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Kentucky Association of
Criminal Defense Lawyers

 

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Upcoming Events

June Video Seminars


Dates and Sites
to be determined

2010 Legislative Update
Ernie Lewis

Prosecutorial Misconduct
Judge Stan Billingsley

KY & Federal Firearms Statutes
(planned)


Advanced DUI Seminar

September 2010
Lexington &
Louisville



2010 Annual Conference and Seminar

Friday, November 5
Horseshoe Casino
Elizabeth, Indiana

Keynote Speaker

Stephen Bright
President and Senior Counsel, Southern Center for Human Rights


KACDL ATTORNEYS CONCENTRATE
ON CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAW!

FIND A KACDL LAWYER NEAR YOU


Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy
&
Louisville Metro Public Defender’s Office are
presented
with NCADP 2010 Outstanding Legal Service Award

Ed Monahan and Dan Goyette receive the Outstanding Legal Service Award
from Stephen Bright during the NCADP annual conference banquet.

At the 2010 Annual Awards Dinner of the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty (NCADP) held at The Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday evening, January 16, 2010, the Louisville Metro Public Defender’s Office and the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy were presented the Outstanding Legal Service Award for over 30 years of dedicated representation of indigent clients in capital offense cases at trial and on appeal.

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Useful Web Links

MillardFarmer

Kentucky
Deparment of
Pubic Advocacy

Kentucky
Courts

Kentucky Corrections

Kentucky
Jails

Kentucky
Drivers License
Point System

United States
Courts


Death Penalty
Information Center

The Innocence Project

Theories of
Criminal Law

ForensicPage.com

Famous Trials

Google Groups

Request an invitation to our KY lawyers discussion forum

 

Resources

Kentucky
Court Structure

Criminal Law Outline

Plea Bargaining

Reevaluating Lineups: Why Witnesses Make Mistakes, from the Innocence Project

Reconsidering the Death Penalty, from the Death Penalty
Information Center

"WE'VE GONE MAD"

Professor Robert G. Lawson
Former Dean of the University of Kentucky School of Law

“We’ve gone mad, haven’t we, that we would lock up a woman, who’s ready to have a baby, in a jail because she violated the conditions of probation for the commission of a misdemeanor offense… 

“The thing I think that is the difference in Kentucky, as compared to the country, is the use of jails the way we’re using them.  The conditions that I’ve seen in these jails, you and I should be ashamed of.  Why are we doing it?  The counties are doing it because they want the money.  This thing that was a necessity because they had no room in the prison system in the ‘80s became a policy for the state and the counties.  The state wants it because they spend about half as much for incarcerating someone in a jail as they spend in the prisons and they don’t have to deal with this construction cost problem that I mentioned to you.  The only way that the counties can make this help them with their budget problems is if they overcrowd the jails.  If they keep their costs fixed and they keep piling the inmates in…  That’s the only way that it helps them.

"I think if we could educate people about the things that I’ve seen, I don’t believe the American people would accept it.  I don’t believe Kentuckians would accept what I’ve seen in these jails."

- From Professor Lawson's address at the 23rd Annual KACDL
Conference and Criminal Defense Seminar, November 13, 2009

 

KACDL HOME PAGE ARCHIVES

May 2009

August 2009

November 2009

 

 


A BRAVE NEW WORLD
Immigration Consequences of Criminal Convictions
by Hans Meyer, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition

For criminal defense counsel representing noncitizen clients, the relationship between criminal and immigration law continues to grow increasingly complex.  As a result of dramatic changes to federal immigration law over the last several years, countless noncitizens have their lives inexorably altered due to convictions for many non-violent and relatively minor offenses, including simple drug possession, misdemeanor theft, and document-related offenses.  An otherwise reasonable plea agreement from a defense perspective may subject a noncitizen defendant to disproportionate immigration consequences, including mandatory immigration detention, the loss of potential defenses in immigration proceedings, removal from the United States, and the risk of federal prosecution for illegal re-entry.

Consequently, the fates of many noncitizens are decided in the course of a criminal case long before the client ever reaches an immigration attorney.  In this brave new world, it is criminal defense counsel who is often the first, last and only line of immigration defense for noncitizen clients.  This article provides an update to members of the defense community on current issues in this area of law so that they may continue to provide effective assistance of counsel to noncitizen clients. 

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(This article considers some Colorado law, but the issues raised and Federal
laws and policies cited are relevant for all criminal defense practitioners.)

 




DOES EXECUTING 'CHEMICALLY COMPETENT' DEATH ROW CONVICTS SUBVERT THE EIGHTH AMENDMENT?

by Nick Collins

Does the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment prohibit government executions of death row convicts after those inmates have been brought from incompetency to competency through forced administration of antipsychotic drugs?

 

A recent Sixth Circuit opinion lamented the fact that neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor the Sixth Circuit have "squarely addressed" this question. This same opinion declined to answer this "difficult question" because the State of Tennessee never actually forced the defendant, Gregory Thompson, to take antipsychotic medications.

 

Read More                           Download Thompson v. Bell

 



SEARCHES:  KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!
POLICE MAY GIVE YOU BAD LEGAL ADVICE
When are police legally allowed to search me?
What is "probable cause"?
When do I have to show ID?

Are the police allowed to lie?
When can police order me out of the car?
Roadblocks: What's the deal?
What are my rights in a college dorm?
Can I be arrested for videotaping or photographing police?
Get answers to these questions and more!



Watch
BUSTED: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters
on YouTube