March-April 2023
Making objections is an essential part of trial work. What are the top 20 objections defense lawyers are likely to encounter?
Articles in this Issue
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Affiliate News
What events are NACDL affiliates hosting this month? Find out here.
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Book Review: Enemy of All Mankind by Steven Johnson
This month Jon M. Sands reviews Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History’s First Global Manhunt by Steven Johnson.
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Book Review: Scientific Evidence in Civil and Criminal Cases by Andre A. Moenssens, et al
This month Andrew George, Katie Recker, and Richard Walk review Scientific Evidence in Civil and Criminal Cases by Andre A. Moenssens, Betty Layne DesPortes, and Roderick T. Kennedy.
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Coercion in Interrogations
Although voluntariness is a mainstay of the U.S. legal system, voluntariness and its flip side, coercion, are ill-defined. Likely because of this ambiguity, admissibility decisions for contested confessions have been inconsistent. Some modern-day, often-used interrogation techniques (e.g., investigators feigning friendship) are coercive, even if they appear innocuous and non-adversarial.
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DUI and the Trial Penalty: It’s All in the Numbers
An accident led to a DUI Manslaughter charge against a graduate student who had a clean driving record. After conviction, a judge gave the young man a 35-year sentence. In the local jurisdiction, nine years was the average sentence for the crime. What distinguished the graduate student’s case? The trial penalty. Robert Reiff says the young man was punished severely for his decision to proceed to trial.
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Excluding Cellphone Operator Per Call Measurement Data
Defense lawyers increasingly are dealing with cellphones and location issues. Per Call Measurement Data files provide an estimate of the location of a cellphone. (Call Detail Record files, on the other hand, provide the location of the cell tower that served a call.) Richard Miletic explains the technology used, the error rate, and the basis to exclude PCMD under Daubert.
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From the President: Voices Loud and Revitalized
With the death of Tyre Nichols, conversations about police misconduct and accountability begin again.
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NACDL News: Charting Post-Dobbs Defenses: A Six-Month Synopsis
NACDL News for March-April 2023
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Perspective: Finding My Criminal Defense Community
While she was growing up, Paige Medinger always knew that she wanted to help people. She decided during her junior year of college that becoming a criminal defense attorney was the right fit for her. Now she is a third-year law student, and her lifetime of fighting for clients’ rights is about to begin.
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Return to Freedom: Juan Carlos Barragan
Juan Carlos Barragan had served 16 years of his sentence when a federal judge reduced his sentence to “time served.” His release is one of the success stories of NACDL’s Return to Freedom Project, which files compassionate release motions and clemency petitions on behalf of federal prisoners convicted of marijuana crimes.
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Search & Seizure Commentary: A Tinted Window and the Plain View Doctrine
The government contended that the police officer’s conduct was allowed under two exceptions: the plain view doctrine and the automobile exception. Did the appellate court agree?
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The Busy Lawyer’s Guide to Objections
Making objections is an essential part of defending clients and protecting their rights. To combat the daunting nature of objections, defense lawyers should be familiar with the objections they are most likely to encounter. Rene L. Valladares and Hannah Nelson provide practitioners with a primer on the top 20 objections. A useful flowchart and quick reference guides accompany the article.