Here's a scenario: a policeman goes up to the front door of a home and detects an odor of marijuana. He then proceeds to enter the home without the owners' permission. Is this legal? Yes in some states, because the policeman smelled marijuana, which constitutes probable cause for entering a home...

You try not to mix business with pleasure. You make it a point to limit your emails and similar messages to work-related correspondence while at the office, and save the personal stuff for your social media sites and other outlets when you get home. But what if your employer wanted to look at yo...

The week started off with a surprise here in Seattle, as John Diaz, the chief of the Seattle Police Department, announced his retirement. Diaz said that he would remain in his post for the next 30 to 45 days in order to help the transition to an interim chief, which will be Acting Chief Jim Pugel...

We've talked at length at this blog about how police officers, sheriff's deputies, and other law enforcement officials should be held to a high standard of conduct because of the power they have over ordinary citizens. This conduct entails avoiding criminal activity and refraining from abusing th...

Like most other states, Washington weighs a criminal's former offenses when deciding upon a sentence for a conviction. The state does this by quantifying the individual's offenses into an "offender score" and then assigning a punishment that is intended to be consistent with the offender's degree...

It's hard to put a value on time. But people try to do it anyway - by paying employees by the hour, charging for hotel rooms by the night, or renting property by the month. But what happens when people are forced to spend years in prison for a crime that they didn't commit?How do you put a value ...

You've probably heard both of these terms before. A mistrial is when a judge declares that something has disrupted a trial to the point where it is no longer fair or just, and the trial must start over (with a different jury). And in layman's terms, double jeopardy is being prosecuted twice for t...

There's a lot of talk about when or if the death penalty is appropriate in certain cases in Washington. Statutes provide some guidance on the types of offenses which are eligible for this punishment, but prosecutors have a substantial amount of discretion on whether or not to seek it. It is this ...

You've heard the mantra before: People will stop committing drug-related crimes if the drug is legalized. Washington residents embraced that principle when they voted last year to legalize pot in the state. As the reasoning goes, if people can easily buy small amounts of marijuana from licensed ...

Recently, many readers were fortunate enough to have the experience of reading Michelle Alexander's New York Times Opinion Why Police Officer Lie.  Ms. Alexander points out the inevitable truth in criminal defense: “Everyone knows you have to be crazy to accuse the police of lying.”  Indeed, as a...