Category Archives: Criminal Defense
Hearsay Evidence In Pennsylvania Criminal Cases
The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees people accused of crimes the right to a trial by jury without unnecessary delay. The court should schedule a trial shortly after the defendant enters a plea of not guilty. Even when the court does this, the court has the right to postpone the trial… Read More »
Supreme Court Ruling Lets Defendant Appeal Sentence Based On Laws That Have Changed Since His Conviction
In The Shawshank Redemption, Morgan Freeman plays an elderly man serving a life sentence for a crime he committed when he was decades younger. When telling the story to a newly arrived inmate, he refers to the person against whom the jury returned a guilty verdict, his younger self, as “that kid.” The point… Read More »
Police Arrest Pennsylvania Couple For Possession Of Illegal Drugs And Domestic Cat Precursors
We have all heard that domestic dogs are the descendants of wolves. When we see a teacup Yorkie sitting patiently in a bicycle basket while its human goes inside a coffee shop to get a cup of coffee for herself and a cup of whipped cream for the dog, it is easy to contemplate… Read More »
Armed Robbery Of Mail Carriers
For as long as the digital native generation has been alive, people have been saying that the postal mail is becoming obsolete. Today, people only use the mail to send things that are of priceless sentimental value, such as handwritten letters and homemade gifts, or else things that would be of interest to thieves,… Read More »
Bipartisan Bill Proposes Upgrades To Pennsylvania’s Treatment Courts
Anyone who has ever visited a prison as part of a volunteer program or religious ministry can tell you of how the people serving prison sentences wish that things had gone differently and have thought about the sequence of events that led to their crime, arrest, and conviction. When they listen, the inmates tell… Read More »
Your Criminal Defense Lawyer Will Fight To The End, But You Have The Final Decision About Whether To Plead Innocent Or Guilty
Legal cases in criminal court can be full of surprises and plot twists, albeit usually not of the kind that you see in the movies. For example, criminal defense lawyers do not leave prosecutors speechless at trial by presenting evidence that the prosecution did not know existed. More likely, the surprise will come when… Read More »
Lancaster County Man Faces Stalking Charges For Texting Scary Clown Emoji
Did you hear about the Florida woman who got criminal charges for offering commercial sex because she texted a red rose emoji to an undercover police officer? Yes, but that is Florida, where all kinds of nonsensical things happen. What about the Florida man who got drug charges because he went on Grindr and… Read More »
Trespassing And Pennsylvania’s Purple Paint Law
Of all the criminal offenses that sound like, by themselves, they cause little or no harm, trespassing ranks highly. What is so bad about walking on someone else’s property? When you were in middle school, you technically trespassed every day when you walked across your neighbor’s lawn because doing so was a shortcut between… Read More »
New Report Shows Socioeconomic Class As A Factor Determining Severity Of Sentencing
It is not hard to find examples of rich people acting like they are above the law. Eventually, the Florida Man Internet phenomenon died down because so much of the bizarre behavior documented on arrest reports in Florida was nothing less and nothing more than people acting out of desperation. That Florida Man who… Read More »
Can You Go To Jail For Contempt Of Court?
Failure to comply with the court’s orders or with the judicial process can make your legal problems worse. We have seen documentaries where antiheroes outwit the law by wiggling out of their GPS ankle monitors, and who can forget that scene in Goodfellas where Henry and Karen flush their cocaine stash down the toilet… Read More »
