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"The process worked and these redneck holdouts can carry all the signs and boo all they want to. It's a good day for me, my daughter and some lost sanity in Georgia."

A new flag has risen in Georgia.

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OFF POINT
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I have been looking thru the list of websites whence come the most forwards to CrimLaw. The top ten are:

(1) The Jurist
               Somebody over there just loves my blawg. This is by far the largest number of forwards.
{2} Blogger
               I'm guessing these are random hits from the front page when I post new messages.
-3- Legal Ramblings
               I highly reccomend this page.
[4] Palmetto Journal
               This page found me before I found it. Worthwhile read of various topics.
(5) Ernie the Attorney
               Ernie has the best laid out outline of blawg pages I've seen.
{6} Sua Sponte
               One of the first pages I started reading.
-7- Blawg
               I'm number 14!! I'm number 14!! Heck, I'm even ahead of Volohk (which shows how valid these rankings are).
[8] How Appealing
               This is one I look at every day.
(9) Lex Communis
                The most respected blog in all of north-central Fresno County. Very good.
{10} Legalguy
               Not sure how people got sent to me from there. I'm not on the guy's blog list.
-11- khuffash
               Why are people linking to me from a farsi blog?

My top ten list goes to 11 because that means my music is louder than everybody elses . . . er, I mean my list is better than all the others. After all, does InstaPundit have 11 in its top ten lists?

As an aside, I'm not sure how accurate bSTATS actually is. It tells me that several people have been forwarded to CrimLaw from this Washington Post article about personal injury "runners" in D.C. but I cannot see how. As well, it doesn't tell me who has bookmarked the page and is just accessing it that way; those show up on the daily list as just empty slots.

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Beating your wife's cat to death gets you a felony conviction, 6 months in jail, and a $2,500 fine. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

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"[T]he highest judicial commission in Egypt approved a suggestion proposed by the ruling party aiming at canceling the state security courts law."

Not sure what this means exactly but it sounds like a good thing.

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Attacking a Defendant by requiring the defense attorney to turn over his billing records even though they have nothing to do with the charges.

This may be legal but it's shameful. It is an obvious ploy meant to deny the Defendant his choice of counsel or at least drive a wedge between him and his attorney. And possibly a way to attack disfavored attorneys (or ones who are just too succesful).

I'm curious as to whether any prosecutor has an ethics complaint filed against him for this sort of thing.

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Been wondering what the next Ninth Circuit decision to be overturned will be?

Well, this decision stating that individuals do not have a right to bear arms is a good candidate.

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"Be warned: Law, once a shield of the innocent, is now a weapon in the hands of government."

Good to know I'm not the only person whom labels himself a "conservative" and is concerned about the dissappearing rights of citizens.

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Judge Allows Government to Get Away With It

As you will recall, I predicted that the Malvo confession would make it into court. Guess what? It did. The judge disallowed a minor section (before they reread him his rights) but allowed everything after that.

The crux of the decision is that the the government can play all sorts of procedural games in order to deny you access to the attorneys you currently have and remove them. Isn't it amazing how technicalities always save the government but never work that way for Defendants?

It is becoming embarrassing how the Virginia courts are starting to require that poor, uneducated clients who are legally inexperienced use exactly the correct arcane formulation of phrases in order to obtain an attorney during questioning. Does anyone actually believe that "Do I get to talk to my attorneys? . . . Because the lawyers told me don't talk until they get here." is not a statement which a reasonable police officer would recognize as an attempt to invoke his right to counsel? If they didn't then why not read him the Miranda rights at that moment instead of talking to him for a hour and giving him some sandwiches so they could soften him up.

Of course, the Court's assertion that officers can approach you as often as they want to after you have invoked your right to remain silent (as long as they tell you your Miranda rights) is just amazing. It may be true legally but expecting someone (much less a minor) to understand that he has to keep invoking the same right over and over again every week, day, hour, or quarter-hour is anchored firmly in fantasyland.

"There is no evidence that Fairfax police or prosecutors colluded with federal authorities to spirit Malvo away to Virginia without the knowledge of his Maryland attorneys with the hopes or intention of interrogating him when he was without counsel or the right to counsel."

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!
CAN THE JUDGE ACTUALLY THINK THAT WE BELIEVE THIS?

I am almost speechless; I want to rant so bad. Instead, I'll just refer you to my previous posting.

How Appealing has access to the decision here.

You know, if I thought they were going to have a really hard time convicting for murder I would probably be more sympathetic. But they're going to get their conviction with or without the confession. It seems like they are bending and breaking the constitution just because they can.

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Police officers BEWARE. Those bachelorettes just might think you're part of the fun.

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Now here's a judicial decision I can live with. I wonder if I can get a Virginia judge to rule I can have a beer during breaks between court cases.

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It looks like Texas is starting to fulfill the Ninth Circuit's role but from the right. You know, if your courts are so ultra-right that the Rhenquist Court is issuing per curiam decisions against them you need to take a serious look at yourself. I didn't think this Court could agree on anything enough to issue a per curiam.

As an extra point, the third portion of the article points out that in the Illinois case just accepted by the federal supreme court the checkpoint actually took place three weeks after the crime. Again, I say this is a loser for the State of Illinois.

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I think it is well-settled precedent that police cannot set up checkpoints to randomly check for criminal activity. But now the State of Illinois wants to be allowed to set up checkpoints to randomly investigate and/or announce a single criminal activity.

This doesn't appear to be police shutting down roads immediately after a bank robbery or such so that the criminals cannot escape the area: "officers were passing out leaflets seeking information about a fatal hit-and-run."

I predict that a checkpoint to randomly hand out leaflets probably won't stand up to constitutional analysis; as the Illinois Supreme Court said "police [can]not stop drivers at random every time they need[] tips about a crime."

