<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>CRIMINAL JURISDICTION &#187; Federal Defense Attorney</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/category/federal-defense-attorney/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog</link>
	<description>CRIMINAL JURISDICTION: Criminal Law Blog by Defense Lawyer John Floyd and Mr. Billy Sinclair</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:44:11 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5</generator>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<xhtml:meta xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" name="robots" content="noindex" />
		<item>
		<title>THE IMPACT OF SMITH V. CAIN</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2012/01/19/the-impact-of-smith-v-cain/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2012/01/19/the-impact-of-smith-v-cain/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:59:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Federal Defense Attorney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ethical discovery obligations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prosecutor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smith v. Cain]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=705</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[High Court Misses Opportunity to Discuss Ethical Obligations of Prosecutors

By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

For reasons we discussed in a previous post, the U.S. Supreme Court had an opportunity in Smith v. Cain to discuss the ethical discovery obligations of both federal and state prosecutors—an idea strongly suggested by the American Bar Association in their amicus brief filed in the case. While the issue before the Court was whether Louisiana prosecutors had committed a Brady violation in a murder case by suppressing favorable evidence, the ABA had encouraged the Justices to use the case to emphasize that a prosecutor’s pre-trial ethical obligations to disclose exculpatory and mitigating evidence under Rule 3.8(d) of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, 3.09(d) in the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, are broader and distinct from the post-conviction Brady analysis. In its amicus curiae brief, the ABA framed the issue as follows:]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2012/01/19/the-impact-of-smith-v-cain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A “SLIPPERY SLOPE” TO COMBAT HOMEGROWN TERRORISM</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/12/14/a-%e2%80%9cslippery-slope%e2%80%9d-to-combat-homegrown-terrorism/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/12/14/a-%e2%80%9cslippery-slope%e2%80%9d-to-combat-homegrown-terrorism/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:51:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anti-Terrorism Lawyer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Federal Defense Attorney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[homegrown terrorism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[indefinite detention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[military detention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[terrorism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=693</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Like it or not, the term “Jihadist” has become a commonly used term in today’s political lexicon.  In a Congressional Research Service (“CRS”) report titled “American Jihadist Terrorism: Combating a Complex Threat” and issued on November 15, 2011, the report’s author Jerome P. Bjelopera said the term “homegrown jihadist” describes “terrorist activity or plots perpetrated within the United States or abroad by American citizens, legal permanent residents, or visitors radicalized within the United States.” The analyst for the CRS in organized crime and terrorism said the term “jihadist” describes “radicalized individuals using Islam as an ideological and/or religious justification for their belief in the establishment of global caliphate, or jurisdiction governed by a Muslim civil and religious leader known as a caliph.”]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/12/14/a-%e2%80%9cslippery-slope%e2%80%9d-to-combat-homegrown-terrorism/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>THE CRIMINAL TRIAL: AN ENDANGERED SPECIES?</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/09/30/the-criminal-trial-an-endangered-species/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/09/30/the-criminal-trial-an-endangered-species/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 01 Oct 2011 03:35:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Federal Defense Attorney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[criminal trial]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mandatory sentence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plea bargaining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prosecutor]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=659</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Federal Judge Says Threat of Mandatory Sentences Used as “Chip” to Coerce Pleas

By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

John L. Kane, Jr. is the Senior Judge of the United States District Court in Denver. This prominent jurist recently told the New York Times that criminal defendants are being ”coerced” into pleading guilty with threats of a harsher sentences should they decide to go to trial. “How many times is a mandatory sentence used as a chip in order to coerce a plea? They don’t keep records,” Judge Kane told the newspaper. “That’s what the public doesn’t see, and where the statistics become meaningless.” Judge Kane said that prosecutors “have grown more powerful than judges” and the end result is that “we hardly have trials anymore.”]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/09/30/the-criminal-trial-an-endangered-species/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>DOUBLE STANDARD OF EVIDENCE IN CONRAD MURRAY TRIAL</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/09/08/double-standard-of-evidence-in-conray-murray-trial/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/09/08/double-standard-of-evidence-in-conray-murray-trial/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 08 Sep 2011 21:05:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Federal Defense Attorney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drug addiction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drugs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[evidence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[manslaughter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pedophilia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=649</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

Jury selection has begun in the high profile criminal case against Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician charged with involuntary manslaughter in the drug overdose and death of Michael Jackson.  This comes the day after a California Court of Appeals denied Murray’s request to have the jury sequestered in what will assuredly be intense media coverage and “expert” speculation.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/09/08/double-standard-of-evidence-in-conray-murray-trial/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>44</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>HARRIS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY USES LINGUISTICS TO TRANSFORM OLD CASES INTO COLD CASES</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/03/30/harris-county-district-attorney-uses-linguistics-to-transform-old-cases-into-cold-cases/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/03/30/harris-county-district-attorney-uses-linguistics-to-transform-old-cases-into-cold-cases/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 30 Mar 2011 08:00:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Federal Defense Attorney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cold Case]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[false marking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Murder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prosecutorial delay]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rape]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[statutes of limitations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[unwarranted charges]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=566</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Decades old cases are prosecuted without any new evidence and with critical fact witnesses missing or dead, increasing likelihood of wrongful convictions

