The Court of Appeals, with a panel made up of Judges Dillard, Ellington, and Phipps, has reversed an order granting a motion to suppress from the State Court of Fayette County. I write about this case because it further develops the law in the area of Miranda and field sobriety testing and because it illustrates… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Opinions and Analysis
Subscribe to Opinions and Analysis RSS FeedVideo Interview: Discussing Gun Control & the Second Amendment in the Supreme Court with LXBN TV
Posted in News, Opinions and AnalysisFollowing up on my post on the subject, I had the chance to speak with Colin O’Keefe of LXBN regarding just how far gun control can go under the Second Amendment and when this was last tested by our country’s judicial system. In the interview, I discuss Heller v. District of Columbia, the last Second Amendment… Continue Reading
How Far Could Gun Control Constitutionally Go?
Posted in News, Opinions and AnalysisIn light of recent events, gun control is the subject of discussion. My practice touches upon guns. Generally it arises in the context of clients who have been accused or convicted of being felons in possession of a firearm or of being in possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime. I have… Continue Reading
New SCOG Opinion Sets Out Rules for Voir Dire in Death Penalty Cases
Posted in News, Opinions and AnalysisA recent Georgia Supreme Court case on jury selection provides a framework for determining what a case’s subject matter is. There is a fine line between asking juror to prejudge the facts and figuring out if jurors cannot be fair. A few words about the problem in the case first. Full disclosure, I was amicus counsel… Continue Reading
Scalia’s and Garner’s New Book Suggests Principled Approach
Posted in Opinions and Analysis, WritingReaders of this blog may be surprised to know that I am a Scalia fan. Criminal defense lawyers who don’t like Jusice Scalia just don’t understand him yet. There is much to commend Jutice Scalia to a criminal defense attorney. He penned some of the most significant opinions in the last decade on the Confrontation… Continue Reading
Ex-Magistrate’s Lawsuit Blackens Eye of Ga. Judiciary
Posted in News, Opinions and Analysis, Supreme Court of GeorgiaThis won’t end well. Anthony Peters, the former Catoosa County assistant Magistrate Judge has filed a civil rights suit against the his former boss as well as the Sheriff of Catoosa County. When I read Joy Lukachick’s article (hat tip to her) in the Chattanooga Times Free Press about the lawsuit, I had to pull the… Continue Reading
Williams v. Illinois Asks More Questions than it Answers
Posted in Opinions and AnalysisWilliams v. Illinois, the newest Confrontation Clause case from the Supreme Court, leaves unresolved some key issues on the Confrontation Clause and its applicability to lab reports. Some things to note: Williams has no majority opinion It is very fact specific A similar case with a better set of facts might go the other way… Continue Reading
In Memoriam: Strickland v. Washington
Posted in Opinions and AnalysisWhile working on a brief, we discovered a Georgia Supreme Court case that I was sorry to have missed when it came out (hat tip to Margaret Flynt). A paradigm shifted in 2010, and I completely missed it. From an optimistic viewpoint, this case shows that almost nothing adds up to ineffective assistance of counsel. To… Continue Reading
SCOTUS Requires Effective Assistance at Plea Bargain Stage: Absurd?
Posted in Opinions and Analysis, UncategorizedToday, the Supreme Court released two opinions that define standards for defense lawyers during criminal plea bargains. First, in Lafler v. Cooper, No. 10-209, 566 U.S. ___ (2012), recall that Cooper was charged with assault with intent to murder and possession of a firearm. Cooper rejected a plea bargain after his attorney (wrongly) informed him… Continue Reading
Erroneous Verdict Form = New Trial
Posted in Opinions and Analysis, Supreme Court of Georgia, UncategorizedOn Tuesday, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a Fulton man’s convictions would be reversed due to an improperly worded verdict form. Cheddersingh v. State, S11A1929. In 2008, Soniel Cheddersingh was convicted of malice murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and possession of firearm by… Continue Reading
GPDSC’s First Executive Director Weighs In
Posted in Attorney-Client Relationship, News, Opinions and AnalysisAly Palmer, a reporter with the Fulton Daily Report, read the exchanges of the last few days and reported on it at the ATLaw Blog. Michael Mears, an Associate Professor at the John Marshall School of Law and the man who was GPDSC’s very first Executive Directer when it was created, wrote a very thoughtful… Continue Reading
My Reply to the Circuit Public Defender
Posted in Attorney-Client Relationship, News, Opinions and Analysis, UncategorizedTo catch you up to speed, I recently blogged about GPDSC’s recent argument to the Supreme Court of Georgia that public defenders should have the right to represent clients in the same circuit public defender’s office even when there is a conflict in the representation. Mr. Samuel Merritt, a Circuit Public Defender disagreed. I posted… Continue Reading
The Implications of the New SCOTUS Eyewitness Case on Georgia Cases
