Blog Posts in May, 2014

Many criminal law practitioners believe the criminal justice system is broken. Most believe the reason it is broken is because the plea-bargaining system is broken. Federal Judge Jed Rakoff offered ...

Most people know it is not illegal to defend yourself if attacked. That can be true even if you end up killing your attacker. The law has historically always recognized that it is not a crime to ...

Last week, a Manhattan jury found an Occupy Wall Street protestor guilty of Assault in the Second Degree . Cecilly McMillan now faces up to 7 years in prison for elbowing a police officer during a ...

These developments make it almost impossible to prevail in an insanity defense. In New York, the insanity defense is listed in Penal Code Section 40.15 . In the section, the law states “[i]n any ...

On March 28, 2014, David Tarloff was found guilty of murdering a psychologist in a botched robbery. This was the third time Mr. Tarloff was put on trial for the crime. In 2010 , Mr. Tarloff was ...

So those are the arguments made by defense attorneys and prosecutors on this topic. Then there’s the argument made by the journalist and the non-lawyer. That “open-file” discovery will force ...