- Arizona Court of Appeals Tosses Voter Fraud ConvictionIn a notable unanimous opinion Arizona Court of Appeals vacated a voter fraud conviction. State v Hannah. There, a Mohave County Arizona Grand Jury indicted Hannah for one count of illegal voting in violation of A.R.S. § 16-1061V(2) alleging that she “voted in the November 2, 2010 general election in both Mohave County Arizona and Adams County Colorado”.
- Justice Department Admonished in Immigration CaseAt oral argument Friday, July 24 in Pasadena, Ninth Circuit Judge Kim Wardlaw admonished a United States Department of Justice attorney for citing a recent Los Angeles Times article entitled, Sex offender accused of assaulting teen was in U.S. illegally.
- Odor of Marijuana Alone Not Enough for Warrant in ArizonaIn an important new split decision, State v. Sisco, the Arizona Court of Appeals held that odor of marijuana alone is not enough to support a search warrant.
- United States v. ChanLast week, in an important ruling, a divided panel of the 9th Circuit in United States v. Chan held that post-conviction relief is available where an immigrant establishes that s/he entered a guilty plea, even decades earlier, on the strength of criminal defense attorney’s affirmative mis-advice about a broadened range of immigration consequences, not just deportation.
- Arizona Court of Appeals Upholds Consent Blood DrawArizona law contains the legal fiction that anyone driving an automobile within the state of Arizona (even on private property) has “consented” to having their blood drawn, if an officer has “reason to believe” the person is “above the legal limit” (.08 BAC). This is true for people who don’t know about the law and have never actually consented. This law allows the police to obtain blood without a warrant.
- Five Surprising Ways You Can Lose Your Driver’s License in Arizona without Ever DrivingIntroduction Phoenix, the beating heart of the desert– integral to its anatomy is a special closed circulatory system of arterial freeways: the antecubital 101 connecting the fingers of North Scottsdale with the armpit of South Mesa; the femoral 202 linking the valley foot at Queen Creek with its crown at Cave Creek; the 303, pavement […]
- DUI and Anonymous TipsUS Supreme Court case Navarette v. California, gives police more leeway to stop a driver solely on the basis anonymous tip of a single instance of bad driving, even where the police themselves follow a vehicle and see only good driving.
- “Sniffing Out Crime”: Rodriguez and DUI InvestigationsThe guardians are similar to the dog “‘[i]n that it (the dog and analogously the guardians) distinguishes friendly from hostile looks by nothing other than by having learned the one and being ignorant of the other’” ( Plato—the Republic, 376b). Today, the police “canine partner,” a guardian on a leash, possesses, as the police would […]
- Ninth Circuit News You Can UseIn the last few months the United States Court of Appeals in San Fransisco has issued several decisions that are particularly helpful to us down here in Arizona. Today I want to talk about two of my favorites, which provide us with some fresh ammo in jury trials. Both involve specific issues which come up over and over in our DUI, domestic violence, and other criminal jury trials down here.
- Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse: Except if You are a Police Officer2014 was a year punctuated by populist and somewhat incendiary citizen outrage, justified or not, over police wielding of (what some see as unbridled) power, ignited by at least three nationally publicized deaths of unarmed young men of color, and their subsequent and expedient legal exonerations by Staten Island and St. Louis County Grand Juries. In short, in 2014, the police seemed to act with impunity and immunity. And the legal system seemed to protect them.