Monday, November 20, 2023

Smith v. Arizona -- top-side briefs filed

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Petitioner filed his brief in Smith v. Arizona last week, and today a bunch of amici, most in support of Petitioner, filed theirs.  You can ...
1 comment:
Saturday, September 30, 2023

Smith v. Arizona -- cert grant in a case that might clear up the Williams mess

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 Yesterday, the Supreme Court granted certiorari  in Smith v. Arizona , No. 22-899, a case that might help provide some clarity much needed ...
5 comments:
Friday, June 23, 2023

Samia v. United States: The Supreme Court cuts back on Bruton

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The Supreme Court today decided Samia v. United States , and in doing so cut back substantially on the rule of Bruton v. United States (196...
1 comment:
Monday, March 06, 2023

Cert denied in Shields. What should counsel do at preliminary hearing?

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     This morning, the Supreme Court denied certiorari in Shields v. Kentucky, No. 22-450, on which I have previously posted, here and here...
Friday, February 17, 2023

Another good decision in a fresh-accusation case

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 There are, in my view, a lot of bad decisions involving fresh accusations, made shortly after the alleged crime, often to a 911 operator or...

Shields v. Kentucky: BIO, reply, and ready for conference

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 I reported in an earlier post on the cert petition in Shields v. Kentucky . The Commonwealth has now filed its brief in opposition , and S...
1 comment:
Tuesday, December 27, 2022

A useful opinion on statements not reported explicitly at trial

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On the first of this month, the Michigan Court of Appeals issued a useful decision, People v. Washington , concerning the situation in which...
2 comments:
Monday, December 26, 2022

Shields v. Kentucky: A cert petition to watch on preliminary-hearing testimony

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Jonathan Ellis and Gregory DuBoff of the McGuire Woods firm have filed an excellent cert petition in Shields v. Kentucky , No. 22-450.  The ...

Samia v. United States: Cert granted in a Bruton-type case

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 Earlier this month, the Supreme Court granted cert in Samia v. United States , in which it may resolve one of the issues left open by Bruto...
2 comments:
Tuesday, August 02, 2022

A good decision in a fresh-accusation case

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I use the term fresh accusations  to cover statements made shortly after an event asserting that someone committed a crime.  Often, though n...
2 comments:
Tuesday, May 17, 2022

A good decision from the Fifth Circuit on the "why we acted the way we did" end run

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I have written before -- most recently  here -- about how too often a court allows a prosecutor to introduce a testimonial statements on the...
1 comment:
Tuesday, February 22, 2022

An encouraging cert denial in an autopsy case

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It's always a mistake to read too much into a denial of certiorari, but I find encouraging the Supreme Court's denial this morning i...
2 comments:
Wednesday, February 09, 2022

The "why I acted the way I did" end-run

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 Prosecutors often try to get in testimonial evidence from absent witnesses by arguing that it is not offered for the truth of what it asser...
4 comments:
Friday, January 21, 2022

Hemphill v. New York: the right call

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  Apologies for being silent so long. The Supreme Court decided Hemphill v. New York this week.   The Court held that the Confrontation C...
2 comments:
Friday, July 02, 2021

Hemphill v. New York, pending Supreme Court case: Top-side briefs

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It's been quite a while since I've posted anything on this blog, for no particular good reason.  I will try to pick up the pace. For...
6 comments:
Tuesday, June 23, 2020

A significant decision on remote testimony

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Yesterday, the Michigan Supreme Court issued its decision in People v. Jemison , a case that I have mentioned in a prior post and in which ...
6 comments:
Thursday, June 04, 2020

The dying, blinking witness

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Chris Miller, an excellent former student of mine, has pointed out Woods v. Cook , a recent Sixth Circuit opinion of interest by Judge Sutt...
5 comments:
Monday, May 04, 2020

Remote testimony and the coronavirus crisis

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The coronavirus crisis has created increased interest in the subject of remote testimony – testimony in which the witness is not in the cou...
10 comments:
Wednesday, September 04, 2019

Laird Kirkpatrick on forensic reports

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I previously posted an entry about Stuart v. Alabama and Justice Gorsuch's dissent from the denial of certiorari in that case.  Laird ...
67 comments:
Wednesday, August 28, 2019

BIO and reply in support of petition in White v. Louisiana

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I previously blogged about White v. Louisiana , in which a cert petition is pending.  You can find the documents here .  They now include t...
25 comments: