In 1997, an FBI Lab Tech, Fred Whitehurst, blew the whistle on shoddy work practices. As a consequence, the Justice Department promised extensive review and alteration of the processes that led to misconduct, and wrongful convictions of defendants in numerous cases. Even when the FBI knew their work had been shoddy and the wrong person […]
After years in prison, Adrian Thomas was found not guilty for the murder of his infant son. His story was told in Scenes of a Crime. In this encore broadcast, the film’s co-director explains the case. 00:0000:00 Here’s a link to the full article on NPR.
Finally the Department of Justice does the right thing and (sort of) requires agents to record all in-custody suspect interrogations. There are still lots of absurd exceptions (only if the interrogation is in a “secured” police building — so if they’re in the car on the way, not obligations — I can see some unscrupulous agents exploiting […]
Turns out that, when a second cop on the scene “instructed” Tolan’s Mom, who was on her own porch, to stop yelling, “Why are you doing that to my son,” the police decided that was refusal to accept police instruction. Laying aside the question of who made the police the arbiter of who could say […]
It’s rare for the United States Supreme Court, with 5 ultra conservative justices, to ever side against police or prosecutors. But some right-wing judges take that history as a license to go even further out from reality to help police to the detriment of regular citizens. Finally, even our conservative Supreme Court had to say, “Stop! You’ve gone too far.” This […]
The crime lab procedural has been among the most popular genres at least since “CSI” debuted in 2000, and devotees of blood-spatter patterns and advanced DNA analysis have no shortage of programming to choose from. There’s “Person of Interest,” “The Good Wife,” “Blacklist,” “Castle,” and “The Mentalist.” All are in the top 20 best-rated shows […]
Many people think that a misdemeanor conviction is “no big thing.” In truth, in the federal system, there are very few misdemeanor convictions, usually exclusively obtained through very diligent plea bargaining. When facing serious felonies with all the potential collateral consequences (beyond prison even), getting a misdemeanor plea bargain is often the very best way out. […]
Now the government is trying to get a federal judge to sentence 3 public officials convicted of corruption to up to 150 years in prison. The defendants went to trial and were convicted, though they had very fine lawyers. But what the government is doing is trying to impose a “trial penalty” imprisonment sentence. The government wants […]
Another Albuquerque police office fatally shot a man suspected of stealing a car — not murder, not sex assault, just car theft. It’s become a regular thing for those guys. Read the New York Times article in full here.
I’ve always been very proud to be a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (“NACDL”) and never more so than these days when the organization is poised to help process huge numbers of clemency applications for non-violent offenders serving Draconian prison sentences. As the NACDL press release explained: “On January 30, 2014, […]
