Category: Federal Criminal Law

In a recent post, we discussed the general parameters of the prosecution’s duty to preserve materially exculpatory evidence under a pair of U.S. Supreme Court decisions: Trombetta v. California (1984) and Arizona v. Youngblood (1988).
 
Trombetta established the rule…

In the criminal law context, spoliation is the loss or destruction of evidence that either supports the prosecution’s theory of the case or tends to negate the guilt of the defendant.
 
The U.S. Supreme Court made it abundantly clear…

Two recent events in Texas reinforce what the evidence shows: Texas has a market for hate. The most recent event is the outrageous comments by pro-gun rights advocate and former rocker Ted Nugent calling the President of the United States,…

The facts in the Charles Dunn case in Florida are pretty straightforward, and for the most part undisputed. The 47-year-old Dunn, a software developer, pulled into a Jacksonville gas station on November 23, 2012. A Dodge Durango with four teenagers…

As the “scandals” continue to mount around New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, there are a lot of he said/she said allegations flying about. There has been more than one challenge issued by opposing parties for state employees to undergo polygraph…

An Alford plea is a plea of “no contest” or “nolo contendere” to a criminal charge.  In such situations the defendant does not plead guilty to the elements of the offense, but rather enters a plea that he will not…

The facts in the Steven Staley are not in serious dispute. He and two other men entered a Steak and Ale restaurant in Fort Worth in 1989. They rounded up 30 customers and 6 restaurant’s employees, including its manager Robert…

The National Registry of Exonerations reported on February 4, 2014 that last year was a “record-breaking year for exonerations (87) in the United States.”
 
It is hard to say whether that is a good thing or a bad thing.…