Tag: Evidence
Does ‘Speech or Debate’ Trump the Right to Defend Oneself in Court?
On February 5, 2013, the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the U.S. House of Representatives filed a brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to hold that U.S. legislators and their aides cannot be forced to testify about their legislative activities, even when their expected testimony might help exonerate a criminal… Read More
DOJ Should Not Withhold Information From Defense in High-Profile Leak Case
Lawyers for Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a former federal contractor employee accused of unlawfully disclosing sensitive information, recently filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia criticizing the government’s withholding of information in the case and asking the court to order the government to produce the documents. The government should not… Read More
Since DOJ Won’t Confess Error, It’s Time for Others to Stay on the Case
A Washington Post article today points out that in many cases over the past several decades, federal prosecutors knew that the evidence against a defendant was flawed because the science upon which the conviction had relied was not reliable – yet the prosecutors failed to notify the defendants or their attorneys of the problems. The… Read More
Nevada Case Points to Perils of Assertion of 5th Amendment in Civil Cases
One of the hardest decisions on which a lawyer may be called upon to advise a client in civil litigation is the decision whether to assert the Fifth Amendment privilege. On the one hand, the overlap between pending civil and criminal matters may make it dangerous for the client to make statements that could incriminate… Read More
D.C. Appeals Court Rejects Challenge to Admission of Handwriting Evidence
If there was ever an open question as to whether forensic handwriting identification is admissible under D.C.’s common law of evidence, the D.C. Court of Appeals has finally put that question to rest. On February 9, 2012, the Court of Appeals held that handwriting comparison and identification, as practiced by FBI examiners, passes the Frye… Read More
DOJ Dismisses Genocide Charges After Failure to Make Disclosure to Defense
We have written previously about the number of times in which federal prosecutors seem to withhold crucial evidence from defendants — evidence that they are required under law to turn over. Here, for example, is a discussion of an important Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case in which this occurred. A genocide case in Kansas poses a… Read More
Ifrah Law’s Blog Wrap-Up, June 1-20
This is the sixth of a regular series of posts that summarize and wrap up our latest thoughts that have appeared recently on Ifrah Law’s blogs. 1. Perjury, Obstruction and Barry Bonds’ Conviction Read why we regard the Barry Bonds obstruction of justice verdict as troubling: It sets a bad precedent for the grand jury… Read More
Good-Faith Rule Applies to Document Destruction
Big cases can turn on a little rule of evidence called spoliation. The rule recognizes that a trial court has the inherent authority to sanction a party for destroying, altering, or failing to preserve property that the opponent could have used as evidence. A recent decision in the Eastern District of Virginia serves as a… Read More
The ‘Delete’ Key Doesn’t Help These Insider-Trading Defendants
On February 8, 2011, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan and the FBI announced some new indictments in a massive probe of insider trading on Wall Street. They charge two defendants not only with conspiracy to commit securities fraud but also with obstruction of justice for destroying evidence. The five-page release issued that day by the… Read More
Will the Internet Taint a Loughner Verdict?
As Arizona plans a trial for accused Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner, a new set of questions has arisen: How will a jury be able to sit in impartial judgment, untainted by nonstop online coverage of the crime and its aftermath? What safeguards should a judge impose to keep the jury from following the case… Read More
IFRAH Law
