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Dec 02
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Implicit Racism in the Law - shanlon wu

Implicit Racism in the Law

By Racism in the Law
Trigger warning: This article discusses sensitive topics including lynching, police brutality, concentration camps, etc. It also uses images regarding these topics that some people may find disturbing. In the United States, it seems that many Americans are under the impression we’ve moved past the old days of explicit racist acts, laws, and beliefs. In American society, it seems that many people are under the impression we’ve moved past the old days of explicit racist acts, laws, and beliefs. The whitewashing of American history sometimes causes such historical amnesia - but the rememberance of racist crimes such as slavery, the forced relocation of indigenous peoples, and the Chinese Exclusion Acts act as legacies of the implicitly prejudiced and racist foundations our country was built upon.  Some people believe that since we’ve moved on from slavery, the forced relocation of indigenous peoples, and clearly discriminatory laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act, that…
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Oct 10
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Bill Cosby sentence and the #MeToo movement

By Sexual Assault
Bill Cosby is in prison after yet another highly publicized, epic fall from grace amid the #MeToo movement. Once referred to as “America’s Dad,” the comedian and actor has moved from a lavish home to a 7x13 jail cell in Pennsylvania after a judge sentenced him to three to 10 years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand more than a decade ago. It took two juries to convict Bill Cosby. His first trial in June 2017 ended with a hung jury, but it took a second jury just two days to convict him in his April 28, 2018, retrial. How did the case of Bill Cosby go from a deadlocked jury to a sex crimes conviction? And will Cosby stay in prison, or will his lawyers win on appeal? Shan Wu, a former sex crimes prosecutor based in Washington, D.C., believes the reasoning behind Cosby’s conviction is…
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Oct 03
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Trump’s executive order to stop separating families at the border is a farce

By Trump
President Donald Trump is on a crusade to imprison immigrants as they cross our borders. And what’s worse: he’s billing his “zero tolerance” immigration policy -- pitting asylum-seekers as criminals -- as a humane solution. In an op-ed published on CNN’s website, Shan Wu, a former federal prosecutor who also served as counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno, explains that Trump’s new immigration policy is an effort to deter immigrants from coming to the United States by locking up as many of them as possible. How is his administration doing this legally? Investigators tried simply attaching “illegal entry” to immigrants’ rap sheets, automatically converting their civil asylum request into a criminal proceeding. It’s important to note that seeking asylum in the United States is not a crime. Once these immigrants were deemed criminals, they detained the asylum seekers and separated thousands of children from their families. This continued for weeks,…
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Sep 13
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manafort trial recap - Shanlon Wu

The Manafort Trial: Recap

By CNN
If you followed the high-profile trial of Paul Manafort and the guilty plea of Rick Gates closely, you might have watched DC Defense attorney Shanlon Wu analyzing the cases on CNN or noticed his name appearing in news articles that mention Manafort and Gates.  Gates was a longtime deputy to Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman who was convicted on August 21 of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to report foreign bank accounts. He was convicted on eight of the 18 charges he was facing. Gates pleaded guilty in February to similar charges in a deal that forced him to take the stand and testify against Manafort. Wu, a former federal prosecutor who served as counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno, was one of Gates’ defense attorneys until he withdrew from the case in February 2018. The criminal charges…
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May 23
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Partisan meetings, Plea Agreements, and Spies: today’s CNN commentary

By Uncategorized
As the Trump brokered meeting between GOP lawmakers and the Justice Department erodes bipartisanship in our government by excluding Democrats, the President continues to undermine the IG's investigation with new allegations that there was a spy in his campaign. What does this all mean for the Russia Probe? Meanwhile, Michael Cohen's partner gets an extremely favorable plea agreement. Will that influence a flip? Watch this discussion + hear my thoughts from today's CNN appearance below:
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May 21
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Is the Cosby Verdict a Game Changer in Sexual Assault Cases?

