A retired judge in Iowa recently defended himself in a hearing of a contested order by saying, “I didn’t write this thing.” A review of Judge Edward Jacobson’s rulings found that he had failed to notify the parties in 13 cases where he had signed proposed rulings written by lawyers (presumably the…
SCOTUSBlog reminds us of some upcoming criminal law cases in the coming term. While generally interesting, the case to watch is: In Gamble v. U.S., the court will consider whether to overrule the “separate sovereigns” exception to the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment, which provides that “[n]o person shall…
BYULaw, Law & Corpus Linguistics Included are Farrand’s Records covers three of the four volumes of The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787. Published in 1911, Farrand’s work attempted to represent the documentary records of the Constitutional Convention. Legal Information Institute and the U.S. Constitution Annotated.
I have had cases of the reluctant witness, typically the spouse physical abuse cases, to United States v. English (ACCA 2018) was not a surprise in terms of the issue. The alleged victim was refusing to cooperate in the prosecution so the prosecution tried to introduce prior statements. The prosecution…
We may have reached, “a fairly critical point where traditional photographic evidence just isn’t as reliable as it used to be.” This according to our most recent podcast guest, Joe Kashi. In addition to being a trial attorney in Alaska, Joe has worked in automation technology and is himself a…
Posted on September 2, 2018 by Hall on his excellent blog. To get a search warrant for home surveillance equipment, the affidavit for the warrant has to show some inference or fact that there is, in fact, one to be found there. The mere fact they are a lot cheaper these days isn’t…
Posted on September 1, 2018 by Hall on his excellent blog. The court finds that “the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule does not apply here. Contrary to the government’s assertion, this case directly fits the Supreme Court’s admonition in Leon that ‘[s]uppression … remains an appropriate remedy if the magistrate or judge…
This case is before us for a fourth time. The petitioner, a former service member, seeks extraordinary relief from this court in the nature of a writ of error coram nobis or, in the alternative, in the nature of a writ of audita querela, under the All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651(a). The…
I confess to confusion about the post-trial actions of a convening authority. When I first began trials in 1980 the right to clemency was robust and generally, the CA could do just about anything. I’m seeing more recent cases with an issue about what can and can’t be done by…
While doing some research on Wegner’s Ironic Process Theory, I came across this case–Volkmer v. United States, 13 F.2d 594 (6th Cir. 1926). The other ground presents a more serious question. It is based on the concluding argument of the assistant district attorney, during which the following occurred: “Assistant District…