Excuse Me, Recuse You
Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court decided a case that could have been the subject of a John Grisham novel. The case is Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Company, and […]
Habitual Felon in the News
The second most interesting news story of the past couple of days is a New York Times piece about the looming demise of some of the nation’s biggest law firms. […]
Post-Conviction DNA Testing Heats Up
Editor’s note: A previous post concerning a United States Supreme Court case about post-conviction DNA testing appears here. Recently, I’ve been getting a lot of calls about requests for post-conviction […]
Selective Assertion of the Fifth Amendment Privilege
Suppose that an eyewitness testifies for the state on direct examination that he saw the defendant snatch an old woman’s purse and run off. The defense cross-examines the witness about […]
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors
The Court of Appeals released several opinions yesterday. The most significant may be State v. Wallace, an assault case involving remarkable and disturbing facts and difficult legal questions. The victim, […]
Consecutive Sentences for Misdemeanors (a Quiz!)
by School of Government faculty members Jamie Markham and Alyson Grine Suppose Ronald is convicted of six counts of communicating threats, a Class 1 misdemeanor. Ronald has three prior convictions, […]
More Montejo, Mostly
Update: Another statistical analysis of Judge Sotomayor’s work in criminal cases appears here. The conclusion — that she’s pretty close to the middle of the road — is the same […]
Restitution and Civil Judgments
Last week the court of appeals decided State v. Swann, concluding (among other things) that a prosecutor’s statement alone is insufficient to support a restitution award. A lot of recent […]
I See Cocaine
Can a lay witness testify that she could tell just by looking at a substance that it was, in fact, a controlled substance? (Let’s assume the witness has extensive dealings […]
Montejo v. Louisiana
Two big developments at the United States Supreme Court. First, President Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice David Souter. The New York Times story is here, some News […]