http://www.southcarolinacriminaldefenseblog.com/ Published by Bobby G. Frederick en-us 2008-10-10T19:00:23-05:00 http://www.southcarolinacriminaldefenseblog.com/2008/10/state_v_gaines_foreshadowing_o.html South Carolina's Rule 404(b) The general rule, in South Carolina, rule of evidence 404(b), is that prior bad acts are never admissible as evidence to prove a defendant's propensity to commit the crime he or she is charged with. The... Appellate Opinions Bobby G. Frederick 2008-10-10T19:00:23-05:00 http://www.southcarolinacriminaldefenseblog.com/2008/10/judge_injected_himself_into_in_1.html Over the past few months I blogged about a Texas judge who signed a search warrant for defense attorney Keith Gore's office, bypassing a hearing that had been scheduled to determine whether the prosecution was entitled to evidence in a... Ethics Bobby G. Frederick 2008-10-10T17:39:26-05:00 http://www.southcarolinacriminaldefenseblog.com/2008/10/lawsuit_filed_against_sc_troop.html A lawsuit has been filed in federal court against state trooper Lance Cpl. Alexander Richardson, alleging that the trooper chased a man through an apartment complex, hitting him three times with his patrol car. Calvin Rucker, 25, said in the... Police Misconduct Bobby G. Frederick 2008-10-07T11:43:46-05:00 http://www.southcarolinacriminaldefenseblog.com/2008/10/trooper_acquitted_in_south_car.html Trooper Steve Garren was found not guilty of intentionally running down a fleeing suspect in a Greenville federal court today, despite the dashcam video showing him swerve to hit the man and despite Garren stating on the video that he... Police Misconduct Bobby G. Frederick 2008-10-03T17:59:26-05:00 http://www.southcarolinacriminaldefenseblog.com/2008/10/police_cameras_are_coming_to_a_1.html Officials in Columbia, S.C. are planning to install surveillance cameras county-wide in "high crime areas." The goal is to place surveillance cameras in dangerous areas so criminals don't have anywhere to hide. At a news conference Tuesday, officials said similar... No category Bobby G. Frederick 2008-10-01T11:18:07-05:00 http://www.southcarolinacriminaldefenseblog.com/2008/09/trial_to_begin_this_week_in_hi.html The civil rights trial of trooper Steve Garren is set to begin this week. He is charged with violating the civil rights of a man he struck with his patrol car, a federal crime that carries up to 10 years,... Police Misconduct Bobby G. Frederick 2008-09-28T19:30:56-05:00 http://www.southcarolinacriminaldefenseblog.com/2008/09/sentence_reduction_as_a_remedy.html Doug Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy last week highlighted an Iowa district court opinion in which U.S. District Court Judge Mark Bennett reduced a defendant's sentence by 17 months as a remedy for prosecutorial misconduct. The prosecution had entered... Ethics Bobby G. Frederick 2008-09-28T18:36:23-05:00 http://www.southcarolinacriminaldefenseblog.com/2008/09/buzzed_driving_is_not_drunk_dr.html Driving down the road today in Myrtle Beach I noticed another billboard proclaiming "Buzzed driving is drunk driving." More state dollars spent on marketing to the potential jury pool with mis-truths about our state's DUI laws. Buzzed driving is not... DUI DWI Driving Under the Influence Bobby G. Frederick 2008-09-27T23:47:56-05:00 http://www.southcarolinacriminaldefenseblog.com/2008/09/for_nine_years_lawyer_kept_cli.html This story highlights some of the damnable ethical dilemmas that attorneys, in particular criminal defense lawyers, often face. In 1999, Florida lawyer Jay Hebert's client told him that she had helped to bury the body of a missing real estate... Ethics Bobby G. Frederick 2008-09-26T19:23:26-05:00 http://www.southcarolinacriminaldefenseblog.com/2008/09/veterans_treatment_courts.html A client of mine who is also a distinguished combat veteran brought to my attention a bill pending in Congress that would establish a grant program to create veteran treatment courts based on the drug court model. “These treatment courts... Legislation Bobby G. Frederick 2008-09-23T21:55:07-05:00