People v. State

fairly undermining public confidence in the administration of justice
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Archive for the ‘Jamison Koehler’

Gratuitous Violence

June 19, 2011 By: John Kindley Category: Castle Doctrine, Cops, Double Jeopardy, Jamison Koehler, Judges, Prosecutors, Rule of Lenity, Self-Defense, Tyrus Coleman

Jamison Koehler cites Ashe v. Swenson (1970) as currently his favorite U.S. Supreme Court case. In a comment on his post I wrote: “If you like Ashe, you might also like Yeager. Until recently these used to be my favorite U.S. Supreme Court cases too.”

What recently changed my mind about these cases is the Indiana Supreme Court’s decision in Tyrus Coleman v. State (2011), and the utter failure of these cases to do Mr. Coleman (whom I represented at trial) any good. Now when I read Yeager the only significant thing about the case seems to me to be the fact that the defendant, Mr. Yeager, was an Enron executive.

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I’m as American as apple pie.

April 29, 2011 By: John Kindley Category: Admission & Discipline of Attorneys, Freedom of Speech, Jamison Koehler, Judges

In the blog post by Jamison Koehler that I wrote about here, Jamison remarked:

Six or so months ago I wrote about the malleability of truth at trial.  While I have since taken down this blog entry on the advice of Virginia bar counsel, I continue to believe that the objective truth is rarely, if ever, introduced at trial.

I commented:

If Virginia bar counsel advised you to take down a blog entry “about the malleability of truth at trial,” and you acted on such advice, I’m probably not long for this profession based on many of my own blog entries. Yet, believe it or not, I believe everything I’ve written is protected by the First Amendment, and don’t go out of my way to court trouble, and do give some thought to whatever uncertain and slippery line might be out there in the ether. It seems the real danger area is appearing to call into question the “integrity” of a specific judge, which I try to steer clear of. The rules of professional conduct, at least in my state, forbid making a “statement that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge.” Supposedly, though, we’re still allowed to criticize judicial decisions. But doesn’t any such criticism — to the degree it asserts the decision is contrary to the law and/or the facts — implicitly concern either the qualifications or the integrity of the judge(s) making the decision?

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Accepting Responsibility

April 16, 2011 By: John Kindley Category: Jamison Koehler, Jeff Gamso, Punishment, Trial Tax

Jamison Koehler has an interesting post up On the Defendant’s Acceptance of Responsibility at Sentencing. I weighed in with a comment, observing:

“Punishing” a defendant for refusing to “accept responsibility” by admitting guilt is completely out of line. It is, however, appropriate to “reward” a defendant who saves the state the trouble and expense of trial by pleading guilty. A guilty-in-fact defendant might internally be genuinely remorseful for what he’s done — but this laudable spiritual attitude doesn’t mean he’s morally bound to accept as a good thing the expiation of his sins the state has in mind for him. The state — quite appropriately — commonly calls into question the sincerity of any remorse expressed by the defendant at sentencing, and argues that the defendant is “sorry” he got caught. We’d all be better off if the “acceptance of responsibility” charade was taken completely off the table.

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  • "[T]here is just nothing wrong with telling the American people the truth." - Allen v. United States

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