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Chapter 14 - Arraignment And Defensive Pleas, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

Arraignment is the stage of proceedings when a misdemeanor or felony defendant ordinarily appears for the first time in the court that has jurisdiction to try the case. The defendant has been notified of the arraignment date as indicated in § 13.2 supra.

Chapter 15 - Guilty Pleas: Preparing For And Conducting Plea Negotiations; Counseling The Client About A Plea Offer, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

This chapter examines the processes by which counsel prepares for and conducts plea negotiations with the prosecutor and advises the client about a bargained plea. The chapter leads off with a discussion (in § 15.2) of the relative roles of counsel and client in deciding whether the client should plead guilty rather contesting a criminal charge. Part B (§§ 15.3-15.7) discusses the benefits and costs to a defendant of resolving a criminal charge by pleading guilty. It then reviews the factors that counsel should consider in developing an advantageous plea bargain to propose to the prosecutor or in assessing a …

Chapter 8 - Dealings With The Police And Prosecutor, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

Counsel should usually establish contact with the investigating officers as early as possible in the course of a case. Thereafter, s/he should speak to them whenever the needs of the client dictate. Similarly, counsel should establish contact with the prosecuting attorney as soon as one is assigned to the case and should communicate with him or her periodically thereafter. The purposes of these contacts are (a) to learn as much as possible about the charges against the defendant (those already lodged and others that may later be lodged) and potential prosecution evidence; about the temperament of the prosecutor and of …

Chapter 22 - Change Of Venue Or For Disqualification Of The Judge, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

The general principles governing initial venue in criminal cases are sketched in § 20.5 supra. As that section indicates, a charging paper filed in the wrong venue is usually subject to a motion to quash or to dismiss. In some jurisdictions, however, the defendant’s remedy may be merely a motion for transfer to the court of proper venue. Statutes, court rules, local practice, canons of judicial ethics, and opinions rendered by a jurisdiction’s professional-ethics committee or agency provide varying grounds and procedures for objecting to a particular judge’s presiding at trial or on pretrial matters.

Chapter 23 - Motions For Severance Or For Consolidation Of Counts Or Defendants, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

Section 23.2 describes the strategic variables that counsel should consider in deciding whether to challenge joinder of counts. Sections 23.3 and 23.4 then examine the motions that counsel can file to obtain dismissal or a severance on grounds of misjoinder and to obtain a severance on the grounds that the joinder, although technically valid, is prejudicial to the defendant. Section 23.5 discusses motions for consolidation. The considerations that might lead defense counsel to favor or oppose a joint trial are listed in § 23.7 infra. As the discussion there indicates, it will usually be in the defendant’s interest to seek …

Chapter 24 - Suppression Hearings, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

Suppression hearings may be used by the defense for several different purposes. To put a hearing to the most effective use, defense counsel needs to make a preliminary determination of which purposes s/he should be pursuing in this particular case. Often, a clear-cut choice between one purpose and another will be necessary, because the purposes or important means for achieving them are inconsistent. This is ordinarily not a choice that can be put off until the time of the evidentiary hearing: Both the content of the suppression motion and the nature of counsel’s pre-hearing preparation will vary considerably depending upon …

Chapter 17 - Defense Procedures And Considerations Between Arraignment And Trial, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

Contains sections on: "Checklist of Matters for Counsel to Consider Between Arraignment and Trial", "Selecting and Drafting Pretrial Motions: Strategic and Practical Considerations" and "Resisting Prosecution Attempts to Freeze a Defendant’s Assets".

Chapter 16 - Representing Clients Who Are Mentally Ill Or Intellectually Disabled, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

There are, however, some clients who are not competent to make decisions affecting their own welfare; and counsel may need to take special measures in these cases. If counsel reasonably believes that mental illness or an intellectual disability has so severely “diminish[ed]” the client’s “capacity to make adequately considered decisions in connection with the representation . . . [that] a normal client-lawyer relationship with the client” cannot be maintained, and if counsel furthermore “reasonably believes” that the client “is at risk of substantial physical, financial or other harm unless action is taken and [that the client] cannot adequately act in …

Chapter 29 - Defense Trial Preparation, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

Defense trial preparation culminates in the selection of the witnesses and evidence that will be presented at the trial (and, where applicable, at any pretrial evidentiary motions hearings such as suppression hearings (see Chapters 24-27 supra) and hearings on motions in limine (see § 17.5.3 supra)). Counsel must be wide-ranging in the search for sources of proof but highly selective in what s/he actually puts on at pretrial hearings and at trial. It is vital that s/he have an integrated theory of defense and that the evidence be tightly organized so that the defense theory will come across clearly in …

