Being charged with the crime of domestic violence can be confusing. There are several different ways you can be charged. You could be charged with domestic violence in the first degree, second degree, third degree, by strangulation, by suffocation, or by interfering with a domestic violence emergency call. You should talk to a lawyer that specializes in domestic violence before making any decisions about your case because it could be your freedom at stake. At Skier & Associates we are available to discuss your case with you in person, offer legal advice from experienced attorneys, and represent you if your case goes to trial. Domestic violence happens when the defendant and the victim have a special relationship and the defendant commits particular crimes against the victim. The special relationship can be a current spouse, former spouse, parent, child, a present household member, a former household member, someone who the defendant is dating currently, has dated in…
Alabama Laws — Domestic Violence
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Hendry & King on Asset Forfeiture
Jennifer Hendry and Colin King (School of Law, University of Leeds and Sussex Law School) have posted How Far is Too Far? Theorising Non-Conviction-Based Asset Forfeiture ((2015) IJLC 11(4) 398-411) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Non-conviction-based (NCB) asset forfeiture...
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UPDATE Vehicle vs. Pedestrian Crash Eastbound I84@176
IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE District 4 Patrol 218 West Yakima, Jerome, ID 83338-5904 (208) 324-6000 Fax (208) 324-7897 For Immediate Release: 9/20/2016 3:05pm Please direct questions to the District Office *****UPDATE***** On Tuesday, September 20, 2016, the Idaho State Police investigated a vehicle vs. pedestrian crash eastbound Interstate 84 near milepost 176 in Jerome County. Lyndon Buffington, 33, of Nampa was traveling eastbound on Interstate 84 in a 2008 Chevrolet Impala. His passenger was Malinda Buffington, 32, of Kuna. They stopped on the median shoulder at milepost 176 where Lyndon exited the vehicle and began walking in the lane of travel and Malinda began to drive the vehicle away. Lyndon was then struck by a vehicle and Malinda pulled to the right shoulder. Lyndon succumbed to his injuries at the…
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Green on Ethics for Death-Penalty Defense Lawyers
Bruce A. Green (Fordham University School of Law) has posted Should There Be a Specialized Ethics Code for Death-Penalty Defense Lawyers? (Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, Vol. 29, No. 527, 2016) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: State ethics codes...
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What should we make of why and how New Mexico's Gov is pushing hard to bring back the death penalty in her state?
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Should Tennessee's Bail Bond Laws Be Reviewed ?
Recently, the bail bond system has been in the news due to the perceived inequality of the bail bond system. The most common complaint is the bail bond system unfairly treats the poor. Some bonds are set so high that the accused cannot afford to make the bail bond. The result is people set in jail until the case is resolved. It can lead to people pleading guilty just to get out of jail. Under the Tennessee Constitution , everyone accused of a crime is entitled to a bail bond with one notable exception. The only exception is if you are charged with a capital offense. A capital offense is where the death penalty is sought. The primary purpose of the bail bond is to ensure the defendant comes to court and to protect the public. The big question is how to make the bail bond system fair. Will only the 1% of the people be able to afford a bail bond ? One of the critical issues is how should the bond amount be determined. In Tennessee, most of the…
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"The Constitutional Right to Collateral Post-Conviction Review"
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"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Medical Marijuana Laws and Tobacco Use"
The title of this post is the title of this notable new empirical paper authored by Anna Choi, Dhaval Dave and Joseph Sabia now available via SSRN. Here is the abstract: This study comprehensively examines whether medical marijuana laws (MMLs) have affected the trajectory of a decades-long decline in adult...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/U9BJNHYb5Ew" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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Appleman on Criminal Justice Debt
Laura I. Appleman (Willamette University College of Law) has posted Nickel and Dimed into Incarceration: Cash-Register Justice in the Criminal System (Boston College Law Review, Vol. 57, 2016, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Criminal justice debt has aggressively...
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Ouziel on Jury Evaluation of Law Enforcement
Lauren M. Ouziel (Temple University - James E. Beasley School of Law) has posted Beyond Law and Fact: Jury Evaluation of Law Enforcement (Notre Dame Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Criminal trials today are as much...
