September 2, 2026

By David Gelman, New Jersey Criminal Defense Attorney and Former Prosecutor If you have watched the Lindsay Clancy case unfold and felt a knot in your stomach, you are not alone. The story raises a question that many families in New Jersey quietly ask when a loved one is arrested during a mental health crisis. Does severe mental illness change what happens in a criminal courtroom, and how does the insanity defense in New Jersey actually work when someone was not in their right mind? I recently sat down with the Glenn…

September 1, 2026

By Gelman Law, LLC If you have ever watched a case like this and wondered how someone could be found not guilty of a killing they clearly carried out, you are not alone. That question sits at the center of the Lindsay Clancy trial, and it is one a New Jersey criminal defense attorney answers for families every week. Mental illness, criminal responsibility, and the insanity defense are among the hardest ideas in criminal law to explain, and they are harder still when your own family member is facing charges.

August 14, 2026

By Gelman Law, LLC If you have been arrested and you are staring down charges in both state and federal court, one question tends to keep people awake at night. Can the government really come after you twice for the same act? This is where double jeopardy in New Jersey becomes one of the most important protections you have, and it is also one of the most misunderstood. You have probably heard that a person cannot be tried twice for the same crime. The truth is more complicated, and the difference can shape the rest of someone’s life. That tension…

August 4, 2026

By David Gelman | Cherry Hill Criminal Defense Lawyer and Former Burlington County Prosecutor Bryan Kohberger already admitted to murdering four University of Idaho students, and he is already serving four life sentences for it. Now, from his cell at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, he says he wants it all undone. In a phone interview with The New York Times, Kohberger claimed he is innocent and was misled into confessing, insisting his guilty plea “MUST be withdrawn.” That request runs straight into one of the…

August 3, 2026

By The Criminal Defense Team At Gelman Law, LLC If you have followed the Lindsay Clancy trial, you already know how hard these cases are to watch. A Massachusetts mother admits she killed her three young children in 2023, yet her lawyers argue she was in the grip of postpartum psychosis and could not understand what she was doing. Cases like this raise a question that comes up more often than most people realize, including here in New Jersey: when does a serious mental illness mean a person is not criminally responsible for what happened? If you are trying to…