Kish & Lietz, P.C.

Swear to God, same thing happened to me! Go to a party on a Saturday night, cops bust in, homeowner claims to "know nothing", everybody gets busted and goes down to the police station. Officers make arrests for trespassing, since the homeowner dummies up. That is basically the fact pattern from District of Columbia v. Westby, to be argued in the Supreme Court soon. [ 405 more words ]

Party Time: D.C. v. Westby in the U.S. Supreme Court Swear to God, same thing happened to me! Go to a party on a Saturday night, cops bust in, homeowner claims to "know nothing", everybody gets busted and goes down to the police station. ...

I happen to like people like Rodney "Rod" Class, even if I often disagree with them. Some people call him a "gun nut." He refers to himself as a "constitutional bounty hunter." He likes his guns, and has a very healthy distrust of government. Rod's case will be argued late next week in the Supreme Court, and the main issue is whether a guilty plea waives a challenge to the constitutionality of the criminal offense to which the person entered a plea. [ 577 more words ]

Interesting People Have the Best Cases: Rod Class v. U.S. I happen to like people like Rodney "Rod" Class, even if I often disagree with them. Some people call him a "gun nut." He refers to himself as a "constitutional bounty hunter." He likes his ...

OK, those unfortunate souls who occasionally read this blog know that I like to go on about the intersection of the 18th Century language in our Bill of Rights (which includes such tremendous ideas like religious liberty, freedom of expression, the right to not incriminate oneself and the right to be free from unreasonable searches), with the world of smartphones, digital communications, and mountains of data for each person and incident that happens to be captured by some device or trove of information. [ 807 more words ]

Back to the Future: the Fourth Amendment in the Digital Age OK, those unfortunate souls who occasionally read this blog know that I like to go on about the intersection of the 18th Century language in our Bill of Rights (which includes such tremendous ...

Like the swallows returning each year to Capistrano, we are in the midst of the annual flight to Justice, when the U.S. Supreme Court decides which cases it will review at the beginning of its new year. On the first day when they announced several cases for review, the Supreme Court demonstrated that this "Term" will have a big impact on the type of constitutional issues that we regularly face when representing people or companies under investigation or being prosecuted for alleged crimes. [ 468 more words ]

Hold On To Your Constitutional Rights: The Supremes are Back! Like the swallows returning each year to Capistrano, we are in the midst of the annual flight to Justice, when the U.S. Supreme Court decides which cases it will review at the beginning of its ...

I got a notice recently that in a few weeks will be the 35th anniversary of the day I was sworn into the Bar as a lawyer. Also, I decided to look back at the history of this little blog, and discovered that soon after my 35th Bar anniversary we will pass the 10th anniversary of this "weblog" (which is how these little publications were originally known). [ 367 more words ]

https://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com/2017/05/anniversaries.html

Anniversaries I got a notice recently that in a few weeks will be the 35th anniversary of the day I was sworn into the Bar as a lawyer.  Also, I decided to look back at the history of this little blog, and ...

Here at beloved K&L we do a fair number of appeals in criminal cases, mostly in federal court but occasionally in the state court system. Winning an appeal in a criminal case is always hard, it takes lots of work to understand what happened in the lower court, it takes even more time and energy to figure out all the potential legal issues, and then it takes more time still to write, revise, refine and get the arguments down in a manner that is both correct yet easily understood. [ 584 more words ]

https://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com/2017/05/difficult-win-criminal-appeal-harmless-error-rule.html

Why it is Difficult to Win a Criminal Appeal: the Harmless Error Rule Here at beloved K&L we do a fair number of appeals in criminal cases, mostly in federal court but occasionally in the state court system. Winning an appeal in a criminal case is always hard, ...

My law partner Carl and I represent lots of people who are charged with federal crimes, both here in Atlanta and throughout the country. Each of us recently had cases where we believed that our clients were innocent. In each case, we also each faced federal prosecutors who aggressively went after our clients. All charges were dismissed recently against these clients, which leads to some thoughts as to why this happens in some cases but not in other situations. [ 598 more words ]

http://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com/2017/03/federal-criminal-cases-dismissed-thoughts.html

Federal Criminal Cases Dismissed: Some Thoughts My law partner Carl and I represent lots of people who are charged with federal crimes, both here in Atlanta and throughout the country.  Each of us recently had cases where we believed that our ...

Of all the rules governing criminal cases I have learned over the past 33 years, the Brady rule is the most troubling. Brady teaches that the government violates the due process rights of a criminal Defendant if the prosecution fails to reveal exculpatory evidence to the defense. Unfortunately, it is the prosecutor and the police who decide whether to turn over "exculpatory" evidence to the defense lawyer. [ 732 more words ]

http://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com/2017/02/brady-rule-fox-guards-henhouse.html

The Brady Rule: The Fox Guards the Henhouse Of all the rules governing criminal cases I have learned over the past 33 years, the Brady rule is the most troubling.  Brady teaches that the government violates the due process rights of a ...

Handling criminal cases, mostly in the federal courts in Atlanta, throughout Georgia, and in many other states, is how we spend most of our time, as anyone who reads this blog knows. The single biggest decision in most of our cases is whether the client should, or should not, plead guilty. Even when we are convinced that our client "did not do it", some clients don't have the resources or intestinal fortitude to fight the case all the way to the finish line. [ 571 more words ]

http://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com/2017/02/pleading-guilty-single-biggest-decision.html

Pleading Guilty: The Single Biggest Decision Handling criminal cases, mostly in the federal courts in Atlanta, throughout Georgia, and in many other states, is how we spend most of our time, as anyone who reads this blog knows. The single ...

The online Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the root word of "fascination" as "to transfix or hold spellbound by an irresistible power." Since 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States has on all least 13 occasions directly addressed various aspects of the federal gun crime found at 18 U.S.C. §924(c). A total of forty-three Supreme Court cases involve people convicted of this law, even if the issue did not directly involve the language of this statute. [ 568 more words ]

http://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com/2017/02/fascination-u-s-supreme-court-looks-federal-gun-law.html

Fascination: the U.S. Supreme Court Once Again Looks at Federal Gun Law The online Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the root word of "fascination" as "to transfix or hold spellbound by an irresistible power."  Since 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States has ...

As a criminal defense lawyer I often get questions as to whether there is a difference between a "regular" guilty plea and a "nolo" plea. Technically, the latter is from the Latin phrase, "nolo contendre", more or less translating into "no contest." A few days ago the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, where we handle lots of cases, issued an opinion discussing the "nolo" plea, its ramifications, and issued ruling as to when a prosecutor can make use of an earlier "no contest" plea. [ 513 more words ]

http://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com/2016/12/always-confusing-nolo-plea-comes-federal-criminal-case.html

The always confusing “nolo” plea comes up in a federal criminal case As a criminal defense lawyer I often get questions as to whether there is a difference between a "regular" guilty plea and a "nolo" plea.  Technically, the latter is from the Latin phrase, "nolo ...

Whether here in Atlanta or other places, Carl and I represent a lot of folks who eventually face a sentencing hearing at the end of a federal criminal case. Anyone whose spare time has brought them here knows that we chat about federal sentencing a lot, whether to analyze or to criticize how it is applied. But whether we are analysts or critics, we always recognize that the topic remains one of the hottest subjects in the United States Supreme Court. [ 580 more words ]

http://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com/2016/11/federal-criminal-sentences-still-hot-topic-supreme-court.html

Federal Criminal Sentences Still a Hot Topic in the Supreme Court Whether here in Atlanta or other places, Carl and I represent a lot of folks who eventually face a sentencing hearing at the end of a federal criminal case.  Anyone whose spare time has brought ...