Sunday, September 28, 2008

Ineffective assistance and adequacy of a prior opportunity for cross

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A reader's question raises an interesting issue on which I haven't given much thought: If a witness testifies subject to cross agai...
3 comments:
Thursday, September 25, 2008

Detroit Police Crime Lab closed because of high error rate

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My student Brenna Speiser has called to my attention a report by the Detroit Free Press, on freep.com , with this dramatic lead: The Detroit...
Thursday, September 11, 2008

Respondent-side amicus briefs in Melendez-Diaz

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Two amicus briefs supporting hte Commonwealth have been filed in Melendez-Diaz . You can read the brief of the United States by clicking he...
2 comments:
Saturday, September 06, 2008

A legislative response to Giles?

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My student Ted Whalen has called to my attention a bill pending in Illinois, which you can read by clicking here , that seems designed to ta...
Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Respondent's brief in Melendez-Diaz

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Here is the brief on the merits of the Commonwealth, as respondent, in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts . I expect I will post some comments...
9 comments:

Reply brief in support of cert in Briscoe

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Here , rather belatedly, is the reply brief I filed last month in support of certiorari in Briscoe v. Virginia , challenging Virginia's ...
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Brief in Opposition in Briscoe

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The Commonwealth has filed its Brief in Opposition in Briscoe and Cypress v. Virginia , the case in which I filed a petition challenging Vi...
2 comments:
Friday, July 18, 2008

No confrontation issue if the statement isn’t even offered.

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That seems obvious enough, but the point arose in an interesting context in United States v. Tucker (8th Cir. Jul. 17, 2008) . Tucker assi...
6 comments:
Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Reflections on Giles, Part 4: The Alito and Thomas opinions

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Justice Thomas wrote a brief concurrence in Giles expressing the view that the statement at issue – made by the victim to a responding offi...
5 comments:
Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Reflection on Giles, Part 3: What Does It Mean?

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The accused has intentionally engaged in serious wrongful conduct that has in fact caused the victim to be unavailable as a witness at trial...
5 comments:
Sunday, June 29, 2008

Reflections on Giles, Part 2: Is Giles bad for defendants?

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On its surface, Giles appears to be a major victory for defendants. I am not sure that will prove to be right over the long run. 1. The G...
4 comments:
Friday, June 27, 2008

Reflections on Giles, Part 1: History, Dying Declarations, and Forfeiture

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As readers of this blog will recognize, I am obviously very disappointed by the result in Giles . It has unfortunate consequences for the t...
4 comments:
Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Giles vacated and remanded

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The Supreme Court decided Giles v. California today. You can see the opinion by clicking here . Giles won; the decision is vacated and re...
17 comments:
Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Top-side amicus briefs in Melendez-Diaz (updated, June 24, pm)

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Yesterday was the deadline for amicus briefs in support of the petitioner in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts , No. 07-591, the case raising ...
4 comments:
Thursday, June 19, 2008

Petitioner's brief in Melendez-Diaz

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While we wait for the Supreme Court to decide Giles , Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts , the case that will decide whether forensic lab report...
1 comment:
Friday, May 30, 2008

Cert petition in a burden-shifting case

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In several posts, I have discussed, and railed against, statutes that shift to the accused the burden of producing a prosecution witness, ty...
Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Failure to answer questions on cross

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In United States v. Owens , 484 U.S. 554 (1988), the Court – per Justice Scalia, who also wrote Crawford – held that the Confrontation Clau...
9 comments:
Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Transcript of Giles argument

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The transcript of the Giles argument is available through SCOTUSblog -- actually, it was avialable yestgerday -- and you may see it by clic...
3 comments:

Further thoughts on the Giles argument, from David Salmons

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David Salmons of Bingham McCutchen LLP, lead counsel on the DV LEAP amicus brief in Giles , hasalso taken up my invitation to post thoughts...
5 comments:

Reflections on the historical discussion at the Giles argument

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I attended the argument in Giles v. California yesterday. The question, for those who have not been following closely, is whether an accuse...
13 comments: