Philadelphia Criminal Defense Lawyer Zak T. Goldstein, Esquire
The Pennsylvania Superior Court has decided the cases of Commonwealth v. Brinson and Commonwealth v. Flamer, holding that nervousness alone does not justify prolonging a traffic stop to bring a drug dog to the scene to have the dog smell the car for drugs. The Court also
Philadelphia Criminal Defense Lawyer Zak T. Goldstein, Esquire
The Pennsylvania Superior Court has decided the case of Commonwealth v. Fischer, holding that the trial court properly admitted forwarded emails as duplicates under the best evidence rule even though forwarded emails can easily be tampered with or forged. The Court held that the best evidence rule
Philadelphia Criminal Defense Lawyer Zak T. Goldstein, Esquire
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit recently issued a decision in United States v. Soto, vacating the sentence of a federal robbery defendant and remanding the case for resentencing due to an improperly applied obstruction of justice enhancement. The Court found that the
Criminal Defense Lawyer Zak T. Goldstein, Esquire
The Pennsylvania Superior Court has just decided the case of Commonwealth v. Farmer. In Farmer, the Court upheld Pennsylvania’s felon in possession of a firearm statute (VUFA § 6105) against an unconstitutional as-applied challenge where the defendant was prosecuted for being a felon in possession of a firearm
Criminal Defense Lawyer Zak T. Goldstein, Esquire
The Superior Court has decided the case of Commonwealth v. Scott, upholding the defendant’s conviction for drug delivery resulting in death and rejecting the defendant’s argument that he could not be prosecuted for DDRD because he and the decedent planned to use the jointly purchased drugs together. Following
Philadelphia Criminal Defense Lawyer Zak T. Goldstein, Esquire
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has decided the case of Commonwealth v. Saunders. In Saunders, the Court held addressed the legality of a warrantless seizure of a gun from a car during a routine traffic stop. The decision, issued on November 20, 2024, affirmed the lower courts’ rulings,
Criminal Defense Lawyer Zak T. Goldstein, Esquire
The Pennsylvania Superior Court has decided the case of Commonwealth v. Phillips, reversing the defendant’s conviction for murder and finding that the police violated his Miranda rights by initially giving his Miranda warnings but then telling him that they would not use his confession in court after they
Zak T. Goldstein, Esquire – Philadelphia Criminal Defense Attorney
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has decided the case of Commonwealth v. Strunk, holding that unlawful contact cannot be proven solely through evidence that the defendant had some sort of illegal physical sexual contact with the alleged victim. Instead, the statute requires some kind of prior communication
Criminal Defense Attorney Zak T. Goldstein, Esquire
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has decided the case of Commonwealth v. Jones, holding that even despite the United States Supreme Court’s limiting of Bruton in Samia v. United States, the Commonwealth still may not use a non-testifying co-defendant’s confession against the defendant where the co-defendant’s confession either directly
Philadelphia Criminal Defense Lawyer Zak T. Goldstein, Esquire
The Superior Court has decided the case of Commonwealth v. Walter. In Walter, the Pennsylvania Superior Court addressed the issue of whether a PCRA petitioner could raise claims of ineffective assistance of PCRA appellate counsel after the denial of post-conviction relief had been affirmed. The court held
