Criminal Appeals
Without Proper Regulation, Prosecutorial Misconduct is Likely to Continue
What this Means for Criminal Defendants and their Attorneys Last year, Ted Stevens, the 85-year-old former Senator from Alaska was convicted of corruption charges. Charges against Stevens played a pivotal role in voters failing to reelect the seven-term senator to office. But months after jurors found Stevens guilty, the Attorney General dismissed the case citing prosecutorial misconduct. This case is a prime example of the potential for misconduct by both…
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DNA Evidence Receives a Boost
Why Having an Experienced Criminal Defense Attorney On Your Side Could Help You Avoid a False Conviction DNA evidence has always been thought to be the infallible wave of the future; however, new information could change this perspective. Even though every person's DNA is unique, and every trace of a person's DNA that is left behind will be identical, the testing methods available today cannot compare every single gene in…
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U.S. Attorney Misconduct Leads to Another Overturned Conviction
Why Having an Experienced Criminal Defense Attorney Can Make a Difference A U.S. District Judge recently ruled that supermarket mogul George Torres did not get a fair trial after it was discovered that the federal prosecutors failed to provide the defense with evidence that harmed the credibility of two key witnesses. This failure to disclose led to the dismissal of racketeering and other charges that were based on the testimony.…
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Facebook Poll on Assassination of President Leads to Criminal Investigations: Why It’s Never Too Early to Hire an Attorney
The Secret Service is investigating an online survey that asked whether people thought President Obama should be assassinated. The poll was quickly taken off of the popular social networking site, Facebook, after company officials were alerted to its existence. The Associated Press reports that the poll asked questions like "Should Obama be killed? No, Maybe, Yes and Yes if he cuts my health care. Facebook officials say that they are…
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Crime Down in Los Angeles
The Los Angles County Sheriff's department announced this week that the overall crime rate in Los Angeles County has dropped in 2009! According to its statistics, property crimes dropped 11% compared to 2008. Moreover, homicides in Los Angeles County dropped 23.5% compared to 2008, the biggest drop in any category. All this comes amidst an extremely high unemployment rate throughout Los Angeles County, of which was at 12.3% in August…
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Defendant Convicted of First Degree Murder Has Sentence Overturned Based on Insufficient Evidence
Why You Need an Experienced Criminal Defense Lawyer on Your Side The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently overturned a first degree murder conviction in US v. Begay (2009 DJDAR 7955). Begay was convicted of two counts of first degree murder and two counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence. The District Court imposed mandatory concurrent life sentences for each murder conviction as well as 35 years…
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Under California’s Felony Murder Rule, an Unarmed, First-Time Offender Served 29 Years in Prison for Waiting in a Getaway Car During a Robbery
Connie Keel was charged with first-degree murder for participating as an aider and abettor in the robbery of a liquor store that resulted in the death of the store clerk. Keel was convicted of murder in California at her 1981 trial, even though she was never accused of killing anyone with her own hands. To this day, Keel claims that she had no idea that her husband and cousin intended…
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More on WIT Court – Once Accepted into WIT Court, What Are the Benefits?
The last two days, we have been blogging on WIT Court. But I am sure most readers are wondering; what is the benefit of being in this program anyway? A participant is accepted into WIT Court program after pleading guilty to a non-violent criminal offense. The defendant is then sentenced to WIT court. This means that rather initially serving a sentencing in county jail or state prison, the defendant is…
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More on WIT Court – How You or Your Loved One Can Get Accepted into this Program
"WIT" Court or "Whatever it Takes Court" is a collaborative court program that seeks to aid those who are mentally ill and on the verge of homelessness to stabilize their life through treating the mental illness. As mentioned in yesterday's post, to be eligible for the program the defendant must have (1 )a "serious and persistent" mental health disorders, (2) must be homeless or on the verge of homelessness and…
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Community is a Haven for Sex Offenders
An Experienced Criminal Defense Firm Will Do Everything Possible in Order to Prevent their Client from Having to Register as a Sex Offender Antioch, a small community outside of San Francisco, has recently been making national headlines for being the home of over 100 sex offenders. Most specifically, it was the home of sex offender Phillip Garrido, who is accused of holding Jaycee Lee Dugard against her will for the…
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