This month Lara Bazelon reviews Barred: Why the Innocent Can’t Get Out of Prison by Daniel S. Medwed.

This month Susan Elizabeth Reese reviews Trial Lawyer: A Life Representing People Against Power by Richard Zitrin.

This month Maneka Sinha reviews When Innocence Is Not Enough: Hidden Evidence and the Failed Promise of the Brady Rule by Thomas L. Dybdahl.

to Public Defenders

Nellie L. King writes about a case of apparent judicial indifference to threats against public defenders and their children that occurred during the sentencing phase of a case.

Defense counsel can put the heat on a law enforcement officer witness through a persistent and thorough examination. What will intimidate the officer most is being questioned about how he did his job. A careful examination of the officer’s conduct can soften the law enforcement witness into giving defense counsel details she never imagined she could get, or it can make the officer hostile and show him to be unprofessional and prejudiced against the client. Defense attorney Mary Stillinger includes examples from real cases to illustrate.

Some lawyers refuse to write their cross-examinations because they believe written crosses will stifle their creativity. Larry Pozner disagrees. “We win most of our cases through crosses we planned, not crosses we lucked into,” he says. “And a scripted chapter frees our mind to listen more closely to the answers and judge when an answer has provided a launching pad for additional areas of cross.” Pozner has yet to hear a valid reason chapters of cross should not be written.

Many lawyers believe that they cannot cite helpful provisions of the Justice Manual in support of their argument and against the government. It is true that courts invariably hold that Department of Justice guidelines and policies do not create enforceable rights, but nothing prevents lawyers from arguing that relevant provisions of the Justice Manual are persuasive authority.

Defense attorney Harold Gurewitz discusses Michigan’s use of a so-called one-man grand jury.

but Was It a Constitutional Violation?

Jurors conducted an experiment using extrinsic evidence. No harm, no foul?

McDonnell v. United States provided a small dose of clarity to the issue of “official acts” under federal anti-bribery law, but confusion remains regarding some issues, such as what it means to “exert pressure.” The ambiguity left in McDonnell’s wake means that criminal defense lawyers will be responsible for waging the fight to clarify the boundaries of corruption prosecutions.

To identify criminal suspects, law enforcement officers are turning increasingly to reverse search warrants, such as geofence warrants and keyword search warrants. This trend presents novel challenges to the Fourth Amendment and privacy rights in the United States. 

An ongoing interactive webinar series regularly hosted by NACDL member Mark Satawa of Satawa Law, PLLC and NACDL Senior Resource Counsel Vanessa Antoun. Wednesdays at 2 pm ET / 11am PT. On this page, you can register for the series, volunteer as faculty, submit feedback, and watch past videos!

Child abuse allegations have a significant and lasting impact on all parties involved: the accused, the alleged victims, families, and communities. These cases are emotional and complex, and can be very intimidating. These resources are meant to make this area less scary and more manageable.

The U.S. government launders the original source of evidence in criminal cases in a practice known as “parallel construction.” In order to keep certain investigative activity hidden, agents simply arrange for an alternate evidentiary path. This practice allows the government to obscure secret surveillance technologies and programs or potentially illegal investigative methods from those accused in criminal cases, and the public at large. This webinar will educate members of the defense community about the practice of "parallel construction" and prepare them to fight it in the courtroom.

Appellate cases can be lost before they begin when attorneys fail to follow the unique and sometimes complex procedural rules and the impact of a case decision can rise and fall on the identification and framing of the issues. This webinar focuses on understanding the arc of an appeal from case assignment to conclusion to help attorneys avoid some of the major procedural pitfalls and provides practical advice on navigating the appellate process.