I'm not the only one giving away million-dollar legal advice. Stephen Gustitis blogs here about what to do when you're arrested, and Scott Greenfield follows up here with his thoughts, including why peoplr spill their guts after demanding a lawyer: This may be the gestalt need to explain oneself, by adding something like "I'm in enough trouble already and I don't need to make it worse by

When my federal criminal defense clients and I are discussing the possible punishment (using the sentencing guidelines as, well, guidelines) that they might receive if they are convicted, they are often shocked. The sentences seem severe for first-time offenders. "But Mark," they often say, "I've never been in trouble before. Can we get the sentence reduced because I've never been in trouble before?"The sentencing guidelines presume that

I talked here about the beginning of an understanding of the American criminal "justice" system, the principle that "legal" doesn't mean "right" and "illegal" doesn't mean "wrong." After "illegal ? wrong," the next principle that needs to be recognized for an understanding of the American criminal "justice" system is this: A criminal case is a lawsuit in which the government is suing a person. The idea is

An understanding of the criminal "justice" system has to begin with this: The criminal "justice" system is not about "right and wrong.""Right and wrong" and "legal and illegal" are entirely separate concepts. "Right" and "wrong" are moral terms, not legal terms. The fact that something is illegal does not make it wrong, and the fact that it is legal does not make it right. (Flipping those two

Today an anonymous prosecutorial commentor wrote, in the comments to my Support the Troops -- Acquit a Vet post (and directly in response to my saying, "I'm not worried about people losing faith in the criminal justice system. Anyone who has faith in the criminal "justice" system is either on the government teat or oblivious": Do you not accept or recgonize views alternative to your own? It's

A prosecutor who wishes to remain anonymous has this to say in response to my Us v. Them II post of last week: I do think that Mckinney's statements were too harsh, especially the part about how ADA's prosecute the innocent. Currently, I only deal with robbery cases and violent serious assaults. Regardless of the outcome, there are no real winners. Some of the cases involve "real"

Occam's Razor (Wikipedia) is the principle that, all things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one. Occam's Razor suggests how a case should be defended (as simply as possible -- see Scott Greenfield's "The KISS Principle" post prescribing a "surgical" approach to defending criminal cases); it also can help predict how successful a defense will be. When you have a criminal case to

The lead story in the Houston Chronicle this morning was this: Mayor White Mobilizes Aid for Texas Veterans. "One in 11 soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan," begins the article, "is Texan." (Texas and Washington have lots of servicepeople because they have no income tax.) Unless Texas soldiers are particularly injury-prone, this probably means that one in 11 soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan is Texan, one

A commentor to my May 13, 2007 Bad Voir Dire / Good Voir Dire post wrote: I'm a prosecutor, but those were good points. I'll try to implement them in my next trial.I suspect that part might have been intended as a friendly jab. The fact is, though, that I'd rather try a case against a prosecutor who can perform a more-competent-than-usual jury selection. What lawyer wouldn't

More ammunition for those fighting to replace ad hoc counsel appointment systems (like Harris County's) with properly-organized and funded public defenders' offices: Gideon calls our attention to Princeton University student Radha Iyengar's analysis of the relative performance of federal PDs and lawyers appointed to federal cases under the Criminal Justice Act (CJA). The result of the apples-to-apples comparison (indigent defendants were randomly assigned a PD or a