San Jose Criminal Defense Law Blog

John Edwards' defense team will be spending the next few days cross-examining the prosecution's key witness, former aide Andrew Young. The defense today has been working to portray the former employee of Edwards as opportunistic and lacking in credibility. Young worked for Edwards during his presidential campaign and covered for Edwards to try to keep the news from the public that Edwards was having an extra-marital affair with a campaign videographer and fathered a child with his mistress.

Edwards is facing six federal criminal charges related to campaign finance violations. It is unusual to be charging Edwards with crimes versus enforcing civil penalties for the violations. Edwards has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Young was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony against Edwards, another opportunity the defense is likely to point out.

Bobby Brown will not have to serve time in jail for his recent DUI. Brown was pulled over by law enforcement officers on March 26 in California for talking on his cellphone. After he was pulled over, the police officer suspected he was driving under the influence and administered field sobriety tests, which Brown failed.

The singer was charged with misdemeanor driving under the influence. He pleaded no contest on Wednesday and was sentenced to three years' probation. He was also sentenced to a day in jail, but he had already served that time in jail and was given credit for time served. He could have faced up to a year in county jail.

John Edwards' federal criminal trial for alleged campaign finance violations in his 2008 presidential campaign has begun. The former presidential candidate is accused of improperly accepting and using unreported campaign contributions in order to avoid a scandal involving an extramarital affair and a child born to his mistress. Edwards allegedly used significant money from two wealthy donors to pay for the living expenses of his pregnant mistress.

Edwards has pleaded not guilty to six white collar crime charges. He could face up to 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines if convicted. Edwards and his defense attorneys maintain that the money given to Edwards was not campaign contributions but was meant to be gifts.

Other posts on this blog have discussed how the death investigation system in the U.S. contains many troubling flaws that could lead to the wrongful prosecution and wrongful conviction of innocent people for serious violent crimes, such as murder, sex crimes and child abuse.

The journalists at ProPublica have been investigating the death investigation system and have noted in many articles on their website the ways in which the death investigation system may lead to faulty conclusions by forensic pathologists, coroners and medical examiners and could lead to innocent people ending up behind bars.

The governor of California recently commuted the sentence of a grandmother who had been convicted of felony child endangerment in the death of her grandson. There was debate in the coroner's office about how the child had died. Some said it was shaken baby syndrome, but others said there was not enough evidence to conclude that the grandmother had abused the baby.

As discussed in the previous post, a California grandma who was convicted of felony child abuse in the death of her grandson in 1996 is seeking clemency and the commutation of her sentence from Governor Jerry Brown.

The woman was released after spending a decade behind bars when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned her conviction because the court believed that the medical evidence in the case did not prove violent abuse caused the child's death. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, overturned the lower court's decision because they believed the 9th Circuit overstepped its authority by overturning a jury's decision.

The grandmother who was convicted of felony child endangerment in her grandson's death more than a decade ago, is facing possible return to prison, but new evidence has been brought forward that questions her conviction. The investigative news agency, ProPublica, has closely followed the woman's story and provided updates on their website of the newest twist in the case. 

A senior pathologist who works in the Los Angeles county coroner's office has said that he believes after reviewing the evidence in the baby's death that the baby was not killed by being shaken or abused. The pathologist noted that the baby did not show other signs of violence or abuse.

The pathologist believed that blood found pooled on the baby's brain was minor and could have been caused by a birth injury. He also thought the baby may have suffocated because he was sleeping face down on an couch cushion, which is not a safe surface for a sleeping baby or a safe way for a baby to sleep.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently made a decision that affects the privacy rights of people under arrest. The Supreme Court justices ruled that prison guards have the right to strip search any inmate, regardless of the offense.

The man whose case was specifically heard before the Supreme Court had been arrested after he was pulled over by law enforcement officers because they believed he had an unpaid traffic fine. The man was subjected to two strip searches and was jailed for six days before it was discovered that he had already paid the traffic fine before he was arrested.

Civil liberties groups are concerned that the case reduces the protections of the Fourth Amendment from unreasonable search and seizure. The man had originally sued the county jail where he had been arrested for violating his privacy rights with the humiliating strip search.

Actress Lindsay Lohan has finally completed her drawn-out DUI probation. The process took five years and was continually extended as Lohan violated the terms or failed to complete required education, but she is done now and happily so.

A judge in a California courtroom ruled that Lohan had obeyed the terms of her probation and her only terms are now to obey all laws until at least May 2014 when her informal probation for a 2011 jewelry theft case will end.

Lohan received good marks from her probation officer, which got her a Canadian work permit so that she can work on a Lifetime film about Elizabeth Taylor's life. She will play a young version of Taylor.