The United States District Court for the Southern Division of Maryland in Greenbelt issued its first ruling Friday granting a defense motion to suppress a warrantless blood test as a result of the Supreme Court decision in Missouri v. McNeely. Magistrate Judge Thomas M. DiGirolamo issued a 19 page written…
The Supreme Court today announced its opinion in Missouri v. McNeely and ruled that police in DUI investigations may not automatically avoid seeking a search warrant to obtain a blood sample where the defendant does not consent to a blood test. This is the third win as amicus curiae for…
Today, the Supreme Court heard argument in the case of Missouri v. McNeely. The case involved police obtaining a blood alcohol test without a warrant. The officer, who had previously had no difficulty obtaining warrants before getting blood samples in DUI cases had mistakenly believed that Missouri law had changed.…
This past Wednesday I got a call from a former client, JT, who is from a state where it is legal to travel with a handgun in the car, to help his employee, AJ, who had just been arrested in West Virginia and was awaiting extradition to Maryland. Unlike the…
There has been quite a bit of litigation in the past few years on the subject of what witnesses must be produced by the government to prove the results obtained for scientific testing for drugs and/or alcohol. The Supreme Court has taken a case a year on this question, starting…
Today the Supreme Court granted certiorari sought by Missouri in Missouri v. McNeely. McNeely was suspected of DUI when police had blood withdrawn without a warrant. The Supreme Court of Missouri held that a warrant was required when the facts fell outside the narrow exception created in Schmerber v. California.…
Yesterday the Supreme Court announced its opinion in Williams v. Illinois. The decision was anxiously awaited by those of us who have followed the Supreme Court’s recent Confrontation Clause cases, namely Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts and Bullcoming v. New Mexico. Melendez-Diaz had held that the chemist in a drug case must…
Click below to listen to Lenny Stamm’s interview with DJ Kirk McEwen on WBAL on Thursday, February 2, 2011 at 9 p.m. 01 WBAL-AM Post Delay.mp3 02 WBAL-AM Post Delay.mp3 If you are facing criminal or traffic charges in Maryland state or federal court, call Leonard R. Stamm or Johanna…
I recently read a disturbing opinion piece in the New York Times – My Guantánamo Nightmare. The author, Lakhdar Boumediene, wrote the following: On Wednesday, America’s detention camp at Guantánamo Bay will have been open for 10 years. For seven of them, I was held there without explanation or charge.…
A recent news story disclosed that Howard County police officers were required to write a predetermined number of tickets each shift. Judge throws out DUI case, saying police had quotas – Howard County police chief calls ruling a bad decision. According to the story the Howard County Police Chief was…