to counsel means that the state must provide an...
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The Volokh Conspiracy (Free subscription) | 11/24/2009
... by doing so. Here’s my question for readers who take this view: How do you interpret the Sixth Amendment right “to have the Assistance of Counsel” in criminal prosecutions? The right to Assistance of Counsel was a response to the traditional English common law practice of forbidding defense lawyers in criminal trials. Defense attorneys were banned for fear they would...
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Planet Kaua`i (Free subscription) | 11/17/2009
The U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment right to assistance of counsel does not give a criminal defendant the right to confer with counsel during breaks in trial when the defendant is testifying. (In other words, when the defendant is on the stand, and the court takes a short break, the court doesn't have to let the defendant confer with his or her attorney). However, as...
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Creative Minority Reader (Free subscription) | 12/03/2009
... filed by a death-row inmate. Specifically, the Court ruled that the inmate was deprived of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel when his counsel failed to discover significant mitigating evidence and to present that evidence at the sentencing phase of his trial. By e-mail, Walter Weber of the American Center for Law and Justice highlights an interesting phrase in the Court’s...
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Bench Memos (Free subscription) | 12/03/2009
On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous per curiam opinion in Porter v. McCollum in favor of the habeas petition filed by a death-row inmate. Specifically, the Court ruled that the inmate was deprived of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel when his counsel failed to discover significant mitigating evidence and to present that evidence at the sentencing phase of his trial....
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JURIST (Free subscription) | 12/01/2009
... failed to present evidence of factors that would mitigate such a sentence in violation of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel. Following a district court ruling that Porter's counsel was ineffective, the court of appeals reversed, holding that the district court did not give proper deference to the state court that issued Porter's sentence. In an unsigned per curiam opinion,...
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New York Supreme Court Criminal Ter (Free subscription) | 11/30/2009
... the law's provisions, which they argue pose ethical conflicts and strike at the heart of First Amendment values. That odyssey culminates at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday. Feds Drop Money-Laundering Case Against Miami Attorney Daily Business Review When federal prosecutors dropped all charges Wednesday in its money-laundering case against prominent Miami attorney Ben Kuehne and two co-defendants,...
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Sentencing Law and Policy (Free subscription) | 11/30/2009
... the District Court held that Porter’s lawyer’s failure to adduce that evidence violated his Sixth Amendment right to counsel and granted his application for a writ of habeas corpus. The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed, on the ground that the Florida Supreme Court’s determination that Porter was not prejudiced by any deficient performance by his counsel was...
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New York Supreme Court Criminal Ter (Free subscription) | 11/27/2009
... the law's provisions, which they argue pose ethical conflicts and strike at the heart of First Amendment values. That odyssey culminates at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday. Feds Drop Money-Laundering Case Against Miami Attorney Daily Business Review When federal prosecutors dropped all charges Wednesday in its money-laundering case against prominent Miami attorney Ben Kuehne and two co-defendants,...
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JURIST (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
[JURIST] A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that former Guantanamo Bay detainee Ahmed Ghailani does not have a right to be represented by his military defense lawyers in a civilian court. Military lawyers Colonel Jeffrey Colwell and Major Richard Reiter were reassigned by the Department of Defense despite their willingness to continue representing Ghailani and Judge Lewis Kaplan's initial ruling...
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Above the Law (Free subscription) | 11/26/2009
* All charges have been dropped against prominent Miami defense lawyer Ben Kuehne (pictured), but questions remain regarding the government's commitment to the Sixth Amendment right to counsel. [ Daily Business Review ] * The ABA supports Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try KSM and the other accused 9/11 co-conspirators in federal court. [ ABA Journal ] * Speaking of...
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Planet Kaua`i (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
Star Bulletin - The Honolulu Police Department's plans to post the names and photos of alleged drunken drivers on a new Web page have disturbed some attorneys, who say it's unconstitutional and will infringe on the person's right to a fair trial. Is it unconstitutional? I'm not so sure. Newspapers publish the names of arrestees in arrest reports. And the GI publishes the pictures of people...
