Category Archives: Criminal
You Can Exercise Your Fifth Amendment Rights Even Without Pleading The Fifth Or Hearing The Miranda Warnings
This summer marks the 68th anniversary of Miranda v. Arizona, the Supreme Court decision where the Court ruled that police officers must notify a suspect in custody of his or her right to avoid self-incrimination before they begin questioning the suspect. When police have arrested someone and taken him or her to the police… Read More »
Start Your Criminal Trial Off Right With Opening Statements
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. The past is a foreign country. Call me Ishmael. The first line of a book is often the most memorable part. Who can forget the opening line of Kafka’s Metamorphosis, convoluted as its exact wording may be, in which a nebbish called… Read More »
Turning Yourself In After An Arrest Warrant Means Facing Your Case From A Position Of Strength
Getting arrested at a traffic stop is scary. It is even scarier when a police officer approaches you on foot in a public place and says that he just saw you stealing, selling drugs, or doing something else illegal. A relentless optimist would point out that, in contrast to the aforementioned scenarios, finding out… Read More »
Questions Of Law And Questions Of Fact In Florida Criminal Cases
Yes and no questions are not always as simple as they sound. Sometimes, in order to arrive at the correct answer, you must consider all the information that is relevant to your decision and ignore all irrelevant information, and sometimes figuring out which information is relevant is more difficult than it sounds. Think about… Read More »
How Does A Criminal Case Affect Your Professional Life?
When you get arrested on suspicion of a crime, you are wise to follow the instinct that tells you to exercise your right to remain silent and then calmly and privately discuss the situation with a criminal defense lawyer when you get the opportunity to do so. Meanwhile, until you get the chance to… Read More »
What Is So Great About A Bench Trial?
Police must notify you of some of your rights as a defendant when they arrest you, but it is only after you meet with a criminal defense lawyer and decide to plead not guilty that you get into the nuts and bolts of what the right to a fair trial means. You and your… Read More »
The Reid Technique Is As Scary As It Sounds, But You Have The Right Not To Get Drawn Into It
Perhaps you know someone who has a way of taking everything you say and do and interpreting it in a way that reflects negatively on you. Maybe you have a jealous ex who would accuse you of cheating whenever you came home late, but when you came home early, she said it was because… Read More »
How Brady Disclosures Can Help You Get Acquitted
Somewhere, an aspiring screenwriter has stayed up late reading Kafka and has an idea for a screenplay. The entire movie takes place in an interrogation room. In a variation of the Reid technique, the investigator outlines several scenarios by which the defendant might have committed the crime and asks the defendant to choose which… Read More »
Probable Cause And Florida Criminal Cases
What all defendants have in common at the beginning of their criminal cases is that they may have committed a crime. If it were obvious to everyone that you were innocent, and no one ever suspected you of anything, you would not be in criminal court. After meeting with your lawyer, you might decide… Read More »
What Does It Mean When Your Case Ends In Nolle Prosequi?
Is getting acquitted the best possible outcome in a criminal case? Yes and no. If you plead not guilty to criminal charges, and the jury returns a verdict of not guilty at trial, then you are cleared of the charges forever. Even if investigators later find incriminating evidence that the prosecution did not present… Read More »