I always believed that art, in this case a statue, was meant not only to honor the person whose image is being depicted but also to evoke a response, good, bad or otherwise. Clearly this is the case with the statues across the nation that some are seeking to remove...

Josue Bentacourt was sentenced this week in Philadelphia's Court of Common Pleas for drug offenses including possession and intent to sell heroin.

Even after forty years of practicing Criminal law, it absolutely shocks me that people are so ill informed about the constitutional rights which are guaranteed to them by the 5th and 6th Amendments of the United States Constitution and by the provisions of every State Constitution in our Country.

Rule 701 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure, as presently written, permits a defendant who has been recently convicted to enter a guilty plea in any open case before the judge who presided in the case in which he was convicted.

Recent cases have brought the Grand Jury process into national focus. What is the Grand Jury? What is it’s purpose and how does it function? The term Grand distinguishes the Grand Jury from a petit jury which is the typical jury of twelve jurors that decide criminal cases.

The Constitution of the United States and the State of Pennsylvania guarantee to an accused the right to a jury trial. A difficult issue arises in many cases however as to whether or not the accused should proceed with a jury trial or have the case tried by a judge...

Today there seems to be an unrelenting temptation that we all share to input the most intimate details of our lives into our cellular devices. Unfortunately, we do this under circumstances where we have absolutely no idea where the information actually ends up and who may have access to it...

For many years our Criminal Trial Courts have been imposing mandatory sentences in various types of cases, especially drug cases. In short a Mandatory Sentence takes all discretion away from the sentencing Judge and forces him or her to impose a specific sentence dictated by the state legislature.

Beyond family and personal friends, few people can truly appreciate Judge Anthony J. DeFino as much as the Philadelphia Criminal Trial Lawyers who had the honor of appearing before him. I met Judge DeFino in 1972 when he and his wife Rose attended my wedding.