In the first of two posts, Pittsburgh criminal defense attorney, Jerry McDevitt, comments on his successful defense of famed pathologist, Dr. Cyril Wecht. Q: Jerry congratulations on the dismissal of all charges in the Wecht case in the Western District of Pennsylvania earlier this month. (Readers can find earlier posts here) I want to talk […]
READ MORETo Testify or Not to Testify…That is the Question.
Few topics are discussed among lawyers more. Should you put your client on the stand or not? Sometimes it’s just not an option for any number of reasons. Maybe your client has a criminal history that has too much to impeach with. Maybe your client told so many inconsistent versions of a story to the […]
READ MOREPeople v. Ward: Due Process and Equal Protection Challenge to California Crack
The disparity between the treatment of powder and crack cocaine under California criminal law does not violate principles of due process or equal protection, the Second District Court of Appeal held 10/1/08 in People v. Ward, B200354. The defendant in Ward argued that the sentencing disparity violated substantive due process and equal protection principles because […]
READ MOREFollow-up on 911 calls as “non-testimonial”
I spoke to Louis Turchirelli, who was the lawyer on Pitts v. State, which I wrote a post on recently. I asked him if he was going to take the case up on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. He advised me that there was a similar case pending already. I went to the Supreme Court […]
READ MOREPhoto of trained child with gun prompts police visit to N.J. home
Facebook Image Prompts NJ Raid by Cops and Child Services Take an overreaching child and family services agency add in an overly aggressive police department, and you have the ingredients for a disaster. When Shawn Moore took a photo of his 11-year old son holding his birthday present, a .22 caliber tactical rifle, he never […]
READ MOREWhy Winning at All Costs Compromises Justice
There’s an old “joke” among prosecutors that anyone can convict the guilty, but it takes a really exceptional prosecutor to convict the innocent. Not very funny, is it? The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Smith v. Cain, 132 S.Ct. 627 (2012), demonstrates that there are still criminal prosecutors out there who either don’t understand […]
READ MOREFrom Broken Windows to Broken Policies: On James Q. Wilson’s Analysis of “The Benefit of Prisons”
Note: I first wrote this post back in March when James Q. Wilson published an op-ed in several major American newspapers defending America’s intense use of prisons. I decided not to publish it at the time, but today I see that Wilson is guest blogging at the Volokh Conspiracy and making the same argument all […]
READ MOREAn Update on Everyone’s Favorite Cravath Alum
It’s too bad we already picked a Lawsuit of the Day. This latest litigation — brought by James Colliton, the ex-Cravath tax lawyer who, in the words of theAP, “paid a woman so he could have sex with her two underage daughters” — is pretty rich. Once again from the AP: A disbarred Manhattan lawyer […]
READ MORECharlotte victims fight back with deadly force
North Carolina Sees More Killings As Concealed Weapon Permits Increase A Glock 22 tucked under his shirt apparently saved a Pizza Hut delivery driver’s life not long ago. After being robbed — twice in two years — the driver who asked for anonymity started packing. Gregory James Hardy and Dauntrae Wallace, both 21, and convicted […]
READ MOREDo Stand Your Ground laws worsen racial disparities?
Do Stand Your Ground Laws Provoke Racial Disparities Inside The Justice System With some observers believing how Stand Your Ground (SYG) laws warp the nation’s justice system, the discussion isn’t over — by a long shot. In state-jurisdictions where SYG laws are in place, murders are two-timed as apt to be determined “justifiable” as states […]
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