If you are charged with a crime and are required to submit to testing so that authorities can collect relevant evidence against you, chances are that it is a crime lab that will analyze the samples you provide. The same could be said for investigations geared towards...
If you have ever been asked by the police to answer questions in the investigation of a crime, you may think that talking to investigators will be okay. After all, the police will make it seem like having a conversation is nothing to worry about, especially if they...
Because cell phones, laptops and tablets are ubiquitous within our society, many criminal investigations involve the seizure and search of electronic devices. In some cases, the right to canvass private devices for information is obvious, but in others, law...
As we near the Independence Day holiday weekend, we feel it prudent to revisit the question of whether drivers stopped on suspicion of drunk driving should take field sobriety tests.So many people submit to the tests thinking that they are okay to drive, and they...
Over the past few years, more police departments have embraced the use of body cameras which create video footage of encounters with the public. The interest in these devices is ostensibly based on the public’s desire to have more accountability with policing....
After nearly five years of criminal justice reform regarding drug crime prosecutions and sentencing, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions appears to be rolling back such efforts. According to a recent Atlantic.com report, Sessions has instructed federal prosecutors...
A Michigan family is facing criminal charges after throwing a high school party and allegedly selling alcohol to the guests. This story shows how people can find themselves charged with a crime after apparently showing poor judgment.Teenage party hosts According to...
When the state of Michigan legalized medical marijuana in 2008, it forgot to set up a system for opening and operating dispensaries. After a state supreme court ruling that marijuana dispensaries were not legal businesses, many dispensaries closed, either voluntarily...
The old saying tells us “ignorance of the law is no excuse.” On the other hand, if there are so many laws that we can break one without even knowing it, there may be cause for concern.The Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Michigan think tank, believes...
In Michigan, a criminal trial cannot proceed if the defendant is mentally incapable of participating in his or her own defense. The defendant’s mental abilities are often in dispute at trial.For example, the attorney for a Flint woman charged with arson in...