BLOG BULLETS: Some state courts are allowing designated assistant district attorneys to apply for state wiretaps even when the district attorney himself is not absent. This is inconsistent with the federal wiretap statute as interpreted in United States v. Perez-Valencia, 727 F.3d 852 (9th Cir. 2013), and United States v. Perez-Valencia, 744 F.3d 600 (9th […]

BLOG BULLETS: There’s a technique used to train officers in interrogation known as the “Reid technique,” which one police training organization recently announced it has abandoned and which a large number of articles criticize as prone to producing false confessions. Descriptions of the technique on the Wikipedia website and the website of the company which […]

Today’s post is just another short update, with some additional materials to support some prior posts.  Several past posts have tried to offer encouragement on seeking bond even when your client is undocumented and ICE is going to place a detainer.  (See “Detention Based on ICE Detainers Is Melting in the Ninth Circuit Too” in […]

BLOG BULLETS: There’s a software program named Cellebrite that law enforcement commonly uses to search cell phones and that helps it recover not only the things an ordinary user can see on the cell phone, but also hidden information like metadata and deleted text messages, call records, and contacts. A publication entitled “Preparing Testimony about […]

  Today’s post is just a short update on some past posts about the indivisibility of drug statutes.  You may recall two past posts about two Ninth Circuit opinions, albeit unpublished, holding the Arizona drug statutes are overbroad and indivisible — and therefore can’t qualify as prior drug offenses under the categorical and modified categorical […]

BLOG BULLETS: A proposed guideline amendment will make avoiding prison easier, first by adding a 1- or 2-level decrease for true first offenders with no criminal record at all, and, second, by combining Zone B and Zone C in the sentencing table, so anyone with a guideline range of 12-18 months or less can serve […]

BLOG BULLETS: A recent DOJ memo on eyewitness identification contains recommended procedures to help prevent erroneous identifications, including either blacking out unique identifying characteristics or adding them to the “filler” photos; administration by an officer who doesn’t know who the suspect is or doesn’t know the order in which photos are presented; and videotaping or […]

BLOG BULLETS: Lawyers have a broad duty of confidentiality toward their clients that goes beyond the attorney-client privilege and includes all information relating to the representation, no matter what the source is. There is a “self-defense” exception which allows disclosure when necessary to defend against allegations by the client about the lawyer’s representation, but disclosure […]

BLOG BULLETS: Older cases placing the burden of proof for sentencing entrapment on the defendant are based on the general guidelines rule that the burden is on the party seeking an adjustment of the guideline range. The Ninth Circuit’s recent recognition of sentencing entrapment as a jury question in some circumstances means guidelines rules shouldn’t […]

BLOG BULLETS: Remember the partial defense of sentencing entrapment; even if a defendant was predisposed or wasn’t induced to sell some amount of drugs, he may be induced and not predisposed to sell a larger quantity. A Ninth Circuit case – United States v. Cortes, 757 F.3d 850 (9th Cir. 2014) – establishes that the question of […]