Pursuant to the Brady doctrine, the State has an affirmative obligation under the Due Process Clause to timely disclose material exculpatory evidence to the defense. Usually, Brady violations come to light after a conviction, with the defense having to establish
With the turn of the page from 2025 to 2026, I thought I’d update my thread on all of the cases we’ve covered on Undisclosed. I’m happy to report that, for the first time, half of the cases we’ve
Back in 2008, I published Even Better Than the Real Thing: How Courts Have Been Anything but Liberal in Finding Genuine Questions Raised as to the Authenticity of Originals Under Rule 1003, 68 Md. L. Rev. 160 (2008). The
Some courts have found that prosecutors are per se prohibited from making “send a message” arguments to jurors during closing arguments in which they suggest that the jury has some obligation to cure the community’s problems through its verdict. See
Courts across the country recognize the doctrine of transferred intent. For example, imagine that Dana shoots at Victoria with the intent to kill her, but the bullet goes astray, striking and killing Tracy, a third party. Transferred intent says that
A fundamental protection of the American justice is that a criminal defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. And this protection was at the heart of the recent opinion of the Eleventh Circuit in United States
Federal Rule of Evidence 606(b)(1) provides that
During an inquiry into the validity of a verdict or indictment, a juror may not testify about any statement made or incident that occurred during the jury’s deliberations; the effect of anything on
Florida is famous, some would say infamous, for being the progenitor of the “stand your ground” defense, dispensing with the duty to retreat before using deadly force. See Section 776.102 of the Florida Statutes. So, should a defendant seeking a
Similar to its federal counterpart, § 24-7-702(b) of the Georgia Code provides that
During closing arguments in a criminal case, the prosecutor cannot give the jury the impression that emotion may reign over reason. So, does a prosecutor do so by comparing the defendant’s crime to a “Hollywood slasher movie”? That was the
