Articles Posted in Criminal-Charges

One of the most confusing areas of criminal law is the area of murder versus manslaughter. Both murder and manslaughter involve the Defendant willfully killing another person. Notably, self defense is a defense to murder and manslaughter. First degree murder is the classic fact scenario where the Defendant plans to kill someone and executes on that plan.…

The Orange County District Attorney has been resolving criminal cases by having the Defendant give their DNA in exchange for dismissals of usually minor cases. This program in Orange County has only been in effect for the last couple of years and had generally been very beneficial to Orange County Defendants facing minor criminal charges…

The court system has implemented a new program that addresses the challenge of combat veterans facing criminal charges. Orange County’s Combat Veteran’s Court has 50 veterans enrolled voluntarily in the program. In order to participate certain requirements have to be met and they must be approved to enter the program. One component is that they…

Information has surfaced that inmates have set up their own pages on social media sites. The California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation has communicated with Facebook and reported inmate accounts. The site will “take down pages that have been updated since the owners went to prison” according to the Los Angeles Times. Some inmates have…

Six-year old Falcon Heene, better known as “Balloon Boy”, floated away in a saucer-like balloon last Thursday in Colorado. At least that’s what his father told officials. However, two hours after the whole ordeal began, the balloon landed in a field 50 miles away without the boy inside. The six-year-old was later located in the…