Eyewitness testimony—seen more as the staple of state court trials rather than federal, more often the subject of focus in criminal trials than in civil litigation—is, in fact, ubiquitous. For federal courts, it is involved in trials and in review of state court convictions, particularly on habeas. The prominence of eyewitness testimony, and the
In a world of Covid-19 infection, prisoners and pretrial detainees are out of sight and, to too many, out of mind. Perhaps in recognition of that phenomenon, the Philadelphia Bar’s Criminal Justice Section named Assistant Defender Thomas Innes as the recipient of its annual Thurgood Marshall Award. Mr. Innes is Director of Prisoner Services with
The below article is a guest-authored piece to which the host of this BLOG contributed. The other authors are Michael Cherry, Edward J. Imwinkelreid, Jack King, Philip Mause and Elven Riley. It identifies advances in two areas of science and raises concerns of what the consequences may be when science and technology advance but courts,
It is conventional wisdom that a story of actual innocence – there was no crime, the wrong person is on trial, the accused acted in self-defense – is the preferred modality in criminal cases. Why? An argument of ‘they can’t prove it beyond a reasonable doubt’ may come across like a schoolyard taunt – my
The stronger and more compelling the case against a criminal defendant, the more cohesive the picture of guilt painted by the prosecution in opening statement, the more defense counsel must have something coherent to say in response – an alternate story, a more complete story, or an attack on the veracity and integrity of the
It is rare if ever that a proffered expert will be deemed so unqualified as to be precluded from testifying. Why? The threshold for expertise is decidedly low. To use the Pennsylvania test, “[t]o qualify as an expert witness, a witness need only have a reasonable pretension to specialized knowledge, on a subject for which expert
Do mask-wearing witnesses deprive criminal defendants of their right of Confrontation? Does impairing the ability of jurors and lawyers to fully assess ‘demeanor’ result in less reliable trials? Can jury selection be fair of prospective jurors’ faces are covered? Or is this all a Shakespearean “much ado about nothing” because we – the great majority
Does science support a firearms and toolmark expert from saying anything more than that “the firearm may have fired the recovered casing…? Not ‘it came from this gun and no other,’ or ‘casings from the crime scene and from test fires of the suspect’s gun match,’ but a much more calibrated and restricted conclusion, evidence that is
We live in a time where every action we take, every premise we rely on, warrants scrutiny through the prisms of race and implicit bias. This reckoning, long overdue for too many individuals and institutions, was brought about by the murder by police of George Floyd and the consequent outpouring of grief, rage and commitment.
Judging the immorality of the four police officers charged with the death of George Floyd is easy. Mr. Floyd was handcuffed and on the ground, with four armed officers over him. All the police had to do was listen and stop – he would still be handcuffed, he would still be unable to harm them;