If you’ve been charged with a crime, you may be feeling hopeless at the prospect of spending a certain amount of your future behind bars. However, while the law assigns certain penalties to certain types of crimes, there is still some flexibility for reducing...
Double jeopardy is an important protection to understand. Under the Fifth Amendment, an individual cannot be tried twice for the same crime. This means that if you went to trial and were acquitted, the prosecution can’t try the same case against you again. It...
Attractive people get the advantages in life. Statistically, they tend to land better jobs and earn higher salaries. But a recent study shows that attractive defendants also tend to win the sympathy from jurors more often than their unattractive counterparts.Legal...
If you’re ever detained by the police, it’s worth understanding the concept of reasonable suspicion and what it means to you.What is reasonable suspicion? A police officer may have reasonable suspicion if they believe you are acting suspiciously—in a...
You may be under the impression that the sentence a defendant receives in court is based on legal guidelines which attach a certain type of crime to a certain amount of prison time. That’s not entirely true. A mathematical tool is also used to determine...
If you were charged with a criminal offense and found guilty, it’s important to understand that a guilty verdict does not have to be the end of the road for you. Under some circumstances, you may be eligible to appeal the ruling—that is, to convince a...
DNA testing has played a huge role in how cases are tried and how defendants are convicted. Since this forensic analysis has been introduced into the trial process, it has shed light on a huge problem in our criminal justice system: the inaccuracy of eyewitness...
According to a recent study on demographic prison data from 2016, the U.S. Sentencing Commission discovered that black men receive 20 percent more prison time than white men for the same crime—even when the data is analyzed in terms of the offenders’...
Much has been said this year about President Trump's propensity to speak his mind, particularly through Twitter. His tweets have been fodder for controversy on things he likes (i.e. support for certain political candidates, his political relationship with China) as...
Much is said about the problems with our criminal justice system, especially its effect upon people of color and the poor. Those who cannot afford to post bail and go free until their next hearing date (or trial) are at a significant disadvantage when it comes to...
