The New York Court of Appeals vacated a defendant’s conviction and ordered a new trial in People v. Dunbar. They ruled that the statements made by the defendant should have been suppressed because the pre-Miranda statements by the Queens District Attorney’s Office to...

Suppose a person goes out for a night of heavy drinking. After the 10 or 11th shot, he blacks out. He then wakes up the next morning in a jail cell. He has absolutely no idea where he is or what is going on. He is then informed by a police officer that he punched a...

Everybody seems to have at least some understanding of entrapment. From a common layperson’s perspective, the idea usually comes up in the context of a situation where an under cover cop pretends to buy or sell an illegal product or service and then arrests the other...

Using the testimony of a person who “has turned state’s evidence” is a common and effective tool used by prosecutors throughout the United States. There are many different circumstances in which a prosecutor’s office would want to do this. An example would be a...

Under New York law, a person who possessed a gravity knife can go to jail for up to one year. If that same person has previously been convicted of a crime, then the possession of the knife is a felony offense and depending on what kind of crime he’s been convicted of...