Promises, Promises
An involuntary confession can’t be used against a defendant at trial, not even to impeach him if he testifies. See, e.g., Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385 (1978). Whether a […]
Proposed Ethics Opinion about Interviewing Child Witnesses
Last month, the State Bar issued a proposed ethics opinion regarding contact between prosecutors and defense lawyers, on the one hand, and children who are prosecuting witnesses in criminal cases […]
Second Installment: Suppression of Chemical Analyses in Implied Consent Cases for Statutory Violations
Stan Speedy is charged with impaired driving. He has filed a motion to suppress evidence of blood test results based on a violation of his Fourth Amendment and his statutory […]
United States Supreme Court to Review In re J.D.B.
I blogged here about In re J.D.B., a juvenile case in which the North Carolina Supreme Court held that a 13-year-old, questioned in an unlocked school conference room by police […]
Criminal Law Blog — Vacation Edition
I’m on vacation this week, so my blogging will be a little lighter fare than usual. Today, I thought I’d call attention to this article in the FBI Law Enforcement […]
News Roundup: World Cup Edition
The world’s biggest sporting event begins today in South Africa. I’ve been playing soccer more or less continuously — albeit not very well — for more than 30 years. Predictably, […]
Berghuis v. Thompkins
Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court decided Berghuis v. Thompkins, an important Miranda case. (There are other issues in the case, too, but this post will focus on the Miranda […]
New Publications of Interest
If you haven’t heard about them already, you should know about two fantastic new publications by School of Government faculty members. The first is Bob Farb’s paper on Maryland v. […]
Excessive Force and De Minimis Injuries
It was a busy week at the U.S. Supreme Court. Among other things, the Justices issued the two Miranda opinions Jeff wrote about yesterday and heard oral argument in two […]
Do You Mind if I Search?
I’ve bumped into a couple recent cases in which law enforcement officers have requested consent to search a car and have received ambiguous responses. (For a discussion of when officers […]