Why You Should Be Reading Library of Defense
by: Ryan • June 19, 2014 • no comments
As most of you know, I have pet legal issues that I promote through this blog and OCDLA conferences. Okay, sure, I have a lot of pet issues. I'm the cat lady of legal issues.
But if the appellate courts continue the way they have, I may run out of issues. In just the past year, we've had State v. Flores, where the court merged UUW and Felon in Possession because of the additional element of the gun minimum. Great case, and it opens the door to new merger arguments, but it's no longer a pet issue. It's decided. Then there was the recent reaffirmation of State v. Mallory, an issue I've been preaching about for a long, long time. In fact, it was the fourth topic I blogged about many years ago. And yesterday, an assault II conviction was reversed out of Lane County because the judge wouldn't let the defense attorney argue that defendants needed to know the dangerous weapon was in fact readily capable of causing serious physical injury. Those are three great opinions from which our clients will benefit.
I don't mention this simply out of vanity, although I can't say that isn't part of it. And lord knows some of my pet issues resolved ignominiously. But I want to remind everyone why they should take advantage of Library of Defense. Those wins that I just described weren't simply mentioned in a single blog post five years ago, so that you had no particular reason to have seen it or recall it when the issue first comes up. I have repeatedly returned to those issues, time and time again, and if you regularly read LoD (or better yet, made it your homepage), you would have seen them. And if you see them, you can take advantage of them.
If history is a guide, then some of the still-open issues that reappear regularly on this blog will be resolved in our favor. (I do think the codefendant demurrer has perhaps the best chance at making good law eventually at the COA and it is one that can reap perhaps greater dividends if you lose at the trial level.) So please, return to this blog regularly. Make it your homepage if you can, or subscribe so you get the blog posts in your in-box whenever they are posted. I don't suggest this to make your job harder. This blog is intended as a gift, no strings attached. It's to make your job and your life easier, and give you a few more wins than you might have otherwise. There aren't many things in life where that is true but this is one of them.
