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 ...

Self Defense Laws NYC The State of New York adheres to the "Duty to Retreat" & "Castle Doctrine" clauses. In public many have the limited responsibility to retreat when possible as NY is not a "Stand ...

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 ...