BLOG BULLETS: A wiretap application may be made only by certain high prosecutorial officials, not a mere law enforcement officer or even an ordinary line prosecutor. Two Ninth Circuit opinions in the last two years have established that the only state officials who can apply for a wiretap are the state attorney general, an actual […]

BLOG BULLETS: Recall the prior post a few months ago suggesting a possible challenge to jail officials’ claim to a right to read e-mails sent between clients and attorneys over the Corrlinks or Trulincs systems. A recent Ninth Circuit case has some good language acknowledging the importance of a jail or prison inmate’s ability to […]

BLOG BULLETS: Language in United States v. Heredia suggesting some breaches may be cured should be read narrowly; it might apply to a prosecutor’s failure to do something the prosecutor is supposed to do, but can’t apply to the prosecutor having done something the prosecutor isn’t supposed to do. Language suggesting a “mere slip of […]

BLOG BULLETS: A recent Ninth Circuit opinion reaffirms prior cases recognizing that the government can breach plea agreements implicitly as well as explicitly. There’s a breach whenever the government makes a required recommendation but accompanies it with inflammatory arguments that effectively undercut the recommendation. So long as you object to the breach, there’s an automatic […]

BLOG BULLETS: A new DOJ policy adopts a presumption that custodial interrogations should be recorded. There are exceptions where the suspect will make a statement only if isn’t recorded, where the “public safety exception” applies, where recording isn’t “reasonably practicable,” and/or where a Special Agent in Charge and a United States Attorney or his or […]

BLOG BULLETS: Section 5G1.3 of the guidelines requires a court to take an already existing sentence into account when sentencing for a second offense if the already existing sentence is for an offense that qualifies as relevant conduct, by (1) making the sentence for the second offense concurrent and (2) reducing the second sentence by […]

BLOG BULLETS: Rule 806 of the Federal Rules of Evidence allows a party to impeach a hearsay statement just as if the hearsay declarant had testified in person. One example of a way to use this rule is to offer a coconspirator’s inconsistent statement during a police interrogation after arrest to impeach an earlier statement […]

San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies called gay, bisexual and transgender inmates “sissies” and “freak shows” and denied them access to services given to other inmates, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday by civil rights attorneys. Fifteen current and former inmates of the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga filed the class-action lawsuit against […]

BLOG BULLETS: Additional Ninth Circuit case law supports the argument that the pretrial test for prosecutors’ duty to disclose exculpatory evidence doesn’t require the evidence to rise to some particular level of importance, or “materiality.” The Department of Justice’s own policy – as set forth in the U.S. Attorney’s Manual – also sets a lower […]

BLOG BULLETS: The Rule 16 requirement that prosecutors disclose all information “material to preparing the defense” applies to inculpatory evidence as well as exculpatory evidence. This disclosure requirement also applies to evidence relevant to affirmative defenses in addition to evidence relevant directly to guilt. There’s another recent Ninth Circuit case that confirms these points, as […]