Wondering what the key cases were in 2013? Here’s my list, for criminal lawyers practicing in state courts. Want more information? All of the cases are summarized in greater detail in my free, online Criminal Case Compendium. Evidence Kansas v. Cheever, 571 U.S. __ (Dec. 11, 2013). The Fifth Amendment does not prohibit the government from introducing evidence from a court-ordered mental evaluation of a criminal defendant to rebut that defendant’s presentation of expert testimony in support of a defense of voluntary intoxication. Salinas v. Texas, 570 U.S. __ (June 17, 2013). Use at trial of the defendant’s silence during a non-custodial interview did not violate the Fifth Amendment. The Court took the case to resolve a lower court split over whether the prosecution may use a defendant’s assertion of the privilege against self-incrimination during a non-custodial police interview as part of its case in chief. In a 5-to-4 decision, the Court held that the defendant’s Fifth Amendment claim failed. Justice Alito, joined by the Chief Justice and Justice Kennedy, found it unnecessary to reach the primary issue, concluding instead that the defendant’s claim failed because he did not expressly invoke the privilege in response to the officer’s question and no exception applied to excuse his failure to invoke the privilege. Justice Thomas filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, to which Justice Scalia joined. In Thomas’s view the defendant’s claim would fail even if he had invoked the privilege because the prosecutor’s comments regarding his pre-custodial silence did not compel [...]
Faculty Coordinators