By Sexual Assault
What does Bill Cosby’s recent conviction mean for the current status of sexual assault cases in criminal cases, campus cases and the #MeToo movement? Cosby was first tried on the identical charges in June of 2017. That case resulted in the judge declaring a mistrial after the jury deadlocked, unable to reach a verdict for six days. But at the retrial in April of this year, the jury took only two days to return a guilty verdict. What changed? Everything. Let’s examine the legal changes and the changes in the world since the first trial. The Legal View Legally, the case was a completely different case the second time around.  In the first trial, the judge allowed only a single witness, besides the complainant, to testify as to an alleged similar assault that Cosby had supposedly done.  Although there were up to 19 potential women who could have offered such…
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Mar 01
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Abacus_-“Small-Enough-to-Jail”_-shanlon-wu-dc-student-defense-defending-college-students-opt

Abacus: “Small Enough to Jail”

By Uncategorized
The film Abacus: Small Enough to Jail disturbed me in a number of ways.  As a Chinese American, it pained me to see immigrants like my own parents being prosecuted unfairly.  And as a former prosecutor turned defense counsel, it reminded me of the inequities inherent in our criminal justice system. Nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Documentary Feature, Abacus tells the story of the five-year battle fought by the Chinese American Sung family against the prosecution of their family owned bank in Chinatown, New York City.  In the aftermath of the financial crisis caused by mortgage defaults in 2008, this small family-owned community bank became the only bank in the United States which was criminally charged.   That’s right.  The only one.   The giant corporate banks that had cost Fannie Mae and taxpayers trillions of dollars in losses were not prosecuted.  But this one small…
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Jan 16
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3 Things to Do If You Are Accused of Sexual Misconduct _ Shanlon wu (1)

Defending Against #MeToo: 3 Things to Do If You Are Accused of Sexual Misconduct

By Uncategorized
Sexual misconduct charges have exploded across our society from college campuses to the federal judiciary.  No area of life is off-limits and nor should it be since sexual misconduct, ranging from sexual assault to sexual harassment has been tolerated for far too long in our society.  But with every positive comes a negative and the stakes for a person accused of sexual misconduct have never been higher. Left un-defended, allegations of sexual misconduct will easily derail careers, potential careers and your means of earning a livelihood.  If you are facing allegations of sexual misconduct you need to immediately take action.  Waiting can be fatal to your reputation and your livelihood. Here are three action steps: Identify the source Preserve evidence Develop a legal strategy Identifying the Source You need to know who is accusing you and how many people may accuse you. Don’t assume that the source you are hearing…
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Jan 09
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What to do if you've been accused of sexual assault - on or off campus _ shanlon wu

What to do if you’ve been accused of sexual assault – on or off campus

By Uncategorized
The number one rule if you are accused of sexual assault on or campus is: do not communicate with whoever is accusing you. It’s natural inclination to want to make the situation better or explain yourself to the accuser, but communication can be construed as retaliation or further misconduct. Remember, communication is not just by speaking, calling, or texting. It also includes social media messaging such as through Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, or Instagram. Even if you want to say some kind words or apologize, you need to avoid any communication. If you have been accused of sexual assault on or off campus, contacting an experienced student defense attorney can help make sure your side of the story gets told. Contact DC Student Defense today! VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION   Hi, I'm Shanlon Wu with DC Student Defense. If you are accused of a sexual assault on campus or off-campus, the most important…
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Dec 07
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The National Security Generation_ What Have We Learned Since Pearl Harbor_ Shanlon Wu

The National Security Generation: What Have We Learned Since Pearl Harbor?

By Uncategorized
After dropping off my daughter at school this morning, I heard the radio station play the excerpt of F.D.R.’s address to Congress on December 7,1941.  Listening to that aristocratic nasally alliteration intoning about a day that “shall live in infamy,” made me think about how our generation reacted to the attacks on 9/11.  Would history judge Guantanamo Bay, the extraordinary renditions, the torture interrogations in the same light as FDR’s imprisonment of American citizens in concentration camps based upon their race? Looking back in time from 2017 to 1941, the use of Executive Order 9066 to imprison tens of thousands of innocent American citizens, depriving them of their homes, businesses, destroying their life, liberty and property seems blatantly wrong.  The nearly half-century it took for the United States to admit error and make reparations to the remaining elderly survivors seems too little and much too late. It’s a no-brainer for…
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