Every man needs a code to live by. When it comes to protection of the attorney-client privilege, it appears that my code puts me on the radical fringe. Under my code, everything I tell my client is privileged. I will only disclose it if disclosure helps my client, or if the client waives the privilege. Miranda thinks it's okay to make a record, in anticipation of a

This month's Rolling Stone has an article about FSU ("Friends Standing United" or "Fuck Shit Up", depending on whom you ask), which is a violent gang of punk rock fans, originating in Boston. Members of the group make no bones about being violent. What was particularly interesting to me about FSU, though, is that their violence is directed toward people who they believe hold certain views that

There's an interesting discussion going on over at Gideon's A Public Defender about lawyers covering their asses (an effete small-town judge once threatened to report me to the bar for using that expression in a letter to former counsel) by explaining to the public or the court that their clients had considered and turned down a plea offer. New York criminal-defense lawyer Scott Greenfield argues (quite correctly)

Austin criminal-defense lawyer Jamie Spencer just bought himself a MacBook Pro. As it turns out (see the comments to Jamie's post), Ft. Worth criminal-defense lawyer Shawn Matlock is a Mac guy as well. I've been using Macintosh computers since college; I haven't had a PC since before Windows first came out. Criminal defense is a creative profession, and a Macs, which just work, are excellent tools for

When a person is arrested on federal charges, often the government wants him detained (held without bail) while the case is pending. The government will file a motion for detention, and a magistrate judge will hear evidence to determine whether the accused should be detained or released on conditions. The issue in a detention hearing is whether there is any combination of conditions of release that will

It's possible that he's not the greatest criminal-defense lawyer that ever lived. Clarence Darrow may wear that crown, or Earl Rogers, who represented Darrow when Darrow got in trouble in L.A. But Houston criminal-defense lawyer Richard "Racehorse" Haynes deserves honorable mention -- at the very least -- in that pantheon. And he's still alive and kicking. Via Luke Gilman's Blawgraphy comes this story from Austin, Texas TV

Check out these comments to Norm Pattis's Justice Demands Defense column in today's Hartford Courant. People from all over the country lay into Norm's ideas, Norm, and criminal-defense lawyers generally. There's ignorance there ("Defense lawyers would rather be disbarred before ever allowing a guilty plea."), suspicion ("This is how defense lawyers think, if they know their client is guilty and a threat to society, they still use

Via David Feige's Indefensible, the LA Times reports that death penalty advocates Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Gold River) and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) led a successful effort to include language in the Patriot Act last year that let the attorney general, rather than [federal] judges, decide whether states were ensuring death row inmates had adequate legal representation [in postconviction proceedings].DOJ is seeking comment (yeah, right) on the proposed

This is the complaining witness is one of my cases. I understand that the gesture he is making indicates membership in some affinity organization . . . some sort of club for urban youth: If you know of an expert who could mores specifically identify the organization based on the gesture, please let me know. Thanks.

From the Detroit Free Press, via crimprof: Detroit is one of dozens of U.S. cities with a shortage of cocaine, causing prices to skyrocket as law enforcement efforts in the United States, Mexico and Central and South America disrupt sources.Is it true? Probably not -- in April 2007 Drug Czar John Walters (the source for the Free Press's information) reported in a letter to Senator Charles Grassley