Criminal Defense

Should You Represent Yourself On A Criminal Matter?

https://youtu.be/W_8Hbqdsw1E By Greg Smith posted in Criminal Defense on Friday, June 17, 2016 “Watch and listen whether it’s a good idea to represent yourself on a criminal matter. Beware of things such as upsetting the prosecutor and being charged with witness tampering. Remember, the legal system is often not intuitive. If something is simple, you …

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Criminal Intent – The Necessary Mental State Known As MENS REA

In Utah, jurors cannot assume that just because you did something, you did it with criminal intent. In other words, let’s assume you raise your arms to yawn, and hit somebody in the nose while doing it, and then, that person’s nose starts to be bleed. Is this an automatic assault? Well, any Kindergartener knows …

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Factors for challenging a photo lineup that is overly suggestive

In June of 2015, the Tenth Circuit addressed photo-lineups again. They said that determining whether a photo lineup is overly suggestive the Court has to consider various factors: the size of the array [how many people are in the lineup], the manner of its presentation [did the police make it obvious whom they wanted the …

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Utah Court: Defendant Prejudiced by Jury Instruction

A Utah appeals court recently overturned the theft conviction of the Utah man, citing an erroneous jury instruction. The defendant was Joseph Brandon Crowley, who was convicted of receiving stolen property and theft by deception. Investigators say that Crowley pawned an iPod which had been stolen from a car two weeks earlier. The owner of …

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Zoo comparison did not violate a defendant’s rights

Prosecutors have a wide latitude in making closing arguments. Although name calling is not an admirable or officially condoned style of argument, appellate courts in Utah have been reluctant to find a prosecutor’s name calling to be a ground for reversing a criminal conviction. One Utah defendant recently attempted to have his conviction overturned on …

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Court: ‘Red Herring’ comments did not violate a Utah defendant’s rights

A Utah appeals court recently ruled that a prosecutor’s characterization of a defense counsel’s argument as a “red herring” did not amount to prosecutorial misconduct. Prosecutorial misconduct during closing arguments occurs when a prosecutor’s statements during a closing statement violate a defendant’s rights by, for example, calling the jurors’ attention to matters which they are …

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