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"Kelley Ferguson, vacationing with her family aboard the Legend of the Seas, was accused of planting the threatening notes so the trip would be cut short and she could get home to her boyfriend."

When she was caught and bail was being discussed her mother said she wouldn't post bond because:

"She's going to run . . . and we're going to be left with a $25,000 debt. She promises not to do it again - but yeah, right."

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"The United States Supreme Court today unanimously upheld the right of the states to bring fraud charges against telemarketers and other fund-raisers who knowingly deceive potential donors about how much of their money will really go to charity."

Good to know the 1st Amendment doesn't allow outright lying to seperate me from my money.

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Ah, no matter how much I despair of the criminal system here there are always worse places.

In Belgrade "the police arrested 10,111 people and jailed more than 4,500" in order to stop organized crime. It also went after the lawyers; of course, we do that too (at least in Florida and NY).

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Parents refused to allow treatment of their child. I've dealt with the heavy-handedness of DSS before; if "even with surgery, Noshin stands only a 20- to 30-percent chance of reaching full life expectancy" is true I think DSS is overstepping itself.

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A member of the Japanese media found an explosive device in Iraq and kept it as a souvenier. It exploded in Jordan killing and injuring people. Now he's going in front of a military tribunal.

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Hide the jurors names, hide whence the jurors came, let the prosecution exclude those who are Hispanic and don't let the attorneys have any input in the voir dire. There are definitely problems in the fedgov system. I suspect that all of these were granted at the prosecution's request. Remember when the system was supposed to be biased against the prosecutors?

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A judge changed a death penalty into life in prison. The local paper's reaction?

"We don’t understand Alexander’s decision to sentence Inge to life in prison ? and we don’t agree with it."

Vengeance is ours sayeth the Danville Bee.

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A very well written analysis by Ernie the Attorney of the effect of the internet on the admonishment to jurors not to look into or investigate anything on their own.

Maybe I should try to stretch my exile trials out over a couple days. Then the jurors could go home and find out that the defendant is facing 5 years for having their dad's non-working shotgun in the attic. The shock on jurors' faces when they are told of these mandatories is palpable. Of course, that would be trying for jury nullification and that would just be so wrong.

Not that Virginia felony trials ever last longer than a day.

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The Ninth Circuit is the last holdout. Apparently everyone else has ignored the basic rule against adhesion contracts and let employers impose arbitration in employment disputes.

Of course it's the Ninth so we know what will happen if there is an appeal. The Supreme Court will affirm our right to contract under due process. Oh wait, they already did that . . .

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A quick review of The Majesty of the Law, written by Justice Scalia's favortie pincushion.

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We all complain about judges - except for those of us blessed to practice in front of the judges I practice in front of: they are all wonderful, intelligent, compassionate and judicious*.

Well, at least we don't have to practice in front of these judges.



* Sorry about that but anyone who goes thru my archives can figure out who I am and where I practice. The judges and their friends cannot all be Luddites.

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What happens when an FBI lab-tech concludes that there are problems in the FBI lab? He changes his mind. Couldn't have been pressured to change his story - could he?

"Burmeister had complained in the months before he retracted his testimony that he was being pressured by prosecutors and lab employees to change his testimony or scientific conclusions."

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The ongoing saga of the judge who was.

Judge on bench-Judge sued for sexual harrassment-Legislature does not renew Judge's appointment-State Senator reports ex-Judge for lying to Senate-ex-Judge runs for State office-Bar puts off review until after the election

Who needs soap operas?

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TalkLeft pointing out one of the errors in the machines which convict people of DUI's.

Let's be honest here - a regular citizen accused of a DUI is going to be convicted. He will have been "asked" to complete several tests which are very hard to pass sober. He will have things such as comprehending and starting to perform the test before the officer tells him to start the test counted as indicating drunkeness. He will then be "asked" to take the preliminary breath test which is so innacurate that it is not allowed in court. The way these happenings are presented in court is always sanitized; the officer's version never tracks with the what your client tells you occurred.

Then there is the test at the police station. On top of the problems mentioned at TalkLeft the machine is so screwed up that if an officer uses a radio near the machine it screws it up. Then the result from this machine is used as irrefutable evidence that your client was drunk. The blood-alchohol level where the assumption of guilt attaches is now so low that anyone who drinks has driven with that amount in their system; its just a lottery to see who the police will encounter on a given night.

I've seen a couple cases where rich defendants have dug in and started getting ready to go to the wall. If you have the money you can get experts to show how ridiculous the roadside tests are and how flawed the machine is. The cases tend to go away.

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Ouch. If this is even partially true the Danville police department is in a lot of trouble.

A contingent threat; an unwarranted warrant; a flash-bang; 24 rounds fired; the victim lies dying on the floor while police summoned someone to take pictures of the scene; and the victim dies.

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"Inmates Dwayne White and Hakim Wilburn told the story of a jail-house game where inmates ``jump on'' a high profile case, read everything they can find about it and contact prosecutors' offices offering to testify.

`Jail hype was going around' about Kearney's case, White said.

Ronald Brookins, an inmate who testified against Kearney, bragged he would be home by the summer and have his Cadillac back as a result of his testimony, according to White.

Brookins said that he never talked to White."

And yet no new trial.

Every criminal lawyer worth his salt knows that this sort of scam goes on all the time. The convict tries to sell false info fora lessening of his sentence It is encouraged by police and prosecutors. Supposedly, the convicts are screened to exclude those who are lying but these guys are professional scam artists and the prosecution is predisposed to want to believe them. I've seen some of the ones who get thru; I'd hate to see the ones who don't make the grade.

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Actions being taken in Lynchburg to try and deal with street violence by keeping kids from joining gangs.

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The Judge gave the cow-starver his cattle back but is making him sell them.

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