Many people — not all, of course! — are celebrating Christmas today. I don’t want to rain on your Christmas parade, but as a criminal defense lawyer, writing on a criminal defense blog, on a criminal defense website, I would be remiss if I didn’t give you a little Christmas warning. Unlike a lot of my posts, it will be short — I promise — because I don’t really want to ruin your holiday cheer. You don’t want criminal charges for Christmas! Christmas Can Be Stressful For most everyone, Christmas is a time of happiness, joy, and peace. But for many, it can also be a time of great stress. Ev ..read more

First, I want to say that, on average, I think public defenders are better attorneys than private attorneys. There are definitely some counties I could name where that is not true. (Fresno, though, has a most-excellent Public Defender Office, and they’ve been meeting the needs of people and kicking ass bigtime for a while now!) If you want to know why I think that way about them, read my post called “Public Pretenders.” This article reminds me of the great innovative work public defenders do. It also reminded me of what I try to do differently in my office to provide what I hope is the best po ..read more

Vayamos al grano: CSAAS, o “Child Sexual Assault Accommodation Syndrome” (en inglés), es una mierda tan pura que ni siquiera merece la etiqueta “ciencia basura”. Es la pseudociencia del acoso sexual. Es astrología disfrazada de pruebas psicológicas válidas. Sus practicantes son como las tablas ouija que usan los fiscales para deletrear “C-O-N-V-I-C-C-I-Ó-N” y luego señalar a la persona acusada. Nota: Este artículo fue escrito originalmente por mí y publicado en mi sitio web en inglés el 29 de agosto de 2021 a las 2:34 pm. Por eso, los enlaces de este artículo le llevarán a artículos y páginas ..read more

The Daily Journal, a newspaper for the professedly-legal profession, reports that complaints about judges hit two records last year. I can’t link it, because it’s behind a paywall that even some attorneys cannot afford to pay. Many of you know that I have become quite critical of judges, as I’ve become less able to stomach their frequent refusal to actually apply the law, or legal reasoning. In fact, they usually work very hard not to apply the law, and do so using spurious reasoning. In most counties, it’s quite clear that they believe their job is to provide backup for prosecutors, who const ..read more

My work is hard, but at least often-enough rewarding. I work at leaving good tracks as I walk with the people who have hired me.  And every path is different. Because every person is different. The charges against them and the circumstances surrounding their cases are different. I have a few stories I carry as reminders to guide me. They’re variations on the Starfish Story. Like a lot of the meaningful stories that guide my life, the Starfish Story, and — obviously — this Lakota Proverb, did not originate with me, but I model my life, and my law practice, on them as ideals. I meditate on ..read more

Mi trabajo es duro, pero al menos a menudo gratificante. Trabajo para dejar buenas huellas al caminar con las personas que me han contratado. Porque las huellas que dejamos importan. Y cada camino es diferente. Porque cada persona es diferente. Los cargos que se les imputan y las circunstancias que rodean sus casos son diferentes. Tengo algunas historias que llevo como recordatorios para guiarme. Son variaciones de la Historia de la Estrella de Mar. Como muchas de las historias significativas que guían mi vida, la Historia de la Estrella de Mar y — obviamente — este Proverbio Lakota, no se ori ..read more

An article I was reading yesterday mentioned that from 1989 until the time the article was written in 2018, there were more than 2,000 exonerations. Aliza B. Kaplan and Janis C. Puracal, “It’s Not a Match: Why the Law Can’t Let Go of Junk Science” 81.3 Alb.L.Rev. 895, 921 (2018). Many of those people, like Mr. Maurice Hastings, lost massive chunks of their lives. In his case, 38 years. The sad part, as one news story stated, is that Hastings sought DNA testing in 2000, but at that time, the DA’s office denied the request. — J. Emilio Flores, “L.A. man wrongly imprisoned for 38 years declared ..read more

The Daily Journal is an erstwhile “newspaper” for attorneys who either have more money than G-d, or (like me) feel they have no choice but to go without necessary medications sometimes in order to pay for it. That said, I read it not because I want to, but because I feel that I have to. Among other things, the Journal is the source for the Daily Appellate Report, which publishes court opinions before you can find them (easily) anywhere else. The “news” portion of the Daily Journal varies greatly in value. Most of the time, you can read the entire paper in under 30 seconds. Because MOST of it i ..read more

I arrive at the end of another year. Another year of futilely fighting for a true justice system. I fight not for the kind of system that requires scare quotes around the word “justice” — because we, and particularly our judges, are scared of not satisfying bloodlusts — but for real justice. The kind that stops after some bad thing has happened, to think about how to make the world a better place, and then does what that takes. Even if vengeance is left to the Lord. Even if we never pay back evil with more evil. After another reminder, I come to argue in favor of futile fights. The Oligatory E ..read more

Lately, my practice pins me between a rock and a hard place. Perhaps more accurately, it pins me between a rock and my clients. The consequences of this are often delays, and distractions, that make it harder to do what I prize most in my practice: finding the time to care. I tell everyone who hires me: I can’t win every case, but I can care for people. I can do my best. And I can be there, both as a lawyer, and as a human being. While reading an article in the Washington Post, I was struck by how little time our society gives to professions where caring matters. [M]any patients define caring ..read more