The Philadelphia Courts recently announced the deployment of six marked vehicles for the Adult Probation and Parole Department, which will be used by the Gun Court Unit. The Gun Court Unit supervises offenders who have a gun offense as their most serious crime. Update: The Philadelphia justice system continues to innovate over time. Learn more […]
Officer Background Not Enough to Establish Probable Cause
“Police training and experience, without more, is not a fact to be added to the [amount] of evidence to determine if probable cause exists…” The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has finally put it’s foot down on police officers’ end-run around having probable cause in making arrests for single narcotics transactions in Commonwealth v. Dunlap, 2007 Pa. […]
Bravo, New Jersey. Bravo.
Its not often that I get to say, “Bravo, New Jersey”, but it certainly appropriate now that New Jersey has abolished the death penalty. The draconian death penalty has reared its ugly head for thousands of years, in many jurisdictions, in many forms, and has never been proven to serve as a deterrent to murder. […]
Sucker Punch Causing Serious Bodily Injury Enough for Aggravated Assault?
A single sucker punch causing the victim to sustain serious bodily injury is enough for a case to go to trial on an aggravated assault charge. In Commonwealth v. Patrick, 933 A.2d 1043 (Pa. Super. 2007), an en banc Pennsylvania Superior Court issued an opinion, written by Judge Gantman, holding that where a defendant delivers […]
Casual Home Visitors Have a Reasonable Expectation of Privacy
A favorable cases for the defense this year is in the area of warrantless home searches in Commonwealth v. Arnold, 2007 PA Super 248, 932 A.2d 143 (Pa. Super. 2007). In Arnold, the police responded to a noise complaint from residents of the lower level of an apartment building. When the police were finished speaking […]