Kish & Lietz, P.C.

OK, those unfortunate souls who occasionally read this blog know that I like to go on about the intersection of the 18th Century language in our Bill of Rights (which includes such tremendous ideas like religious liberty, freedom of expression, the right to not incriminate oneself and the right to be free from unreasonable searches), with the world of smartphones, digital communications, and mountains of data for each person and incident that happens to be captured by some device or trove of information. [ 807 more words ] https://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com//back-fut

Like the swallows returning each year to Capistrano, we are in the midst of the annual flight to Justice, when the U.S. Supreme Court decides which cases it will review at the beginning of its new year. On the first day when they announced several cases for review, the Supreme Court demonstrated that this "Term" will have a big impact on the type of constitutional issues that we regularly face when representing people or companies under investigation or being prosecuted for alleged crimes. [ 468 more words ] https://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com//hold-con

I got a notice recently that in a few weeks will be the 35th anniversary of the day I was sworn into the Bar as a lawyer. Also, I decided to look back at the history of this little blog, and discovered that soon after my 35th Bar anniversary we will pass the 10th anniversary of this "weblog" (which is how these little publications were originally known). [ 367 more words ] https://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com//annivers

Here at beloved K&L we do a fair number of appeals in criminal cases, mostly in federal court but occasionally in the state court system. Winning an appeal in a criminal case is always hard, it takes lots of work to understand what happened in the lower court, it takes even more time and energy to figure out all the potential legal issues, and then it takes more time still to write, revise, refine and get the arguments down in a manner that is both correct yet easily understood. [ 584 more words ] https://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com//difficul

My law partner Carl and I represent lots of people who are charged with federal crimes, both here in Atlanta and throughout the country. Each of us recently had cases where we believed that our clients were innocent. In each case, we also each faced federal prosecutors who aggressively went after our clients. All charges were dismissed recently against these clients, which leads to some thoughts as to why this happens in some cases but not in other situations. [ 598 more words ] http://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com//federal-c

Of all the rules governing criminal cases I have learned over the past 33 years, the Brady rule is the most troubling. Brady teaches that the government violates the due process rights of a criminal Defendant if the prosecution fails to reveal exculpatory evidence to the defense. Unfortunately, it is the prosecutor and the police who decide whether to turn over "exculpatory" evidence to the defense lawyer. [ 732 more words ] http://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com//brady-rul

Handling criminal cases, mostly in the federal courts in Atlanta, throughout Georgia, and in many other states, is how we spend most of our time, as anyone who reads this blog knows. The single biggest decision in most of our cases is whether the client should, or should not, plead guilty. Even when we are convinced that our client "did not do it", some clients don't have the resources or intestinal fortitude to fight the case all the way to the finish line. [ 571 more words ] http://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com//pleading-

The online Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the root word of "fascination" as "to transfix or hold spellbound by an irresistible power." Since 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States has on all least 13 occasions directly addressed various aspects of the federal gun crime found at 18 U.S.C. 924(c). A total of forty-three Supreme Court cases involve people convicted of this law, even if the issue did not directly involve the language of this statute. [ 568 more words ] http://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com//fascinati

As a criminal defense lawyer I often get questions as to whether there is a difference between a "regular" guilty plea and a "nolo" plea. Technically, the latter is from the Latin phrase, "nolo contendre", more or less translating into "no contest." A few days ago the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, where we handle lots of cases, issued an opinion discussing the "nolo" plea, its ramifications, and issued ruling as to when a prosecutor can make use of an earlier "no contest" plea. [ 513 more words ] http://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com//always-co

Whether here in Atlanta or other places, Carl and I represent a lot of folks who eventually face a sentencing hearing at the end of a federal criminal case. Anyone whose spare time has brought them here knows that we chat about federal sentencing a lot, whether to analyze or to criticize how it is applied. But whether we are analysts or critics, we always recognize that the topic remains one of the hottest subjects in the United States Supreme Court. [ 580 more words ] http://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com//federal-c

Here we go again, another federal criminal case which on appeal goes to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit here in Atlanta, and that court rejects the Defendant because the specific argument was not brought up in the trial court. We have written about this issue many times, the need for lawyers to anticipate issues and, more importantly, the need to "object" or " preserve" that issue. [ 555 more words ] http://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com//lawyers-f

A recent state court criminal case here in Atlanta is very similar to a federal criminal case we handled in Savannah last year. In each case, one person made a demand against another person, and the demand arose out of civil litigation. Prosecutors in each case alleged that the "demand" was actually the crime of "extortion." The recent case here in Atlanta was handled by our friend Brian Steel, who is an excellent lawyer. [ 466 more words ] http://www.georgiafederalcriminallawyerblog.com//criminal-