Articles Posted in Criminal Defense

Hazing occurs in high schools and colleges across the country, notwithstanding extensive publicity detailing the dangers associated with it, in concert with laws on the books penalizing those who perpetuate it. Here in California, we have seen our fair share of hazing resulting in horrendous outcomes: 

• A high school football player in Rancho Cucamonga pleaded with teammates to stop while held in a chokehold and beaten with a belt in the locker room of the school.
• A student attending a Riverside college died of heart failure in the course of five weeks of physical abuse.

Here in California and across the nation, police use spit hoods to protect officers from being spit on or bitten when individuals engage in this behavior or threaten to, during arrests, transfers, or otherwise, as necessary. It is understandable that police want to avoid such attacks—but there are real concerns about the safety of these hoods.  

More About Spit Hoods

These hoods are really just mesh sacks that are placed over an offender’s head, sometimes made with material like what is used in medical masks on the bottom. They have an elastic ring around the opening. The mesh is made to allow wearers to breathe and see while containing any fluids that may be ejected.

These masks are viewed as a restraint, like cuffs or leg irons, and not a use of force. However, it seems that the use of hoods in conjunction with takedowns, strikes, pressure points and other uses of force can result in serious consequences.

Other factors that might make hoods more dangerous for wearers include having drugs in their system or suffering a mental health crisis that may have elevated a person’s heart rate and/or impacted breathing.

Study Conclusions

There is a fair amount of research showing that even the most heavyweight spit hoods out there are easier to breathe in than N95 masks. People who tested the masks say they could breathe even when artificial saliva was sprayed on the hoods to copy what a realistic situation might be like. 

But the studies were very different from real life in another way: they lacked the chaos and stress that go hand in hand with a typical arrest. Subjects in the study were not upset; they had not recently tried to escape by running from officers; they had not resisted arrest; and had not suffered tactical maneuvers at the hands of police to get them under control. In other words, they were likely not experiencing a rise in blood pressure, breathing, heart rate, and emotion.

In the Real World

What do people who have had to wear spit hoods outside of a controlled environment have to say about them? It is scary and makes one feel as though they could lose consciousness if things went too far. They also point out that saliva is thicker than the artificial material used in studies, and because arrestees in hoods may bleed or vomit, it makes breathing much tougher than studies imply.

Death Connected to the Use of Hoods

Over the course of ten years, more than thirty in-custody deaths occurred involving individuals who were wearing spit hoods. The hoods were used along with tactical moves or weapons, including stun guns, pepper spray, and hogties, aggravating breathing and heart issues. These facts bring to light the seriousness of decisions made by law enforcement as they arrest and restrain Americans every day. Continue reading

It is a decision that must be weighed very carefully: should you testify in your own defense? About half of all defendants decide to take the stand to proclaim their innocence. Defendants with prior felony convictions are less likely to testify, often concerned that juries will discover they have had past problems with the law. Likewise, those accused of charges related to gang activity seem to believe juries will be biased against them and are usually reluctant to take the stand. What about you? Will you be able to make the case for yourself that no one else could? 

Possible Benefits

Every defendant has the right to testify.  Some reasons it may be a good idea include:

• The obvious plus side of testifying in your own defense is that you get to set the narrative. You can directly challenge the testimony of other witnesses, clarify misunderstandings, and demonstrate your innocence by directly confronting the charges against you.
• If you present as a sincere and credible person, the jury will have the opportunity to see you as a human being deserving of fair consideration and empathy.
• The jury will be instructed not to infer guilt if you choose not to testify.  Even so, the fact that you are willing to testify demonstrates your confidence in yourself, taking away juror questions about what you may be hiding by refusing to take the stand.

Potential Risks

Although it is your right to defend yourself by taking the stand, doing so is not without potential pitfalls:

• Prosecutors will take the opportunity to aggressively question you in the hopes of unnerving you, discrediting you, and generally undermining you.
• While you may have a clear understanding of your own perspective, you likely do not understand the legal nuances related to the case.
• Anything you say can be used by the prosecution to weaken your case. They will set traps, hoping you open the door to further inquiries along new lines. They can also call additional rebuttal witnesses to contradict your version of events.

If You Do Testify

If testifying is definitely something you want to pursue, keep these tips in mind:

• Understand the allegations and thoroughly prepare your testimony, with plenty of rehearsal.
• Be calm, respectful, and attentive.
• Particularly during cross-examination, maintain eye contact, and answer only as much as you are asked.
• If questions are misleading or unclear, rephrase them to get the information out that you want out.
• Maintain positive body language.

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The federal Witness Protection Program is operated by U.S. Marshals, with the goal of providing new identities to individuals who face the possibility of vengeance from organized crime groups like the Mafia, for example, when testifying against them. Groups like these who terrorize communities or are otherwise involved in violent crimes may be a real threat to witnesses. The government understands that government cooperation can be a serious safety concern for witnesses and their families and has been tasked with protecting them since 1971 as part of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970.  Since that time, almost 20,000 people have been hidden and protected by the Marshalls, and the feds are proud to say that no person in the program who has adhered to the guidelines has ever been injured or killed by an adversary.  Even so, entry into the program is factually a mammoth disruption to life. What do you need to know about it? 

What to Know About Witness Protection

Some little-known facts about witness protection should be considered before agreeing to placement in the program:

• The U.S. Attorney, the U.S. Marshals, and the Department of Enforcement Operations Eligibility must successfully vet and sponsor anyone entering Witness Protection.
• Mental and physical testing is required of individuals prior to entering the program.
• Appropriate jobs in the new location are determined through extensive skills testing.
• New surnames are provided, although first names may remain the same.
• Documentation, including new social security numbers, birth certificates, and driver’s licenses that support new identities, is provided.
• The school records for minor children will be amended.
• Although plastic surgery was offered prior to 1990, it is no longer part of the program.
• Witnesses are provided with financial assistance for about six months in order to have time to develop self-sufficiency.
• Furnished homes in neighborhoods with schools and churches will be provided.
• After witnesses are asked where they would like to go, they are sent anywhere else so that no one can anticipate the move, although an effort is made to place them in an area in which they would be comfortable.
• Witnesses may make phone calls to loved ones left behind on a secure line and are allowed to write letters through a secure system (although letters must be destroyed after being read).
• Witnesses generally are contacted by the Marshals about once per year to make sure things are going satisfactorily.
• Even if they get married later, people in the program can NEVER reveal their history.
• When they leave, witnesses are not allowed to tell people where they are going. They must simply just disappear from their lives.
• About 90% of witnesses in the program have a history of criminal activity themselves.

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