Category: Blog

          DNA profiling is a method used by forensic scientists to help identify a criminal suspect based upon his unique genetic code.  If you watch some of the crime-scene shows that appear frequently on television, you would think that DNA profiling is infallible.  (In fact, one prosecutor in a case that I tried referred to […]

          DNA profiling is a method used by forensic scientists to help identify a criminal suspect based upon his unique genetic code.  If you watch some of the crime-scene shows that appear frequently on television, you would think that DNA profiling is infallible.  (In fact, one prosecutor in a case that I tried referred to […]

          On February 23, 2009, I posted an article on this site entitled Why Florida Jurors Are Rarely Allowed to Hear Evidence of Previous False Accusations.  In that article, I discussed two Florida cases, Pantoja v. State of Florida and Washington v. State of Florida, both of which held that jurors should not have been […]

          In many criminal cases, the evidence presented at trial boils down to one witness accusing the person on trial of committing an illegal act.  For example, in some rape cases, the prosecution's main evidence consists of the alleged rape victim's testimony that the accused individual is the man who raped her.  It sometimes happens, though, […]

          Wayne R. Lafave, a noted criminal-law scholar, has said that "there is no dispute that [police searches based upon consent] affect tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people every year."  That being the case, it is not surprising that the United States Supreme Court has, over the years, addressed the lawfulness […]

          In many cases in which the police want to search someone's car or home, they try to obtain the owner's verbal or written consent so that they do not have to get a search warrant from a judge or otherwise be concerned about the lawfulness of conducting a search.  But if the lawfulness of a particular search […]

Federal law states that anyone who uses a firearm in connection with a crime of violence or a drug-trafficking crime is subject to enhanced punishment.  But what exactly does the word "uses" mean?  Although the statute itself does not define this word, the United States Supreme Court has discussed its meaning in at least three […]

          Manatee County Court Judge Doug Henderson recently issued an order suppressing all evidence that the police obtained at a sobriety checkpoint in 2008.            According to an article that appeared at BradentonHerald.com, Judge Henderson ruled that  because the Manatee County Sheriff's Office did not follow their own written guidelines regarding the operation of DUI […]

          Two years ago, Manatee County Court Judge Doug Henderson ruled that evidence of breath alcohol tests in more than 100 drunk-driving cases could not be presented at trial.  According to an article that appeared earlier this month at BradentonHerald.com, Judge Henderson's rulings in those several cases have been affirmed by two different courts of […]

          Several Florida cases in which defendants claimed self-defense have been overturned on appeal because the trial judge incorrectly read to the jury what is sometimes referred to as a forcible-felony jury instruction.  According to this particular jury instruction, a defendant may not claim that he acted in self-defense if he did so while "attempting to commit, committing, […]