Criminal Defense

We’ve been talking about changes proposed to the federal sentencing guidelines, and particularly about how one basic aim of the changes is to give greater weight to the subjective intent of defendants when determining the appropriate sentencing range for economic...

In our last post, we mentioned that changes may be coming with respect to how the federal sentencing guidelines deal with a defendant’s culpability for economic offenses such as fraud, theft and embezzlement. Overall, the recent changes proposed by the U.S. Sentencing...

In our last post, we spoke about the FBI’s recent admission that thousands of criminal cases may have been affected by faulty hair analysis testimony. As we pointed out, there are bound to be a significant number of appeals stemming from the scandal, which itself is a...

Readers are well aware that the standard of proof for evidence in criminal cases is that of “beyond a reasonable doubt.” The highest standard of proof in the legal system, it requires prosecutors to present evidence that would convince a reasonable person that there...

Police investigations can be a tricky area for criminal defense attorneys to address. On the one hand, police officers are public servants and have the task of protecting the public from criminals. Prosecutors largely rely on the investigative work of police officers...

Readers may have noticed: there are a lot of headlines these days about police officer violence against criminal suspects. There are a variety of reasons for this, no doubt, but according to some commentators there is a term which appropriately describes one prominent...

In our last post, we began speaking about the multiple lawsuits the City of Baltimore is currently facing in connection with wrongful convictions. As we noted, the litigation is a testament to the fact that the criminal justice system does make mistakes and that these...

The criminal justice system, in case anybody was wondering, is not perfect. Mistakes do occur, not only in criminal investigations, but also in the legal process and in the ultimate outcome of criminal cases. The higher the stakes are in a criminal case, the more a...

In our last post we mentioned that it is important for motorists to have a basic understanding of their rights during traffic stops. First of all, it should be well understood that motorists do have an expectation and a right to privacy in their vehicle—albeit a lower...

Traffic stops are an important way for law enforcement agencies to fight crime. Think about it: if a police officer is able to pull over a motorist, he or she has the opportunity not only to question occupants of the vehicle about criminal activity, but to scan the...