Criminal Defense

On Thanksgiving 2009, James K. killed his wife and two teen daughters. In his defense, the man had been under substantial stress. Several months earlier, his wife had left him and taken the children with her. Also that year, James had lost his job and been forced to move in with his parents. Did...

We have all seen some so-called psychology tests that aren’t worth the time spent to take them. They appear in magazines or online quizzes. They aren’t intended to diagnose mental health problems. They’re meant for fun, or whatever insight you may find.  There have been a lot of psychological tests over the decades, and...

As protests continue across the U.S. and even globally, many experts have come forward with ideas for how to improve the criminal justice system so that it isn’t so unfair to people of color. Harsh police tactics, over-policing in minority neighborhoods, racial profiling and other issues have brought us to a point where it’s...

When a 15-year-old boy said that Pamela Kay Coke had sexually assaulted him, he alleged that it had occurred in November 2018. He even showed the police text messages from the woman, including one that seemed like an apology. When the police contacted Coke at her office, they were very polite. They made it...

Since spring, millions of Colorado residents have made the transition to working from home. Officials with the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) predicted that fatal accidents would drop correspondingly. However, the opposite is true. To the consternation and concern of the public, fatalities have increased by 20 percent. According to CDOT, distracted driving is...

Facing an arrest of any type is a nerve-wracking experience, but if it’s your first offense, you may also have many questions regarding what will happen to you. Will you face jail time? Will you lose your license or your job? If you are a student, you may worry about losing a scholarship or...

For many college students who are on the brink of finishing school, applying for jobs and landing interviews can be a rather daunting prospect. For those who were convicted of a crime before or during their time in college, the idea of looking for jobs can be even scarier. It is important to know...

You probably assumed that a unanimous jury was required for a criminal conviction, but the truth is that two states had allowed non-unanimous juries in criminal cases. Louisiana and Oregon were the hold-out states, and Louisiana changed its constitution to require unanimous juries in 2018. However, people who were convicted by non-unanimous juries did...

A Gainesville, Florida, man got a surprising email from Google in January. The company wanted him to know that local police were seeking information about his Google account and that they would release that information to the police unless the man went to court and blocked the request within seven days. It turns out...

Many common forensic evidence-gathering techniques are less reliable than you may have been led to believe by “CSI.” In fact, some of them appear to have little scientific basis. In 2009, the National Academy of Sciences issued a report on the state of forensic science in U.S. courts. It found that “[w]ith the exception...