Category Archives: Criminal
The Fourth Amendment And Your Smartphone
You may have seen those cartoon drawings about online privacy that show search engines as a frenemy that compiles volumes of embarrassing and prospectively incriminating information about you. If you ever want to see a person’s worst side, look at an electronic device with which he or she connects to the Internet. If the… Read More »
You Can Establish Reasonable Doubt Even With Imperfect Research Methodology
If you ask people who have burned out of careers in academia what made them leave the career that was once their passion, the ones whose job duties consistently mostly of teaching will say that it was because, as time went on, their students devoted more and more time to cheating and complaining and… Read More »
Florida Law Does Not Consider Product Tampering A Harmless Prank
On April Fools Day, it’s fun to fill the sugar container with salt and wait until your parents figure out why their coffee tastes weird, but in the eyes of the law, product tampering is no joke. If you intentionally tamper with a consumer product, you can be charged with a second-degree felony, and… Read More »
Directed Verdicts Are An Eleventh Hour Victory For The Defendant
If your case goes to trial, your greatest hope is that the jury will deliver a verdict of not guilty. Once the jury goes to the jury chambers to deliberate, it is anyone’s guess what the verdict will be, but at least you will know how your case ends. Until the moment the trial… Read More »
How The Humble Smartphone Camera Is Changing The Criminal Justice System
Young people are already tired of hearing their elders talk about how different life was before the Internet, so for a change, tell your kids about how different life was before smartphone cameras. Even millennials can participate with this game, because while you used websites in the bibliographies of papers you wrote in high… Read More »
How Jury Instructions Can Affect The Outcome Of Your Case
The best thing about jurors is how little they know; this is what makes them unbiased. The jury would not be able to return a fair verdict if all of the jurors were your former classmates who were still bearing a grudge about what a jerk you were when you were a teenager. How… Read More »
You Can Exercise Your Fifth Amendment Rights Even Without Pleading The Fifth Or Hearing The Miranda Warnings
This summer marks the 68th anniversary of Miranda v. Arizona, the Supreme Court decision where the Court ruled that police officers must notify a suspect in custody of his or her right to avoid self-incrimination before they begin questioning the suspect. When police have arrested someone and taken him or her to the police… Read More »
Start Your Criminal Trial Off Right With Opening Statements
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. The past is a foreign country. Call me Ishmael. The first line of a book is often the most memorable part. Who can forget the opening line of Kafka’s Metamorphosis, convoluted as its exact wording may be, in which a nebbish called… Read More »
Turning Yourself In After An Arrest Warrant Means Facing Your Case From A Position Of Strength
Getting arrested at a traffic stop is scary. It is even scarier when a police officer approaches you on foot in a public place and says that he just saw you stealing, selling drugs, or doing something else illegal. A relentless optimist would point out that, in contrast to the aforementioned scenarios, finding out… Read More »
Questions Of Law And Questions Of Fact In Florida Criminal Cases
Yes and no questions are not always as simple as they sound. Sometimes, in order to arrive at the correct answer, you must consider all the information that is relevant to your decision and ignore all irrelevant information, and sometimes figuring out which information is relevant is more difficult than it sounds. Think about… Read More »