Legal

Both Jeff Gamso and Scott Greenfield have written about Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Mark Dwyer’s opinion in People v. Collins discussing the admissibility of a certain type of DNA analysis in a criminal case. Since I have an amateur's interest in both science and criminal law, I thought it might be interesting to read the actual opinion.Surprisingly, despite the … [Read more...] about An Attempt to Explain High Sensitivity Analysis in Collins

Scott Greenfield has an interesting post about how much computerized data the government is allowed to seize when serving a warrant. Current practice is to seize it all and do whatever they want with it. Orin Kerr had proposed allowing the government to continue to seize all the data but putting restrictions on the use of that data so that only data responsive to the warrant … [Read more...] about Better Data Seizure in the Digital World

There's an interesting bit of detail in this post about legal tech from Brian Tannebaum, talking about the policies governing electronic devices brought into the courtroom: In the Southern District of New York, you can bring in one device, but if you are not a member of the SDNY Bar, you have to file a motion to bring in your one device. Pick your poison - cell phone, iPad, … [Read more...] about A Rule Made To Be Broken

Over at a public defender, Gideon has posted his second attempt to create a jury instruction for the meaning of "reasonable doubt," based on feedback he got from his first attempt, which has a lot of interesting comments.The discussion is far too technical for me to contribute to, for reasons that Scott Greenfield spells out when describing an attempt he was involved … [Read more...] about Return to the Planet of Reasonable Doubt

Professor Jonathan Oberman from the Cardozo School of Law has a great opinion piece in the New York Law Journal about the two lawyers who were forced to resign as a result of the Bronx Defenders' "Hands Up" kerfuffle. These lawyers are smart, committed and hardworking, and have earned their clients', their community's, and this city's trust as a consequence of their dedication … [Read more...] about Reviewing the Charges Against the Bronx Defenders