Readers of this Criminal Defense Blog set out to find me. I’d been gone for far too long. One rumor had it that I’d been kidnapped by renegade prosecutors then taken to an undisclosed location where I was forced to
A number of over zealously prosecuted synthetic marijuana drug cases brought by the Justice Department based on faulty laboratory and DNA evidence are finally being undermined with expert testimony from the combined efforts of federal defense lawyers around the country. By working
In a stunning new memorandum from the Justice Department, the Attorney General is directing every federal prosecutor to take criminal cases from state and local authorities so that longer federal sentences can be given. You can expect that state and
The U.S. Supreme Court misstated prevailing scientific evidence that sex offenders had very high recidivism rates that is “frightening and high” in a 2003 Court opinion which has been used to justify extremely harsh sentences not only by the high court
The best resolution of any criminal case is for the charges to be dismissed. This can happen in any number of ways but one of the easiest for any defendant who does not want to have a criminal record is
Right now in Florida when a law enforcement officer faces an internal disciplinary investigation or hearing he has the right to demand that the entire hearing be recorded. Yet that same officer while investigating a possible crime need not record any
One of the few ways to avoid a mandatory minimum sentences in nonviolent federal drug cases is by invoking the safety valve provision. The safety valve is useful way for any defendant to avoid a harsh sentence under the federal
Florida has 118 state crimes that trigger tough minimum mandatory sentences, which is close but not yet outdone by the 145 federal criminal laws that have harsh minimum mandatory sentences. Minimum mandatory sentences are an unfair punishment because they take away
Despite attempts to overlook bias for the goal of fair sentencing at least one federal judge has confessed to over-sentencing defendants to hundreds of years in prison. Most of the over-sentencing results from federal crimes where minimum mandatory sentences are
Recently we looked at the musings of a retired federal judge who confessed that she over-sentenced defendants to hundreds of years in prison. Now let’s look at how a Federal District Judge in Florida confronts his task of fair
