Blog
4/13/16 Last week journalists were abruptly denied access to the floor of the Arizona House of Representatives chamber and told they would be required to submit to criminal and civil background checks to regain that access. The sudden move was not popular with journalists or lawmakers, and was as swiftly modified to again allow journalists…
4/12/16 New York Times editorial: Government agencies move toward removing or lessening some of the long-term consequences of minor criminal and drug convictions, which can affect a person’s ability to get jobs, housing, education and credit. To read the full editorial, see the nytimes.com link below: http://nyti.ms/25RtDW4 If you’ve been charged with…
4/12/16 A Virginia man who was falsely convicted of murder (originally sentenced to death, the sentence was commuted), and who served 33 years in prison was just released from prison when the State agreed that supposed scientifically reliable bite mark evidence led to a false conviction. In the case, experts had testified that bite mark…
4/7/16 Paul Penzone, a former Phoenix Police Sergeant who in the 2012 race came close to unseating incumbent Joe Arpaio, has announced he will run again in the 2016 election. For more on this story, see the azcentral.com article below: http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2016/04/06/paul-penzone-sheriff-arpaio-election/82721132/ If you’ve been charged with DUI or another criminal offense, getting help from an…
4/6/16 Though the attempt failed last year, the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office has reduced the ad price to $2,500 per year, which entitles an attorney to a 14×11 framed poster with a holder for business cards in the jail’s visiting area. All funds generated will go to the inmate welfare account, utilized solely for the…
4/6/16 A recent report by the National Registry of Exonerations, project of University of Michigan Law School, reported a record 149 exonerations took place in 2015, which included 5 people on death row. Exoneration is a term of art which means the person is officially cleared of blame, liability or punishment for a criminal charge.…
4/5/16 New guidelines issued by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development yesterday prohibits housing providers from blanket discrimination against people for criminal arrests or convictions. The guidelines prohibit use of mere arrest to justify the exclusion, and describe the requirement of a tailored policy which evaluates such things as the type of crime,…
4/5/16 Prosecutors and defense attorneys filed a joint motion for protective order in the Philip Brailsford case, which was granted on Thursday. The order prohibits the dissemination of the Axon body camera evidence in the 2nd degree murder case against Brailsford, which is ongoing. Laney Sweet, the wife of Daniel Shaver, who was killed by…
4/4/16 Out of court statements are generally considered hearsay, and as such are inadmissible in a trial. An exception to that rule is the Present Sense Exception, which are statements people make of their observations as they are observing an event as it is happening. The idea is that people would not have time to…
4/4/16 Police agencies nationwide have adopted on-body video cameras as a way to improve the documentation of case evidence. While it is easy to assume the camera lens is an infallible and impartial eye, this recent article from the New York Times sheds a very interesting light on what is, and is not, captured by…