When Does a Witness's Reference to Incarceration Require a Mistrial?
A jury is supposed to decide guilt based on the evidence, not on the fact that the defendant has been sitting in jail awaiting trial. That's why defense lawyers routinely ask the court, before trial,…
When Police Sit on Evidence, Who Pays for the Delay?
Most criminal defense lawyers have lived some version of this. You have prepared for trial. The date is set. Then, days before you pick a jury — or, here, days before a bench trial — the Commonwealth…
When Eyewitnesses Can Say More Than a Number: Commonwealth v. Rivera and the Limits of Speed Testimony
A Butler County vehicular homicide case decided today raises a question that comes up more often than you might think: when an eyewitness to a fatal crash takes the stand, can they describe what they…
A Kilo of Cocaine for Personal Use? The Third Circuit Wasn't Buying It.
When does a defendant have the right to have the jury consider a lesser charge — one that carries a lighter sentence — instead of being forced into an all-or-nothing verdict on the most serious…
Managing Testimony Midstream: The Supreme Court Revisits Geders and Perry
The United States Supreme Court addressed what happens to the right to counsel when a defendant is in the middle of testifying and court breaks for the night? In Villarreal v. Texas, 607 U.S. ___…
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Hits the Reset Button on Other-Acts Evidence — Sort Of
In Commonwealth v. Derrick Walker, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court took a hard look at one of the more slippery areas of criminal evidence law: when the Commonwealth may introduce evidence of a…
In the time of the coronavirus, is coughing or spitting on someone simple assault?
There’s been reports in recent days like this one—State police cite 2 people in Westmoreland County for ‘purposely coughing’ on workers—which raise the question of whether coughing or spitting on…
“There’s no evidence. There’s no proof.”
For people involved in the American justice system for the first time—be it civil or criminal—there’s a prevailing belief that if the opposing side doesn’t have pictures, video, DNA, or some other…
That’s hearsay!: The excited-utterance exception
This short post is the third installment on the topic of hearsay. Specifically, addressed here is the second of the 16 hearsay exceptions known as the excited-utterance exception. The exception is…
That’s hearsay!: The present-sense-impression exception
This post follows up to my initial post of March 30, 2017 on the topic of hearsay. In this short post, I discuss the first of what Pennsylvania recognizes as 16 exceptions to hearsay. That is, in…