Brown & Little, P.L.C. » Entries tagged with "motion"
Justice v. Efficiency
The criminal justice system is broken. Many judges are little more than prosecutors in robes. The courts fuss and fume when you need an extra week or two to make a decision. They push you into whatever plea comes your way. In Phoenix City Court, you usually spend the pretrial stages in front of a single judge. After you decide to fight it, though, they shuffle you elsewhere. The order says you’ll be going to trial in thirty days, but the court struggles to get you in front of a judge in sixty. You won’t know which judge you’ll get for fifty-nine. When everyone assumed you’d plead, they rushed you to a decision. After they realized you were going to fight, they stretched it out as long … Read entire article »
Thanks for the Heads-Up!
Yesterday morning, I was supposed to have an MVD hearing. An issue came up with my client being able to attend, however, so I faxed in a motion to continue. I called the MVD and confirmed they received it. It was somewhat last minute, but they had plenty of time to make a decision. Although they surely could have, the MVD didn’t bother calling me Wednesday to let me know what was going to happen with yesterday’s hearing. Instead, they left me a voice message at my office well before business hours yesterday morning in a voice mailbox for an extension that I’m not even sure how they reached. The message said the motion was denied and the hearing was going to proceed as scheduled. I ended … Read entire article »
Filed under: MVD Hearings
Looking Foolish
There’s an experienced judge in a nearby jurisdiction who won’t rule in advance on whether he will allow the parties to ask their proposed voir dire questions. His position, which he makes very clear, is that he will rule on the questions when they’re actually asked. He isn’t kidding. If the state objects after you ask it, he rules. The opposite is also true. Otherwise, you can ask whatever you want. No ruling. It makes submitting your questions pointless, though every other judge in the jurisdiction orders you to do it in advance. I once asked him in chambers why he does it that way, and he said it was because he thought the parties should be bright enough to know what they can … Read entire article »
We're Gonna Need a Motion for That
Of all the people in the criminal justice system, aside from the actual defendants, private defense lawyers are usually in the worst position to get anything done. We don’t get full access to court information. We can’t access the county or city email directories. We don’t have offices in the same building as the judges. In most courts, we can’t even bypass security. We stand in line with our clients and watch the prosecutors walk to the front of the line, swipe their badges, and glide on through. Despite our lack of access and resources, courts are more than happy to shift the burden of completing various tasks to us every opportunity they get. In some courts, we’re obligated to file transport orders for clients … Read entire article »
Filed under: Courts
That's Him!
I seem to be taking on a lot more cases with major identification issues as of late. As a result, I’ve been preparing quite a few Dessureault motions. In Arizona, a Dessureault motion is what lawyers call a motion challenging an unduly suggestive pretrial identification procedure. Because an unduly suggestive photo or in-person lineup can mean that a witness misidentifies the defendant not merely at the time of the lineup but also at trial, the case law requires that the trial court hold a hearing to determine whether the pretrial identification process was unduly suggestive. At that hearing, the state bears the burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that the process was not unduly suggestive. It might seem like the law is relatively pro-defendant in … Read entire article »
Filed under: Arizona Cases
Should Be an Interesting Race
Tom Horne officially announced his candidacy for attorney general last week. No surprise there. Andrew Thomas will probably make his official decision soon. No surprise there either. What’s surprising is what I discovered reading about the race in this article. It looks like there’s a third lawyer seeking the Republican nomination for attorney general. That lawyer is none other than Tajudeen Oladiran, whom you may remember from this motion. I usually don’t pay much attention to elections, but with Taj and Andrew Thomas both competing for the GOP nomination, I think I may start following the race. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Uncategorized
More on Victim Interviews
I started responding to some comments on this post, but I ended up writing way too much for one little comment. No harm in putting up another post, right? Anyway, to give you some background (for those of you who don’t like reading blog comments), I brought up in a comment that A.R.S. § 13-4433(B) says “the defendant, the defendant’s attorney or an agent of the defendant shall only initiate contact with the victim through the prosecutor’s office.” Andrew Becke asked: “is there a way to initiate contact with the victim through a motion to the court, thus requiring the prosecutor to respond in a pleading that the victim doesn’t want to talk? That might enhance their desire to be honest.” My answer would be that there are a few … Read entire article »
Filed under: Arizona Cases, Victim's Rights
"Expunging"
People often call me to see if I can “expunge” an old criminal conviction for them. In Arizona, it’s called “setting aside” a conviction, and it’s a fairly simple process in most cases. Interestingly, it’s usually more difficult to seal a record of an arrest than it is to set aside a conviction. The only statutory provision on point merely permits a court to enter on the record that the person has been cleared and order that law enforcement agencies and courts no longer release the record. It seems a little strange to me that it takes more work to to seal a wrongful arrest than it does to set aside a rightful conviction. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Arizona Statutes
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