John Edwards Walks

Today the Department of Justice announced that they were dismissing all charges against John Edwards. Last month a North Carolina federal jury found Edwards not guilty on one charge, and deadlocked on the remaining five charges, in Edwards’ public corruption trial. No matter how many sordid details about Edwards’ despicable conduct as a husband were […]

Hearsay is a statement made out-of-court that’s offered for its truth. Under the rules of evidence, hearsay is inadmissible at trial unless an exception applies. The California Supreme Court recently considered one of the exceptions to the hearsay rule: the so-called “Nicole Brown Simpson hearsay exception.” Enshrined in Evidence Code Section 1370, the Nicole Brown […]

Hearsay is a statement made out-of-court that’s offered for its truth. Under the rules of evidence, hearsay is inadmissible at trial unless an exception applies. The California Supreme Court recently considered one of the exceptions to the hearsay rule: the so-called “Nicole Brown Simpson hearsay exception.” Enshrined in Evidence Code Section 1370, the Nicole Brown […]

A dozen Occupy Oakland protesters were arraigned on criminal charges following their arrests on Saturday night. At the hearing, the judge imposed a restraining order. What were the defendants restrained from doing? — Going within 300 yards of City Hall. This pretrial judicial order is both unconstitutional and misguided. It is unconstitutional because it sweeps […]

This November, not only are we voting for president of the United States. There will be key criminal justice initiatives. Last month I wrote about the ballot initiative to abolish the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without the possibility of parole. Now there will be another criminal justice reform on the […]

This November, not only are we voting for president of the United States. There will be key criminal justice initiatives. Last month I wrote about the ballot initiative to abolish the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without the possibility of parole. Now there will be another criminal justice reform on the […]

This month the Connecticut legislature voted to repeal capital punishment, making it the seventeenth state to abolish the death penalty. As Elizabeth Brancato, whose mother was murdered in 1979 and is an ardent opponent of the death penalty, put it, “For those of us who believe killing is wrong, it somehow diminishes the death of […]

Albert Florence and his wife were stopped by a state trooper for a traffic violation. The officer ran a wants and warrants check and thought there was a warrant for his arrest. In fact, there had been an old warrant for failure to pay a fine, but the fine was paid and the warrant was […]

The fatal shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida last month would not have captured the media attention it did if the police had done their job. The police did not make an arrest. After conducting a cursory, good old boy investigation, local police and prosecutors summarily declared the killing of Treyvon Marin — […]

So why did San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi plead guilty to false imprisonment? Why not domestic violence, when the terms of probation that were part of the plea included standard domestic violence terms (such as a 52-week domestic violence class)? My guess is it’s because misdemeanor false imprisonment does not carry an automatic firearm ban. […]