The Arizona jury reached its verdict on Wednesday that Jodi Arias was guilty of first degree murder. Here are some tactics of the defense that I never understood. First, why would any defense lawyer let Arias talk to the press? A defendant has a Fifth Amendment right not to testify and not to make statements  Read more…

You’re stopped for a DUI late at night. You’ve had a few beers. After the officer questions you, and instructs you to perform coordination exercises that he calls “field sobriety tests,” he asks you to submit to a chemical test. What can you do? In California, a condition of retaining your driver’s license is that  Read more…

Under Miranda v. Arizona, before a suspect who is in the custody of the police can be questioned the police must read him or her Miranda rights. This includes a right to remain silent and the right to the presence of an attorney during questioning. Now that we know that the second man suspected of  Read more…

An article in the Bay Citizen on Wednesday criticized the investigation of officer-involved shootings in Alameda County, and in particular, Oakland. The District Attorney’s Office conducts an investigation into every officer-involved shooting. The investigation is conducted by a rotating on-call team which includes an experienced deputy district attorney and an inspector. The problem, according to  Read more…