Chapter 18 - Pretrial Discovery; The Pretrial Conference, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

As a matter of practice, criminal discovery involves two processes or phases: informal and formal discovery. Most prosecutors are willing to hand over to the defense upon request certain categories of materials which it is clear that a court would order the prosecutor to divulge if the defense made a motion to discover them. Informal discovery devices (such as the discovery letter (see § 18.5 infra) and the discovery conference (see § 18.6 infra)) provide a quick route to obtaining this material. When the informal devices fail because the prosecutor refuses voluntarily to divulge information requested by the defense, counsel …

Chapter 26 - Motions To Suppress Confessions, Admissions, And Other Statements Of The Defendant, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

The doctrines described in this chapter supply grounds for suppressing not only confessions but any statement by the defendant – “whether inculpatory or exculpatory – that the prosecution may seek to introduce at trial” (Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 301 n.5 (1980) (emphasis in original); see also Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 476-77 (1966)).

Chapter 20 - Motions To Quash Or Dismiss The Charging Paper, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

There are numerous grounds for moving to quash or dismiss a charging paper or one or more of its counts. The chapter discusses a number of them.

Chapter 34 - Trial: General Characteristics, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

Ordinarily a criminal trial cannot be held in absentia. See Drope v. Missouri, 420 U.S. 162, 182 (1975). The defendant “has a right to be present at all important stages of trial” (McKaskle v. Wiggins, 465 U.S. 168, 178 (1984) (dictum)). In most jurisdictions the right derives from several sources. It is often conferred by statute or rule of court (see, e.g., Crosby v. United States, 506 U.S. 255 (1993)); it is held to be protected by the common state constitutional guarantees of due process and of confrontation; and it is protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth …

Chapter 36 - Evidentiary Issues That Are Likely To Arise At Trial, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

General rules of evidence applicable in civil cases are also controlling in criminal cases. This chapter’s discussion of evidentiary matters will be limited to a few of the most important problems specific to criminal trials.

Chapter 42 - Instructions To The Jury; Defense Requests To Charge, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

In many jurisdictions it is customary or obligatory, prior to the lawyers’ closing arguments, for the judge to confer with the prosecutor and defense counsel to determine what the jury will be charged (or to “settle the instructions,” as it is often called). See, e.g., United States v. Melhuish, 6 F.4th 380, 392 (2d Cir. 2021) (dictum) (“[w]e have ‘repeatedly held that defense counsel should be afforded the opportunity to review a proposed jury instruction’”). This may be done as a matter of routine, or counsel may have to request a conference if s/he wants one.

Chapter 45 - The Jury's Deliberations And Verdict, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

(A) In some jurisdictions, once the jury’s deliberations have begun, the jurors are not permitted to separate until a verdict has been reached. If a verdict cannot be reached before a normal mealtime or day’s end, deliberations may be stopped with the permission of the court, and the jury will be fed or housed under the supervision of court attendants. Although the jury is kept together during these recesses, it is not permitted to deliberate outside the jury room.

Chapter 47 - Postverdict Proceedings, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

Once the verdict is recorded, the court may be permitted to impose sentence immediately, or to proceed immediately to a more or less formal sentencing hearing, or to defer sentencing with or without ordering a presentence investigation.

Chapter 25 - Motions To Suppress Tangible Evidence, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

Rather than attempt still another doctrinal discourse, this chapter approaches the law of search and seizure from a different angle. After a brief description of the major constitutional guarantees that defense counsel may invoke to challenge the legality of police searches and seizures and thereby the admissibility of prosecution evidence produced by those activities (§ 25.2 infra), the text sets out a checklist of questions that counsel can ask and answer (with minimal investigation) about the facts of any particular case s/he is handling (§ 25.3 infra). The references following each question will direct counsel to subsequent sections containing functional …

Index Of Subjects, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

References are to section numbers.

Table Of Cases And Other Authorities, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

References are to section numbers.

