I just finished a criminal trial and a week later, mediation in a civil case. Each reminded me that this is an adversarial system. Your case is not necessarily about the truth. Harsh? Maybe, but that is the reality.

Whatever type of case you are involved in, the legal process involves two different narratives, or stories. In the criminal case
Continue Reading Save that story for your lawyer!

 Last week was a gem. Twice, clients who were almost certain to go to prison when we first started working their cases, avoided that fate. First, in federal court a twenty-year-old kid who pleaded guilty to distributing heroin and oxycodone received three years probation. In state court, a client on a fourth lifetime DUI and facing felony charges was spared

Continue Reading At Sentencing Your Story May Keep You Out of Prison!

 Attorney Alan Ellis writes a monthly newsletter that includes information and tips on federal sentencing and post-conviction matters. I just read the following from his February edition:

 – Approximately 97% of all federal criminal defendants plead guilty.

 – Of those who proceed to trial, 75% are convicted.

 – Almost 99% will ultimately be sentenced.

 – Over 87% will be sentenced

Continue Reading Facing Federal Charges? Research Indicates 99% of ALL Federal Defendants Will Be Sentenced!

A youngish lawyer in court today asked me about the blog: "What’s going on with that podcast?"

You may recall that I became engrossed in Serial, the investigative report turned podcast by All Things Considered. I have not been able to finish my review of the lessons in law apparent from that series. Work simply keeps me moving away from

Continue Reading “Everyone’s a Suspect” but Why Would the Cops Believe Jay?

 

By now you likely have finished listening to Serial, a podcast from the creators of This American Life, hosted by Sarah Koenig that garnered over 5 million listeners and which I last wrote about weeks ago. Time flies when you are busy. Since then I have tried a little criminal case, and been through an arbitration proceeding in an intellectual

Continue Reading The Prosecutor Has A Story – and he will spin it against you at trial!

 “For the last year, I’ve spent every working day trying to figure out where a high school kid was for an hour after school one day in 1999. Or, if you want to get technical about it (and apparently I do), where a high school kid was for twenty-one minutes after school one day in 1999….”

And so it

Continue Reading Your Story is Your Only Hope – So start listening to Serial on PBS

Peterson Lawyers associate attorney Will Young tells us to "challenge that speeding ticket!

Speaking from experience, getting ticketed for speeding is not a fun experience. Seeing red and blue lights in your rearview mirror is not a good feeling. I realize speeding is not even close to the worst thing you can be accused of, it can still impact

Continue Reading Fight that Ticket!

 This weekend I received an inquiry from someone who had been convicted after the judge instructed the jury it could find him guilty of DUI even if it did not find he had a breath alcohol level above .08%. He complained that by instructing the jury on the alternate theory – that his driving pattern established he was operating a

Continue Reading “Can I be convicted of DUI if I blow less than .08?”

 Back in June of 2009, I posted that Zachary Neagle had become a client. He was charged with murder – having shot his father in the head as he was asleep on a couch in their home. The case presented the ultimate challenge; convincing folks that Zach killed his father to protect his younger brother and sister from the sexual assaults he had been subjected to. Zach was charged as an adult, but the picture shows just how juvenile he was, wrapped in chains and clad in a yellow jumpsuit. He was just a kid.

Idaho law provided that if Zach went to trial and lost – a jury not believing he had to kill to protect his siblings – he would serve a life sentence in an adult prison. Ultimately we settled the case for a blended sentence that placed Zach with Idaho Juvenile Corrections. He plead guilty to manslaughter. If he did well in Juvenile Corrections, he had a chance to avoid adult prison and could be placed on adult probation.

As I noted in January of 2011, Zach was working hard in the Juvenile Corrections world to build a life. He was going to school, and working on the skills he would need to re-enter the world. I hoped someday he would leave confinement and be free – at least free of jails, prisons or corrections centers.

August 1st was my birthday, and it was the day Zach ended his time in juvenile corrections and began adult probation as part of his sentence. I would like to report that the transition to real life (albeit on probation) has been seamless, but it has not. It may take some time. He has a good job, has supporters who care and love him, and he has a chance. But he has to work at this. Any mistake could land him in jail or worse, adult prison, the very place we have been trying to avoid since Charles Crafts called me that June day more than five years ago. 

Since so many of you call, ask and write, I wanted to report that he is making it. So far. 

Now he needs to work at staying free. He needs to fly right and stay out of any trouble.

 


Continue Reading Zach Neagle is Free – Now He Must Work to Stay Free