Atlanta Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

A decision from an Atlanta case that was issued last Friday once again demonstrates that sentencing hearings in federal criminal cases are amazingly complex, and can lead to surprises. In the case from last week, US v. Kuhlman, the Sentencing Guidelines called for a range of 57-71 months in custody. Prosecutors asked for 36 months.…

In Atlanta, and across the country, representing clients in immigration removal proceedings with criminal convictions can be tricky. The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Chaidaz v. U.S., _____ U.S. _____ (2013), is bound to make things even trickier. Far too often, we come across the non-citizen client who has already accepted a plea in…

Federal criminal charges are being brought against a series of Atlanta-based employees of schools. Here and here are some stories. We represent one of the people accused in these matters, which are very difficult to defend. These cases are part of an ever-expanding national trend. We have done many such cases, involving doctors, federal employees,…

Here we go again, the intersection of the Eighteenth Century concept of privacy enshrined in our Fourth Amendment (no searches or seizures except when done pursuant to a warrant based on probable cause) versus the modern “CSI” world where investigators take biological shards to solve the most difficult of crimes. Today, the Supreme Court hears…

More and more both here in Atlanta and around the country we see news stories about bankers getting indicted, financial professionals being accused of fraud, and other white collar criminal actions brought against people working in the financial sector. Also, in a recent post, I wrote about a federal criminal case where the indictment did…

In an amazing opinion issued in Atlanta by the Eleventh Circuit, the court reversed a series of federal criminal convictions because the indictment did not even charge a crime. And, they did so even though none of the lawyers for either side bothered to address whether the indictment properly charged a federal criminal offense! The…

My law partner, Carl Lietz, has previously had good results when we represented medical doctors accused of over-prescribing pain medication. He has written earlier posts on this subject. We are seeing more and more of these cases, as shown by recent press releases and news reports. Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the…

Recent publicity about airline passengers accused of federal crimes while on airplanes (such as the executive accused of hitting a crying child while on a Delta flight arriving here in Atlanta) got me to thinking about how flying has changed over the years. It’s much less fun, that’s for sure. The recent publicity reminded me…

Both in federal criminal cases here in Atlanta and around the country, as well as in the state court proceedings we handle throughout Georgia, we occasionally deal with issues relating to “Double Jeopardy,” the portion of the Fifth Amendment that says prosecutors only get one bite at the apple. Yesterday, by a 8-1 vote, the…

Because we do lots of federal criminal cases, many of them here in Atlanta and throughout Georgia, Alabama and Florida, we therefore pay close attention to such matters when they work their way to the United States Supreme Court. One such case is Bailey v. United States, a situation we discussed in an earlier on…