Criminal Procedure

Did Mueller say Trump lied to special counsel in written answers? Clarifications offered

Former special counsel Robert Mueller raised eyebrows during his congressional testimony Wednesday when he appeared to make two stunning assertions about President Donald Trump’s culpability.

Jul 25, 2019 10:09 AM CDT

He’s 31, he’s a lawyer, and he’s still getting stopped by the police

Late one afternoon in March 2018, I had just left work to meet a friend in Brooklyn when cops stopped me on the street. I had just graduated from law school, so I knew enough to keep my mouth shut. I invoked my rights, but it didn't matter. They still tried to get me to admit to something I didn't do.

Jul 22, 2019 10:16 AM CDT

Police officers illegally use information from arrests that have been sealed, lawsuit says

When a man named J.J. was arrested in the Bronx in 2016, the public defenders assigned to represent him assumed he’d get a good plea deal. After all, it appeared to be a low-level case. J.J. had been a passenger in his friend’s car when police had pulled them over for allegedly failing to signal a turn; the officers then searched the vehicle and found an unlicensed gun inside.

Jul 19, 2019 5:00 PM CDT

Lawyer arrested for alleged failure to report stolen gun traced to later shooting

Police have seized 19 firearms from a lawyer in Stamford, Connecticut, and charged him with an alleged failure to report the theft of six other guns. Police think one of the stolen guns was used by a suspect who shot at a narcotics officer Tuesday, according to the Stamford Advocate…

Jul 12, 2019 10:41 AM CDT

Bob Dylan’s ‘Hurricane’ is one of the most famous tales of wrongful conviction

I hate being on the road too early in the morning; sometimes it’s just you and a long stretch of highway until the sun rises. I’ve found the best way to alleviate the loneliness is two-fold. Every once in a while, silence is golden. The lack of distractions can present…

Jul 11, 2019 7:00 AM CDT

As California lawmakers cut criminal sentences, some district attorneys push back using plea deals

After the jury deadlocked in Victor Hugo Sanchez’s murder trial in February, San Diego prosecutors offered him a deal: plead guilty to manslaughter and spend just 11 years in state prison. But there was an unusual catch. As part of the agreement, Sanchez had to sign away his right to…

Jul 8, 2019 11:55 AM CDT

Criminal cases that involved lawyers’ spitting and shoving match are resolved

Two cases brought by a personal injury lawyer and the father of another attorney after they got into a spitting and shoving match are no longer sitting in criminal court in Providence, Rhode Island. Last week, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha filed the assault case against attorney Stephen J.…

Jul 3, 2019 2:51 PM CDT

Man who sent lynching imagery to Muslim lawyer via Twitter faces up to 5 years in prison

A North Carolina man has been charged with issuing a threat via interstate commerce—and faces up to five years in prison—after sending an image of a man who had been lynched and the words “view your destiny” to a Muslim lawyer on Twitter. Qasim Rashid, who is also a Democratic…

Jul 2, 2019 4:10 PM CDT

Lawyer charged after smuggling binders of drugs to client in prison

A Baltimore lawyer has been arrested and charged with smuggling drugs to a client in a Maryland prison. Steven Thurman Mitchell brought two binders to his client, Mandel Brown, during a visit to the Roxbury Correctional Institution on Friday and attempted to leave without them, according to a Maryland Department…

Jul 2, 2019 3:01 PM CDT

Missing lawyer with troubled past is disbarred after he ‘abandoned his law practice without notice’

A criminal defense attorney from Fort Myers, Florida, has been permanently disbarred after failing to appear for court proceedings in three counties since October 2018. The Florida Supreme Court suspended David Allen Brener’s license in November 2018 after he “abandoned his law practice without notice to his clients and without…

Jul 2, 2019 10:04 AM CDT

Diversion sentencing may offer an alternative path to justice—but how fair is it?

Reform-minded prosecutors throughout the country, particularly ones who promised to reduce imprisonment rates, are turning to diversion to resolve criminal charges.

Jul 2, 2019 6:30 AM CDT

This state is set to expunge nearly 800,000 marijuana convictions in 2020

Illinois residents will automatically receive clemency for convictions of up to 30 grams of cannabis after a new state law goes into effect in 2020. The Cannabis Regulation & Tax Act, signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker last week, makes cannabis legal for people age 21 and older and offers relief…

Jul 1, 2019 3:54 PM CDT

Woman is jailed after she took her estranged husband’s guns and gave them to police

A Florida woman was arrested and jailed on a burglary charge after allegedly entering her estranged husband’s home to retrieve his guns and turning the weapons over to police.

Jun 27, 2019 1:57 PM CDT

Woman who lost fetus after being shot is charged with manslaughter; shooter isn’t charged

Updated: A woman from Birmingham, Alabama, has been indicted on a charge of manslaughter for the death of her fetus in a shooting by another person. Marshae Jones, 27, was charged because she allegedly started the dispute that led to the shooting last December, AL.com reports. She was arrested on…

Jun 27, 2019 1:09 PM CDT

Do people really try to take the rap for someone else’s criminal charges?

History is cyclical. The longer I write this column on law and pop culture, the more I realize the same series seem to bring up legal issues that relate to the common practitioner, as well as your average person. It was over a year ago that I first wrote about…

Jun 27, 2019 7:00 AM CDT