Neal R. Sonnett : Voice of Liberty

Philip Swaby’s plea-based conviction was overturned for ineffective assistance of counsel that arose from a seemingly small oversight – one that any attorney might have made unless he or she were anything less than ultra-careful.

A defendant is prejudiced by his attorney’s erroneous immigration law advice, even if his chances of avoiding deportation are minimal, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Lee v. United States.

Over the past 30 years, NACDL and California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (CACJ) helped shed light on the implications of police training on interrogation practices that were intended to circumvent Miranda to permit police to either initiate or continue questioning. Police training and interrogation practices received additional attention in 2004 when the U.S. Supreme Court decided Missouri v. Seibert.

Minorities Still Burdened With Mandatory Minimum Sentences (Informal Opinion)

In denying the ineffective assistance of counsel claim in Weaver v. Massachusetts, the U.S. Supreme Court made it harder for defendants to gain relief from convictions that resulted from structurally flawed trials.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that defendants’ right to a speedy trial was violated because they waited more than five years for trial.

Lessons from the Misdemeanor Justice Project

In criminal cases, the allocation of resources is focused on felonies. However, misdemeanors make up the bulk of judicial dockets and represent an often revolving door of individuals filtering in and out of the criminal justice system.

In the United States, the right to counsel is considered so fundamental to a fair criminal justice system that it is constitutionally mandated through the Sixth Amendment. However, this noble value is elusive in too many places in the United States, often operating as an unfunded mandate.

The new federal tax law contains a provision regarding the process of seeking tax deductions for payments made to the government in satisfaction of a settlement agreement or judgment. Practitioners must understand the tax consequences of the new law and its potential effect on the availability of insurance coverage for their clients.

Informal Opinion

Criminal defense attorneys are the last bastion of protection against the onslaught of government persecution and bias faced by defendants.

How can you represent those people? This is a question criminal defense lawyers often hear. All people accused of a crime should be ably represented by counsel. If not, there is no justice.

Sometimes native speakers of English do not understand the Miranda rights read to them. The problems are even greater for limited English proficiency (LEP) speakers. The practices that should be followed in communicating rights to LEP speakers are outlined in the Guidelines for Communicating Rights to Non-native Speakers of English.

Informal Opinion Jeffrey L. Fisher and Kendall Turner March 2013 43 The Retroactivity of Padilla After Chaidez v. United States On March 31, 2010, the Supreme Court held in Padilla v. Kentucky that a criminal defendant receives ineffective assistance of counsel when her lawyer fails to a