Perhaps We Should Not Condone Lying

Illinois has become the first state to pass a bill to ban police from lying or tricking juveniles during questioning, Fox Chicago reports. Minors are considered especially vulnerable, and have a much higher rate of confessions to crimes they did not commit.

Principles For Remote Proceedings

In an article in the Northwestern University Law Review, the Brennan Center’s Alicia Bannon and Douglas Keith analyze courts’ use of virtual proceedings amid Covid-19 and the lessons learned over the past year.In the essay, “Remote Court: Principles for Virtual Proceedings During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond,” the authors note the advantages to using remote technologies to conduct…

The Demise Of Warrantless Community Caretaking Searches

 The United States  Supreme Court on Monday ruled in Canigilia v. Strom  that police violated a  man’s constitutional rights by seizing his guns without a warrant amid fears that he would kill himself.Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion for the unanimous high court, rejecting lower court arguments that the “community caretaking” exception to the warrant requirement allowed officers to…

Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence

Juval O. Scott, The Myth of Objectivity in Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence, 36 Criminal Justice 13 (No. 1 Spring 2021): People of color, especially Black and Indigenous Americans, do not have the luxury of revising history and how it defines our existence in the United States. Though this country was founded on the principle that all men…

What is That Smell?

By Evidence ProfBlogger Share In 2014, the Maryland General Assembly decriminalized possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana. So, in Maryland, should the smell of marijuana alone provide reasonable suspicion to conduct an investigatory stop? That was the question of first impression addressed by the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland in its opinion today in In…

Prosecutor’s Use of Bloody, Vomit-Stained Mannequin Proper in Sentencing Phase of Murder Trial

By Evidence ProfBlogger  Assume that a defendant is convicted of the first degree murder based upon fatally shooting a deputy sheriff. Would it be prosecutorial misconduct for the prosecutor during the sentencing phase of trial to use of life-sized mannequin of the deputy sheriff to demonstrate his injuries? That was the question addressed by the Supreme…

Ineffective Assistance in Plea Negations

There is an interesting cert petition before the Supreme Court as noted by the SCOTUS blog: Anaya v. Lumpkin involves burdens of proof for defendants claiming that they rejected a plea deal based on incorrect advice of counsel. David Anaya was indicted in Texas on charges of murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, for…

Judicial Collegiality

Join Berkeley Judicial Institute on May 14 at 9:00 A.M. PT for a discussion of best practices that promote judicial collegiality. FREE REGISTRATIONU.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Bernice Donald and MN district court Judge Kevin Burke (retired) will facilitate the conversation. Just participating is a step toward greater collegiality!Have ideas for other academics Berkeley Judicial Institute should invite to discuss their work?  Let…

Time To Fix Immigration Courts

Several years ago the American Judges Association passed a resolution calling for reform of how immigration judges are treated. The work they do is important. They are for many people the first face of the American justice system. And yet they are not given the independence they deserve and many times have crushing caseloads. Time…