A Belated Review of the 2015 Criminal Law Quiz
by: Ryan • May 8, 2016 • no comments
The 2015 Criminal Law Quiz is here.
The good news: the questions on the improper joinder demurrer (State v. Poston) and the mental state for UUV (State v Simonov) were answered favorably for the defense.
The non-news: no new opinions on Grand Jury notes or child porn sentencing issues. Will we get new opinions on those topic this year? Out of six cases (that I knew of) where the appellate briefs raised the issue of the failure to turn over Grand Jury notes, five were AWOP'd. One is outstanding, but the GJ notes issue wasn't the only one, so there's no guarantee it will be reached on the merits.
Meanwhile, at the trial level, most judges still rely on prosecutors to reassure them that there was nothing exculpatory in the Grand Jury notes, even in cases where the witness told one thing to the police and something different on the witness stand.. In other words, judges are still forsaking their responsibilities. But I think this will change, as soon as we get one decent appellate decision. But appellate judges aren't all that interested either. Still, I have hope. It is so obviously wrong that defendants are being denied evidence of the most effective tool of cross-examination: the inconsistent statement. But it's a tricky issue to preserve: keep at it, and the COA will get it right eventually.
As for the child porn sentencing issues, the two primary sentencing issues discussed in the criminal law quiz have been preserved in a couple of cases, and I expect the COA will reach the issues eventually, if not this year then within the next two.
I hope to publish the 2016 quiz soon. As always, it's simply a vehicle to highlight open legal questions, and this year at least, we had a pretty good batting average.
