Given the current political climate, protecting the rights of non-citizen criminal defendants is certainly not a popular activity. However, and as many judges and elected representatives have repeatedly stated, our judicial system (federal and state) is supposed to be a model of fairness for other countries, particularly those where there…
It has been said that the defense attorney is frequently the most ignorant person in the room. The reason for this unflattering description is that s/he knows the least about what actually happened at the crime scene. The prosecutor has an army of investigators tasked with developing as much information…
New Jersey has among the most liberal criminal discovery rules in the country. The State is obligated to provide defense counsel with a substantial body of material early in the case. This is unlike many – if not most – other jurisdictions. For example, in the federal system, significant amounts…
A right to a jury trial for major criminal offenses and the jury as an institution are at the center of the Anglo-American criminal justice system. Most of a jury’s tasks are performed secretly. This is done intentionally so as to protect the integrity of the deliberative process and encourage…
While investigating a noise complaint at an apartment complex, an officer observed James Legette standing on a common porch. The officer approached and Legette partially opened a door leading into his area. The officer then smelled burnt marijuana, entered the porch area, and identified himself as an officer. As Legette…
I have never believed that most lawyers or judges take juvenile delinquency cases seriously. Many of them frequently refer to these matters as “kiddie crime”. Indeed, it is not unusual for a judge who has sat in an adult criminal trial court to feel offended as a result of being…
Arnett Blake, his girlfriend Cindy Edwards, and his former girlfriend Terri Hannah, all attended a party in Vineland, New Jersey. At some point, Edwards encountered Hannah in the bathroom. While there, Hannah allegedly made rude remarks about Edwards. Hannah then left the bathroom and told Blake that she should “F___…
June Gorthy met a mental health therapist at a conference in 1998, and then tried to commence a relationship with him. The therapist rejected her many overtures, which were expressed repeatedly in numerous gifts, letters and telephone messages. Gorthy then left her home in Colorado, drove to New Jersey, repeatedly…
There is increasing concern over the efficiency of our State’s court system. Everyone seems to want the system to work more efficiently. The most obvious examples of this desire is the soon-to-be-implemented criminal justice reform package (bail reform and speedy trial), which was the subject of prior blog posts. But…
Ever wonder why criminal cases languish in the system prior to resolution? Frequently, good reasons frequently exist for a case to drag on over a period of months, or even years. Further, the passage of time can actually help the defendant by effectively weakening the State’s case through the loss…