Chicago Criminal Defense Lawyers Blog

Technological advancements have led to new products which police are using all over the country to fight crime. Police television shows have introduced many of us to cool new gadgets but while the TV shows are make believe, the real world also offers many new and interesting bits of information.  Here’s just a few of them: The Robotic Camera:  When its too dangerous to have a police officer go check out a scene, the police can just send in a remote control car with a camera that can be used to check out what is happening.  In the old days the police would send in a police dog, but that could cause the dog to be killed.  The robotic camera can be used outside, such as to be sent underneath a vehicle to see if a bomb has been placed underneath.  Or inside such as when the police want to make sure that nobody is waiting for them inside a house when they try to serve a search warrant.  The robotic cameras cost about $9,000 and their use is spreading. Gunsho...

The Chicago Police Department now posts online the picture and the approximate address of the people who were arrested in Chicago for prostitution related charges – the pictures are removed 30 days after the arrest. See: www.chicagopolice.org/ps/list.aspx. In the last 30 days, 53 people have been arrested for paying or being paid for “love.” The ancient Greeks gave the definition of love four meanings to capture the different “love” relationships we have among us. They are: 1) Agápe; 2) Phillia; 3) Storge and 4) Eros.Agape refers to true love, such as the love a husband has for his wife. Phillia refers to the love one has for a friend. Storge refers to the love of affections. And last but not least, Eros means erotic or sensual love after the Greek God Eros of love – thus the term, erotic. Almost all of the folks posted online were looking for the God Eros and could only find him if they paid for it – an unfortunate situation. To think of...

The United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear an especially interesting 5th Amendment Double Jeopardy case.  Not especially interesting because of the legal issue, but especially interesting because of how clear the 5th Amendment violation was.  Now the facts of the case are not very pleasant.  Alex Blueford had been charged in Arkansas with the murder of his girlfriend’s 19 month old child.  Prosecutors alleged that Blueford hit the 19 month old so hard that his eyes bled and brain swelled so much that he died.  Blueford admitted that he had struck the child with his elbow but only by accident after the child startled him from behind. He also admitted that he lied to hospital personnel because he was afraid that they would not believe him. After 4 1/2 hours of deliberations the jury sent a note to the judge that they were having trouble deciding on the capital murder charge.  The jury wen...

Kevin Keith is set to be executed by lethal injection in Ohio on September 15.  Keith is claiming that he is innocent.  While there’s nothing unusual about his proclamation, what is unusual is the growing support in the legal community for his claims.  Prosecutors allege that on February 13, 1994, Keith murdered three people because he believed that they had informed on him to police investigating his illegal drug sales.  One of the murder victims was a 4 year old girl.  Several witnesses testified against Keith at trial and his attorneys did not produce any mitigating evidence at his sentencing hearing and he was sentenced to the death penalty.  A closer look at Keith’s case offers some good reasons why a new trial or commutation of his death sentence may be warranted.  Some 31 former judges and prosecutors are supporting Keith’s claims.  At his trial, the police had mentioned that a witn...

Efforts are underway in Illinois to change the way DNA evidence in rape cases is processed.  The Chicago Tribune conducted an exhaustive investigation of the problems associated with the Illinois State Police Crime Lab and discovered that many rape kits were not being tested.  A rape kit allows a nurse or a doctor to collect semen, saliva and other potential sources of DNA samples from victims.  The process of securing the DNA evidence can take up to 8 hours but the results can be very powerful.  The results may link an offender to a crime or even exonerate a suspect.  Even when rape kits are submitted to the crime lab, the lab sometimes refused to conduct any testing and returned them to the police agency.  At least 88 rape kits were found to have been returned to the Chicago Police untested.  On February 1, 2010, we published a post describing how ...

Attorney Sergei Lemberg is a nationally recognized expert in consumer law who has earned a reputation as a tireless consumer advocate.  Mr. Lemberg is an expert in lemon law (www.lemonjustice.com), fair debt collection practices (www.stopcollector.com), and other areas of consumer law (www.lemberglaw.com)  As a service to our readers and our clients, we have invited him to post the following blog:In today’s economy, bill collectors are out for blood, doing everything they can to squeeze every last dime out of consumers.  Like vultures, debt collectors know that you are vulnerable, and they circle around, waiting for an opening to strike.  A bill collector will use a variety of tactics – some legal and some illegal – to break a person’s spirit, to incite panic, and to make him or her take desperate measures to make the harassment stop.  Debt collection agencies count on the fact that most consumers don’t know the difference between legal and illegal tact...

This week, the United States Supreme Court announced which cases it will be considering in the upcoming Fall Term. In the backdrop of this announcement is the fact that a new Justice, Judge Sotomayor, will be taking her seat, and speculation that Justice John Paul Stevens could be retiring at any time. We first posted a post discussing the speculation surrounding his retirement on September 2, 2009. To read that post click here. The addition of Sotomayor is not expected to change the philosophical balance on the court.  But the expectations for this term surround the cases that the Supreme Court has agreed to decide. Below you will find a brief synopsis of the interesting cases the Supreme Court has agreed to consider. Guns and the Second Amendment: This case promises to get the greatest attention. On Wednesday the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case involving a challenge to Chicago’s ban on&nb...

On April 21, 2009, we published an article about the Supreme Court’s decision in Arizona v. Gant.  In this case, The Supreme Court severely limited police officers power to search vehicles after an arrest. In Arizona v. Gant, the defendant had been pulled over for a traffic violation.  The police officer determined that he did not have a valid license and placed him under arrest.  The defendant was handcuffed and placed in the back of the police vehicle. The officer then searched the vehicle and discovered a gun and drugs. The Supreme Court ruled that the search of the vehicle was unreasonable and ruled that the evidence seized in the search had to be suppressed. The court held that in order for the police to search the vehicle the defendant had to be close enough to the vehicle as to pose a risk that he could grab a weapon out of the car or that the police had a reasonable belief tha...