By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

Roy McCaleb was murdered in Harris County on September 22, 1985. The Houston Chronicle reported that McCaleb’s wife, Carolyn Sue Krizan-Wilson, told the police that a gloved man entered their Galena Park home, raped her, and then shot her husband as he lay sleeping. She said the intruder was the same man who had raped her ten days earlier and he had somehow tracker her down in order to do it again. According to the newspaper, Krizan-Wilson did not report the earlier sexual assault to the police although her son at the time was in the Houston Police Department’s Training Academy. Krizan-Wilson, however, did make an “outcry” to a fellow employee shortly after the first rape occurred. She would later say she was too “embarrassed” to report the first rape.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/03/30/harris-county-district-attorney-uses-linguistics-to-transform-old-cases-into-cold-cases/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>5C12-SAFETY VALVE-ANOTHER FAILED SENTENCING REFORM EFFORT</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/03/08/5c12-safety-valve-another-failed-sentencing-reform-effort/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/03/08/5c12-safety-valve-another-failed-sentencing-reform-effort/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Mar 2011 11:42:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Federal Defense Attorney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Booker]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FAMM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mandatory minimum sentencing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[penal statute]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[safety valve]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SRA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[unjust sentences]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=557</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Mandatory Minimums, Safety Valve Encourage Snitches, Promote False Testimony, Prevent Just Sentences

By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

Anytime a new penal statute uses the term “reform” you can take to it the bank that the result will produce just the opposite; that its objective to correct a perceived and politically charged threat will, more than likely than not, harvest a new crop of worse injustices.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/03/08/5c12-safety-valve-another-failed-sentencing-reform-effort/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>10</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT-THE SCOURGE OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/10/09/prosecutorial-misconduct-the-scourge-of-the-criminal-justice-system/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/10/09/prosecutorial-misconduct-the-scourge-of-the-criminal-justice-system/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 09 Oct 2010 12:56:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Federal Defense Attorney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[absolute immunity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[exoneration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Murder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prosecutorial abuse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prosecutorial misconduct]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[robbery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rogue prosecutors]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=494</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Thompson v. Connick; Jury Awards 14 Million Dollars to Man Who Served 18 Years in Prison for Crime he Did Not Commit After Prosecutors Hid Favorable Evidence

By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

Last year the U.S. Supreme Court in Van de Kamp v. Goldstein effectively reinforced a longstanding constitutional rule of law that prosecutors who engaged in unethical and criminal misconduct to secure criminal convictions are immunized from civil liability. They are protected by the doctrine of absolute immunity which insulates public officials from civil liability when performing their official duties, even if their conduct is unethical and criminal so long as the conduct is carried out within the scope of the official’s duties.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/10/09/prosecutorial-misconduct-the-scourge-of-the-criminal-justice-system/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>CAMERON TODD WILLINGHAM: IMPROPER OR WRONGFUL CONVICTION?</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/07/29/cameron-todd-willingham-improper-or-wrongful-conviction/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/07/29/cameron-todd-willingham-improper-or-wrongful-conviction/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:09:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Federal Defense Attorney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[arson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA exonerations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Innocence Project]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[junk science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Murder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Texas death penalty]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=454</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Texas Forensic Science Commission Concludes Flawed Science Used In Trial That Led To Conviction and Execution

By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

It was December 1991 in Corsicana, Texas. Cameron Todd Willingham was alone in his residence with his three small children—Amber 2, and one-year-old twins, Karmon and Kameron. A fire broke out in the residence. Willingham managed to escape the fire. The three children did not, dying a horrible death trapped in the flames that quickly engulfed the residence. Willingham was immediately targeted as a suspect for arson murder. He was indicted on January 8, 1992. After turning down an opportunity to plead guilty for a life sentence, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in August 1992. He was executed on February 17, 2004, angrily telling all those present that he was an innocent man. The political and media fallout from Willingham’s execution began before his remains were laid to rest. The case’s controversial history can be found on Billy Sinclair’s blog here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. But essentially Willingham was convicted and executed because state officials involved in the case—and with a lot of help from the condemned inmate himself—successfully portrayed him as a “monster” throughout the trial and execution process. The basis for this portrait was:]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/07/29/cameron-todd-willingham-improper-or-wrongful-conviction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>THE POLITICS OF SUPREME COURT NOMINATIONS</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/04/21/the-politics-of-supreme-court-nominations/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/04/21/the-politics-of-supreme-court-nominations/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:51:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Federal Defense Attorney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[freedom of speech]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gun control]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[judicial activist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[liberal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[progressive]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Supreme Court]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=394</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Obama Must Expose Judicial Activism of Right Wing and Nominate Justice with Abundance of Empathy for the Rights of the Individual and Protection of the Social Good

By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

The recent retirement of Associate Justice John Paul Stevens has created the second opportunity for President Barak Obama to appoint a justice to the U.S. Supreme Court. The appointment of Supreme Court justices have always been roiled in political posturing by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. In point of fact, Republicans have already laid out the gauntlet, warning the president that they are prepared fight the nomination of a “judicial activist.”]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/04/21/the-politics-of-supreme-court-nominations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK FOR JUDGES IN SOUTH TEXAS</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2009/02/26/bad-day-at-black-rock-for-judges-in-south-texas/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2009/02/26/bad-day-at-black-rock-for-judges-in-south-texas/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:06:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Federal Defense Attorney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[death penalty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[death row]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[execution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[judge misconduct]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lethal injections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sex crime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sexual abuse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sexual advances]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sexual impropriety]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=134</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Judges Reap What They Sowed
By Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
There may be no Hero to the rescue in this dark drama hanging over the state and federal judiciaries in South Texas. The clouds in the horizon are as ominous as those that preceded Hurricane Ike last September. A sitting federal [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2009/02/26/bad-day-at-black-rock-for-judges-in-south-texas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

