Kristin Henning to Spend Semester at Yale

January 19, 2012 Current Events

They warned us about her at the Public Defender Service. On the eve of her presentation at the Juvenile CJA Panel training, they suggested we spend some extra time with our reading that night because Kristin Henning not only knew her Family Court rules, she would expect us to know them as well.  And, having [...]

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I’ll Press “Publish”

January 18, 2012 Criminal Law Bloggers

Many mornings before the start of a trial, I find myself writing a blog entry.  This initially struck me as odd. Shouldn’t I be putting final touches on my opening statement and focusing on the issues I expect to arise at trial?  Then it occurred to me:  In addition to the many other reasons I [...]

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On Criminal Defense Lawyers Who “Know Lots of People”

January 17, 2012 Law Practice

I am standing outside Judge Pan’s courtroom on the second floor of D.C. Superior Court with a man who has just been arraigned for felony assault.  Although he has been assigned a court-appointed attorney, he would like to hire private counsel.  I have a conflict so I refer him to my colleague and friend Michael [...]

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On Commies, Pinkos, Fags and Happyspherers

January 16, 2012 Criminal Law Bloggers

Mark Bennett coined the term “Happysphere” a while back, and it has now become a phrase that you need to throw into a blog entry every once in a while to show that you are a member of the tribe.  Use of the term doesn’t require any imagination or thought.  As with the use of [...]

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Toward a “Flawging Quotient”: Justifications of a Self-Professed Flawger

January 15, 2012 Criminal Law Bloggers

There was an extended discussion over at Simple Justice recently about “flawging,” a phrase used, as I understand it, to describe blogs that are intended primarily as marketing tools for their authors. Antonin Pribetic, the blogger who coined the term, suggested a rather narrow definition.  A flawg, according to Pribetic, is a “legal blog without [...]

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Confrontation Clause Be Damned: D.C. Continues to Use Surrogate Witnesses in DUI Cases

January 13, 2012 Criminal Procedure

Michael Bruckheim was scheduled to cross-examine Lucas Zarwell, the chief forensic toxicologist in D.C., and a group of DUI lawyers had gathered outside Room 116 yesterday afternoon shortly before 2:00 pm. Zarwell testified before city council last May that urine samples taken by police to test suspected drunk drivers are not reliable enough to accurately [...]

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On Recusals: Offending the Judge, Protecting the Client

January 9, 2012 Criminal Procedure

A couple of years ago, a Court of Common Pleas judge in Philadelphia banned me from her courtroom for life.  Both the stenographer and her law clerk looked at me with sympathy when the judge issued the edict. Maybe they thought I would be upset. In fact, running a list in this judge’s courtroom was [...]

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D.C. Criminal Defense Bar Welcomes Dan Daly

January 6, 2012 Current Events

Now we will have to teach him the secret handshake. With yesterday serving as Dan Daly’s final day in court as a D.C. prosecutor, I had the honor of representing the defendant in Daly’s last case on the docket.  Daly will finish up some paperwork at the office over the next couple of days.  He [...]

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On Zealous Representation and Public Defenders

January 5, 2012 Law Practice

I will remember this.  This is what the prosecutor promises you. In another context, she could be intending this as a threat.  As in:  I will get you back for this.  In this case, she is trying to entice you into making a concession, and she is putting you on notice that she has a [...]

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The ABA Journal’s Most-Voted-For Criminal Justice Blog for 2011

January 4, 2012 Criminal Law Bloggers

Thank you very much to everyone who voted in the 2011 ABA Journal Blawg 100.  Included among the list of top 100 blogs overall, the Koehler Law Blog received the highest number of popular votes in the “Criminal Justice” category.  As I am a big fan of the other blogs that were included in this [...]

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