If, while defending yourself, someone else, or property, you caused harm to another individual, it’s possible you could be charged with a crime like assault, battery, or even, in the most extreme situation, murder. But you were only defending yourself, so how is this possible? Sometimes it takes a court…
If you have been arrested for a felony, you are doubtlessly feeling frightened. What is in the cards for you? Should you accommodate police requests for information to demonstrate your innocence? Should you do anything and everything to get out of custody? No, and no! If you are looking at…
Swatting—or placing false calls requesting emergency assistance– is illegal, according to the FBI. These harassing and deceptive emergency calls send response teams to various locations with claims that an emergency is underway. Although the prank calls send SWAT teams and others to a scene where nothing unusual is occurring, officers…
Anyone who has watched courtroom drama on TV has heard of double jeopardy—the 5th Amendment protections against being tried twice for the same crime. But there is a qualification here — separate prosecutions are permitted when state and federal governments prosecute separately for the same crime. In fact, two different…
Society has struggled with how to deal with the most deviant criminals for centuries. The question of justice becomes more complex than ever when juvenile offenders are involved. Sadly, it’s a dilemma that is more and more frequently upon us: 17-year-old Jonathan Rojas is accused of engaging in a shooting…
It is incredibly unnerving for an innocent individual to be charged with a crime and dragged through the criminal justice system, especially if a conviction could lead to serious time behind bars! That is why it is so important for suspects to take advantage of their Fifth Amendment rights and…
Attorney-client privilege is intended to protect lawyers from having to testify against a client and to keep communications related to a client’s defense secret. And who would argue against this basic benefit afforded to those seeking legal advice and those dispensing it? After all, how could a client ever reveal…
Anyone who has ever been charged with a crime knows that, more often than not, the case is settled long before it goes to trial. According to Pew Research, only two out of every 100 federal criminal cases make it that far. In 90% of these cases, people pleaded guilty,…
For anyone who thought that police use of force would wane after the riotous year of BLM protests in the recent past, the discouraging news is that these incidents are on the rise. Across the country in general, and in California specifically, documented cases of police use of force are…
If you watch any crime drama on television, you know the scoop: the case could be up in the air with no way to nab the culprit—until miraculously, a fingerprint or a wayward strand of hair is discovered by a fervent detective. Instantaneously, it seems, the evidence is analyzed in…