Posted in News, Opinions and AnalysisAdam Liptak of the New York Times reports that the Supreme Court has held that courts are not required to conduct pre-trial hearings to determine whether the circumstances of an eyewitness identification were so unreliable that the jury shouldn’t hear about the lineup. The Court has held that, only in instances of police misconduct in… Continue Reading
Even More Reasons to Run From GPDSC and a Modest Proposal
Posted in Attorney-Client Relationship, News, Opinions and AnalysisA blog post I wrote a week ago about GPDSC’s alliance with the Attorney General’s Office to oppose the Georgia Bar’s formal advisory opinion regarding imputed conflicts for indigent defendants inspired a few comments over on my Facebook page. A friend of mine who is a former assistant public defender commented: The absence of conflict-free… Continue Reading
The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon
Posted in Opinions and AnalysisFor those of you who don’t know, the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon is that weird occurrence where you hear about something for the first time and then encounter it again shortly afterwards. (Don’t worry, I didn’t know that term either until I searched for it on Google. And if there is any truth to this phenomenon you… Continue Reading
Amanda Knox, the Appeals Process, and Moneyball
Posted in News, Opinions and Analysis, Preservation of Error, UncategorizedToday, my recent post on Amanda Knox was quoted by Ronald V. Miller in his Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog. He picks up on my point about the Knox case and other high-profile cases with an unexpected result. For clients and potential clients, such cases reinforce the often mistaken idea that, if you keep on slugging until… Continue Reading
Managing Expectations in the Wake of the Amanda Knox Win
Posted in News, Opinions and AnalysisI’ve already been asked about it several times. For the criminal trial lawyer, the Casey Anthony verdict was the result that made it difficult to counsel clients on whether to accept a negotiate plea rather than risk a trial against an overwhelming case. Several colleagues have told me that clients have balked in the face… Continue Reading
When Judges Tell Juries About Appeals
Posted in Opinions and Analysis, UncategorizedThere’s an old bright line rule about whether judges should mention the appellate process to juries. The subtext is that you shouldn’t do it at all. The literal rule is that you shouldn’t do it in a way suggesting that the defendant is going to lose the trial. The Supreme Court recently reaffirmed on old… Continue Reading
Granted Petitions on Criminal Cases for the Month of September
Posted in News, Opinions and Analysis, Supreme Court of Georgia, UncategorizedThe Supreme Court has granted two petitions for certiorari and one application for discretionary appeal so far this month. Below is an overview of each case Bunn v. State In its Order granting Cert., from September 6, 2011, the Court notes that it is particularly concerned with the following issue: Does the Child Hearsay Statute… Continue Reading
New UGA Law Review Article Takes Georgia to Task for the Way We Handle IAC Claims
Posted in Attorney-Client Relationship, Motion for New Trial, News, Opinions and Analysis, UncategorizedI returned from vacation pleased to find in my in basket at the office a copy of Ryan C. Tuck’s article from the Georgia Law Review on the confusing state of the law as it relates to ineffective assistance of counsel in Georgia. The article is titled “Ineffective-Assistance-of-Counsel Blues: Navigating the Muddy Waters of Georgia… Continue Reading
Supreme Court of Georgia Grants Cert. Petitions in Three Criminal Cases
Posted in News, Opinions and AnalysisThe Supreme Court of Georgia is back in full swing. The Court has already heard oral argument in several sessions. Yesterday, the Court granted certiorari petitions on three criminal cases. Each case has important implications for the criminal defense bar. While I am not entirely thrilled with some of the decisions the Court has made… Continue Reading
How to Lose Your Appeal: Ignore the Court’s Rules / Make the Court Find Your Argument
Posted in Opinions and Analysis, WritingIt’s one thing to get practice tips from judges at a seminar or in a bar publication. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Yvette Miller has some tips in appellate advocacy in this Month’s Georgia Bar Journal (PDF page 28 – worth the wait for it to download). It’s quite another thing to get advocacy advice… Continue Reading
11th Circuit Reverses Conviction on Failure to Charge on Reliance on Advice
Posted in 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, Opinions and Analysis, Preservation of ErrorProfessor Ellen S. Podgor reports in her White Collar Criminal Prof Blog that the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed several convictions in Kottwitz.pdf because of a trial court’s failure to charge the jury on the defendants’s good faith reliance upon an accountant’s advice. The Court has also held that, regardless of the strength… Continue Reading
Preserve the Record Alert: Felon in Possession Statutes are Low-Hanging Fruit
Posted in News, Opinions and Analysis, Preservation of ErrorDouglas A. Berman, Professor at Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University reports at his blog, Sentencing Law and Policy, that the Seventh Circuit has suggested that a non-violent felon might prevail on a Second Amendment challenge if he brings an as-applied challenge to the Federal Felon in Possession statute (18 U.S.C. Section 922(g)(1)))…. Continue Reading
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