Pride And Portrayal: The Effects Of Gender Identity And Generational Cohort On Lgbtq+ Perceptions Of Media Coverage, Dang H. Le

Communication Theses - Archive

Public debates over LGBTQ+ issues have intensified in the United States in recent years, placing news media at the center of conflicts over representation, fairness, and credibility. While a substantial body of research has analyzed how LGBTQ+ people are portrayed in news coverage, far less attention has been paid to how LGBTQ+ audiences themselves evaluate that coverage. Understanding these perceptions is increasingly important as declining trust in journalism intersects with political polarization and ongoing policy debates surrounding LGBTQ+ rights. This study examines how generational cohorts and gender identity shape LGBTQ+ audiences’ perceptions of news coverage quality, perceived media hostility, and …

Public Utilities Commission, Azad Hassan Khanzadeh Faal, Kelly Downes, Annika Kjos, Marcus Friedman

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Department Of Financial Protection And Innovation, Irene Lau, Katie Gonzalez, Marcus Friedman

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Key

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Improving Early Detection And Response To Clinical Deterioration Among Nurses Through Competency-Based Interventions, Courtney E. Miller

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects

Problem: Clinical deterioration among hospitalized patients remained a significant contributor to preventable morbidity and mortality, often due to delayed recognition and response in general care settings (Choi et al., 2025; Chung & Jung, 2024).

PICOTS: For registered nurses working on a general level of care inpatient hospital unit (P), how did a competency-based training program bundle incorporating didactic educational intervention of learning how to use technology, machine learning (ML) based early warning system (EWS) of trends and patterns to identify at risk patients, and low-fidelity simulation-based education (SBE) (clinical readiness to improve confidence with education and coaching) (I), …

Implementing A Standardized Resilience Bundle For Neonatal Intensive Care Nurses, Jennifer Bouzid

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects

Background: Nurse resilience is associated with improved psychological well-being, professional satisfaction, and retention. Neonatal intensive care unit nurses are frequently exposed to emotionally traumatic clinical events that may contribute to burnout, compassion fatigue, and turnover. A women’s hospital in central Texas identified increased nurse turnover and lower employee engagement scores related to well-being and intent to stay within the neonatal intensive care unit.

Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to implement and evaluate a standardized resilience support bundle for nurses following traumatic clinical events.

Methods: Guided by the Plan-Do-Study-Act framework, the project implemented a resilience bundle that …

The Role Of Parenting In Mitigating Epigenetic Cardiometabolic Risk In Predominantly Latino Preschoolers, Adamari López

Open Access Master's Theses

Background: Childhood obesity is a highly prevalent public health concern with significant consequences for health and development across the lifespan. Risk is disproportionately elevated among children from marginalized racial and ethnic groups and socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, highlighting persistent disparities in long-term health outcomes. Epigenomic mechanisms, including DNA methylation (DNAm), have emerged as a promising approach for understanding the biological embedding of metabolic risk; however, prior research has largely emphasized deficit-based models, with limited attention to protective family-level factors. The present study examined whether participation in a positive parenting intervention was associated with epigenetic cardiometabolic risk among preschool-aged children. Methods …

Herbivore Cues And Plant Damage-Associated-Compounds Jointly Alter Seed Germination And Seedling Herbivory, Katherine Overstrum

Open Access Master's Theses

While plant defense against herbivory is primarily thought to occur following attack, there is also evidence that plants can detect and respond to pre-attack cues. These cues include chemicals released from damaged conspecifics and kairomones, non-attack-related substances emitted by an herbivore that plants can detect and use to their benefit. It is unknown, however, whether or how plants react to the interaction of these pre-attack cues. We measured germination, growth, and herbivore susceptibility of B. nigra seedlings in an experiment that crossed the presence/absence of crushed B. nigra leaves with the presence/absence of mucus of a generalist herbivore, A. subfuscus …

Ensemble Dependence Of Mechanical Relaxation In Molecular Dynamics Simulation, Mason E. Hyde

Open Access Master's Theses

This thesis investigates whether the selection of thermodynamic ensemble introduces quantifiable differences in the stress relaxation modulus G(t), storage modulus G”(w), loss modulus G”(w), and phase angle d(w) computed from equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations of the AAA-1 asphalt model. A 72-molecule, 12-component representation of AAA-1 bitumen was simulated under three ensembles (NPT, NVT, and NVE) at three temperatures (400.15 K, 443.15 K, and 533.15 K) with three independent replications at each condition, yielding 27 total simulations. Stress autocorrelation functions were computed from each production trajectory and Fourier-transformed to obtain frequency-dependent rheological properties.

The computed properties …

Evaluating Training Effectiveness And Learning Transfer In The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Safety Academy, Amanda L. Casolare

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Effective evaluation of safety training is crucial to ensure that learning translates into safe work practices, particularly in high-risk public sector environments. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) is developing a Safety Academy to enhance hazard recognition, risk management, and safety leadership within the organization. However, the Safety Academy has not yet been implemented, and formal evaluation methods for training have not been established. This study aimed to examine evidence-based training evaluation techniques and develop recommendations for evaluating the KYTC Safety Academy prior to program implementation.

This study employed an applied pre-implementation research design grounded in a comprehensive review of safety …