The Arizona Supreme Court recently ruled in a case that has gained significant attention across the country. While the subject of the laws - abortion - may be captivating to most people, the idea of interpreting two laws passed decades apart is one of judicial construction that courts are tasked with every day across the state. Since both of these laws include criminal elements, it is a great opportunity to see how the law works and issues that arise in criminal law in more depth. It also is a clear example of how criminal laws affect everyone and are a reflection of societal priorities. An analysis episode related to the argument and the ruling will be released shortly.
Zach Murphy breaks down sentencing in Arizona. While it is something that criminal attorneys deal with every day, it can be daunting to the lay person and public policy professionals alike. There are a number of factors – both legal and practical – that must be understood to truly understand what is happening in a criminal case.This episode goes over plea negotiation and the laws that drive it from a high level view.
The idea of priviliged communications is something that attorneys are very familiar with. The other privileges are not something we deal with as often in practice, so when they do come up sometimes practitioners jump too quickly to either dismiss the claim or think there is no way around it. Here we discuss some of the issues related to Clergy-penitent privilege. This privilege has been in the news recently in Arizona, and understanding the legal and policy issues related to it can help us be better prepared to answer questions that may arise, push for necessary changes, or represent clients.
Organized retail theft has been in the news across the country with high profile reporting like shoplifting related crimes have never seen. On this episode we talk to Doug Mangum, a prosecutor focusing on ORT crimes, and Mike Powell, an organized retail crime manager dealing with this problem from the private sector across the southwest. They share some of the legal and practical ways Arizona government and businesses are dealing with this growing area of concern.
DUI case law is one of the most well developed areas of law in Arizona, but there continues to be statutory changes and cases affecting the way we handle DUIs across the state. One of the more substantive cases of the last few years was Valenzuela dealing with ADOT's Admin Per Se form. Here Adam Susser and Jake discuss what led up to the decision and some of the results we have seen so far.