The role of police departments is to protect public safety and enforce the criminal laws of Georgia. When police are provided with incentives to make arrests and facilitate convictions, it can create a situation in which their judgment is improperly influenced. More and more frequently however, Georgia police departments are relying on vehicles, weapons and […]

The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees criminal defendants effective assistance of counsel. This right to assistance of counsel has long been understood to include not only the trial itself, but also other “critical” stages of the proceedings. The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday ruled that the plea bargaining phase also entails a right to effective […]

A primary goal of almost every business executive is to increase the value of their company. Corporate vice-presidents and others use their business judgment to increase profits and decrease costs. This effort can take many forms, including staffing and product development decisions, as well as marketing campaigns and strategic partnerships. Occasionally these efforts draw the […]

Common sense indicates that a person who is being held in prison is basically always in state custody. But for purposes of criminal interrogation and Miranda warnings, the U.S. Supreme Court says this is not the case. In fact, even when a prisoner is pulled from the general population and questioned for five to seven […]

Most people have a good sense of what is involved in a criminal trial. The burden is on the prosecution to demonstrate that the suspect is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The suspect is presumed to be innocent of the crime. A federal appeal in a criminal case is quite different. After a person has […]