The Pennsylvania Superme Court has affirmed and adopted the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court’s 2007 decision in Marcavage v. Rendell, striking down Pennsylvania’s Ethnic Intimidation Law, 18 Pa.C.S. 2710. The ethnic intimidation law was struck down as a violation of Article III, Section 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which requires that “[n]o law shall be passed except […]
Archives for August 2008
Court Finds Exceptions to Search Warrants
Under Pennsylvania jurisprudence, the searches and seizures clause of Article 1, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution requires a search warrant for the search and seizure of an automobile unless the police have probable cause and exigent circumstances. In Commonwealth v. Copeland, 2008 Pa. Super. 180 (2008), decided this month, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania […]
Consent to Search Invalidated By Police Conduct
The Pennsylvania Superior Court in Commonwealth v. Moyer, 2008 Pa. Super. 173 (2008), holds a consent to search person and car vitiated as involuntary due to coercive circumstances. The relevant facts of the case are as follows: Two state troopers noticed the defendant’s car with one tail light with a hole in the cover, exposing […]
What to Know About Pre-Arrest Silence
You have the right to remain silent at any time. In a recent opinion by the Pennsylvania Superior Court, Commonwealth v. Lettau, 2008 Pa. Super. 152 (2008), the Court held that a prosecutor’s repeated references during direct examination of an investigating officer and during cross-examination of defendant’s pre-arrest silence violates his 5th Amendment right to […]
Criminal Lawyer Update: Jurors, Wake Up!
Ok, pay attention. Simply making a note on the record of a juror sleeping during trial or jury charge will not preserve the issue of whether the juror’s sleeping deprived a defendant of the right to a jury trial by 12 of his peers on appeal, according to the latest case on the issue in […]