Right to Speak at Sentencing for California Criminal Defendants Struck Down
Right to Speak at Sentencing for California Criminal Defendants Struck Down
As amazing as it may sound the California Supreme Court ruled on July 24, 2008 that a defendant has no constitutional right to address the court at his sentencing hearing to ask for leniency. The highest court in California ruled the only thing the defendant can state at his California criminal defense sentencing hearing is whether or not the defendant feels his sentence is "illegal". The courts decision runs…
Read More
Appeals Court Rules on Community Funds Spent on Retirement Credits
The California criminal appeals court, the Sixth District Court of Appeals, just ruled that if community funds are used to repurchase retirement service credits then the community has an interest in those service credits and not merely a right of reimbursement. In the case of In re Marriage of Sonne, Husband repurchased Public Employees Retirement System service credits that he had lost as a result of dissolution in his prior…
Read More
Cerritos Criminal and DUI Defense Lawyers
Cerritos, California is part of the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metropolitan area and is considered one of the "Gateway Cities" of the southeast portion of Los Angeles County. Cerritos is unlike many cities in the United States in that it is chartered; that is, residents choose its form of government and not State or Federal law. With large shopping complexes like the Los Cerritos Center and the Cerritos Auto Park,…
Read More
Check Disciplinary History Before Retaining a Criminal Defense Attorney
Anyone who is seeking legal representation for their California criminal defense matters wants to have a very qualified lawyer fighting for them. One way the State Bar of California is trying to help consumers in making an informed decision is their recent decision to post "online" all prior attorney disciplinary history on the State Bar of California website. What this means to the consumer looking for the most qualified lawyer…
Read More
Consult a Criminal Defense Lawyer Before Accepting Police Informant “Deal”
A recent death of a young female college student makes clear that agreeing to work with the police in exchange for some possible leniency in your criminal case can have deadly consequences. A young woman in her 2nd year of college was found in possession of marijuana. The police told her that if she "worked with them" they would recommend to the District Attorney to dismiss charges against her.…
Read More
California Appeals Court Reverses Death Sentence
For the second time last month, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a death sentence, citing inadequate assistance of counsel. 2008 DJDAR 9426. In March of 1986, appellant Henry Earl Duncan was convicted of robbery and first-degree murder. After finding the special circumstance allegation of his case to be true, Duncan was sentenced to death for murder by the jury. Id. The victim in the case, Josephine Eileen DeBaun,…
Read More
Burglary Charges Dismissed on Unlawful Patrol in Dormitory
A recent Court of Appeals decision held that dormitory hallways have the same privacy protection as inside a home. The case regarded an incident on a college campus in which campus police were investigating a dormitory burglary that occurred in February of 2006. A police officer stopped at a sixth floor door after hearing music and voices. The officer attempted to draw the students out of their room by covering…
Read More
California Appeals Attorneys Reverse Firearm Conviction
An accused parked his car a short distance from his home and walked toward his front door. A police officer stopped him and told him that he had failed to signal before changing lanes. The accused became upset and threatened the officer. The accused was on parole. The officer arrested him for making a threat against the police officer. The officer then proceeded to search the defendant's vehicle and found…
Read More
Vandals May Need a San Diego Criminal Defense Lawyer
If you watch the news in San Diego, you may have heard how some local community residents have banded together to clean up all the graffiti in a San Diego neighborhood. Graffiti reduces property value and makes the neighborhood look trashy. These individuals are also taking pictures of all the graffiti in the neighborhood and will paint over everything they see. The kicker here is that they are committed to…
Read More
Restaurant Patron Charged With Felony and Jailed Over Complaint
In was recently reported that a man complained that his server had poured coffee on his suit jacket and the jacket was part of a $1,500 suit and he demanded that the restaurant reimburse him $1,500. When the restaurant manager contacted the store where he had purchased the suit they were told that the man had made the same claim two weeks earlier at another restaurant. The restaurant manager…
Read More