19.Jan.2012 NOLA Criminal Law Cycles On
For the second year running, NOLA Criminal Law is sponsoring the Hub Elite Cycling Team. The team, based in Athens, GA competes in elite level cycling events throughout the southeast. NOLA Criminal Law is proud to support and promote the sport of cycling, as well as to advocate for safe and responsible recreational/commuter cycling in [...]
03.Nov.2011 NOLA Mental Health Advocate Stepping Down
The New Orleans Police Department Crisis Unit is losing an important asset. Cecile Tebo, who has spent the last seven years working for the unit battling the city’s mental health crisis with little funding and only a small group of volunteers at her disposal, is stepping down. Who will now handle the nearly 300 calls [...]
13.Sep.2011 Premature Adjudication
The framers of the Constitution dealt with and were determined to prevent the tactics of tyranny. The Bill of Rights reflects this in that every mandate benefits the individual, usually by forcing government to follow strict procedures to protect these rights. When they wrote the Sixth Amendment guaranteeing a speedy trial, their intent wasn’t to [...]
02.Aug.2011 From Bike Theft to Murder?
Recently I read an article in the Times Picayune which got me thinking about cycles of crimes: “NOPD approach to lesser crimes questioned by those focusing on murder rate.” At heart of the article is the NOPD’s focus on setting up stings for crimes such as bike theft and prostitution. As we all know, New [...]
14.Jul.2011 City Learns That Education is the Answer
The City of New Orleans may very well be on its way to showing that education is the key to lowering crime rates. The Times Picayune just ran a great article featuring local kids who’ve benefited from the one-on-one instruction at NOPLAY – “New Orleans Providing Literacy to All Youth” — an educational program dedicated [...]
15.Jun.2011 Justice by Any Other Name
The lost Manichean religion codified the idea that life is a battle between the forces of ultimate good and ultimate evil. A mere 2,500 years later we’ve begun to realize there’s some nuance involved in this conflict. We’ve begun to realize there’s a difference between troubled and criminal. Recently I blogged about strategies being used [...]
10.Jun.2011 Inventor of Synthetic Pot Agrees: Legalize the Real Stuff
The scientist who invented synthetic marijuana, John W. Huffman, is telling ABC News what I advocated in a blog post recently, and what folks like NORML have been saying for decades: legalize marijuana. Now that “Spice” and other forms of imitation pot are sending users to emergency rooms across America, the retired professor has an idea of [...]
09.Jun.2011 Prison Reform is a Money Maker
Life can be counter-intuitive. Case in point: the country that leads the international call for human rights also maintains the largest prison population. But that’s a good thing, right? Apparently not. In these tough economic times, as states look for ways to save money, lawmakers are reconsidering their notion of what constitutes a crime. Louisiana’s [...]
03.Jun.2011 In New Orleans There May Be No Bail for You
In what way does Kentucky lead the nation in judicial reform? No, this isn’t a joke about Kentucky. In most states, your ability to get out of jail after a misdemeanor arrest was predicated on your ability to pay. In the 1970s Kentucky instituted a highly successful pretrial system that allows non-violent offenders pretrial release [...]
30.May.2011 Hip-Hop Confession – Or Not?
Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55” sold over a million copies. Does that mean that over a million people own a copy of Hagar’s blanket confession to the crime of speeding? Is Ice T’s song “Cop Killer” an exercise in his 1st Amendment rights to free speech, or a call to empanel a grand jury and [...]
I am a New Orleans Criminal defense lawyer, and the managing attorney of NOLA Criminal Law. I am a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, with over 17 years of experience as a criminal defense attorney in New Orleans, Louisiana. Please visit my website for more.