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Top Ten: September 21, 2016
10. Charles Bukowski's You Get So Alone At Times That It Just Makes Sense. Bukowski will go down as one of the great poets of our times. Not because he is or was, but because those whose voices speak the loudest believe he was.Poetry was almost dead when Bukowski exploded on the scene. The popular notion was that the best poetry in the late 20th century was Pseudo-Americana/Buddhist/Hippy bullshit. After Bukowski, that changed. The best poetry was like Bukowski himself, punk, dirty, and real.Of course, this is a long view concept of poetry in the last century. Those who actually worked in the poem business (publishers, editors, etc.) realize that, as an art form, poetry never really changed that much because of Bukowski. But damn, he sure did make it seem like it did.9. Who's/Whose. Who's means "Who is" or "Who has." "Whose" is the possessive form of the word…
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Challenging the Breathalyzer in a California DUI Case
The breathalyzer is the most commonly used method for testing the blood alcohol content of suspected drunk drivers in California. Yet, both myself and Lawrence Taylor have written on more than a few occasions about the inaccuracies of the breathalyzer. Such inaccuracies include, but are not limited to an inability to differentiate between blood alcohol and “mouth alcohol,” elevated temperatures causing elevated BAC readings, and certain diets causing elevated readings. So can a person suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol in California challenge the accuracy of breathalyzers in court? Notwithstanding the widely proven fact that breathalyzers are generally inaccurate, the California Supreme Court in 2013 ruled that scientific evidence refuting the accuracy of breathalyzers in general in California DUI cases are inadmissible. The issue arose when a California trial court agreed with the prosecutor and excluded the testimony of a defense expert of…
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Place on Post-Conviction Review
Thomas M. Place (Pennsylvania State University, Dickinson Law) has posted Commonwealth V. Holmes and the Rule of Deferral: Short Sentences, Long Sentences and the Illusory Nature of the Good Cause Exception on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In the mid-1950s,...
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Cross Examination of Fingerprint Expert and the Confrontation Clause: Tips and Tricks
US v. Joel Rivas, No. 13-3526. A fingerprint examiner ("Rottman") testified at trial that he was certain the partial fingerprint found on a 9 millimeter handgun belonged to Joel Rivas. Rivas's only argument is that his rights under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment were violated when the district court did not allow him to cross-examine the government's fingerprint expert regarding the misidentification of a suspect in an unrelated case. The Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause guarantees a criminal defendant the right to confront the witnesses against him, and it includes the right to cross-examine those witnesses. Pennsylvania v. Ritchie, 480 U.S. 39, 51 (1987). A Sixth Amendment violation occurs when cross-examination limitations prevent the defendant from exposing a witness's bias or motivation to lie, or when they deny the defendant the "opportunity to elicit testimony that…
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How Low-Level Federal Drug Charges Can Lead to Massive Sentences
Federal Drug Attorney Explains How Low-Level Federal Drug Charges Lead to High Sentences The United States Sentencing Guidelines are the most significant factor impacting the lives of individuals convicted of federal crimes. Many articles, training presentations, treatises, and bar room conversations have lamented the controversial results the guidelines have had for federal offenders. While esoteric philosophical debates may be fascinating to attorneys and law professors, justice is far more important than academic discourse. It is the moral backbone of society and a reflection of social values. Put simply, justice is an expectation of citizens that offenders will be punished for their misdeeds while, simultaneously, an expectation that such punishments fit that offender and the severity of his or her crime. Proportionality in Federal Sentencing | Federal Drug Attorney Courts have two ways to achieve accuracy and proportionality in sentencing. First, courts can simply…
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Hatzis on Moral Externalities and Enforcing Morality
Aristides N. Hatzis (University of Athens - Department of Philosophy & History of Science) has posted Moral Externalities: An Economic Approach to the Legal Enforcement of Morality (Law and Economics: Philosophical Issues and Fundamental Questions. Edited by Aristides N. Hatzis...
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Jacksonville Man Faces 25 Years In Prison In Fatal New Year’s Day 2013 Crash
A man arrested after a fatal crash New Year’s Day in 2013, which killed one passenger and seriously injured two others, was found guilty Tuesday of multiple charges. The 23-year-old man was found guilty of DUI manslaughter and two counts of driving under the influence with serious bodily injury. The man was driving down Beach Boulevard with three other people in the vehicle after leaving a New Year’s Eve party when he lost control of the vehicle while attempting to make a right turn. He struck a metal pole, which fatally injured a 20-year-old passenger. The other two passengers suffered serious injuries, but recovered. The investigation revealed that the man was intoxicated, with a blood alcohol level of .178. He faces up to 25 years in prison. He will be sentenced the week of Oct. 31. No matter what the situation, a car accident that results in a death is always a tragedy. Adding a DUI charge to this just makes the situation that much worse. Knowing what to do…
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All the Probation Effective Dates
Any person, felon or misdemeanant, can be on probation for up to 5 years. In some cases—assuming you did the extension just right—probation could be as long as 8 years. So, there are some pretty old probation cases hanging around. But probation in North Carolina doesn’t look the same as it looked eight years ago. If you read this blog, you know that there have been many changes to North Carolina’s probation law over the past half-decade or so. The proper way to handle a violation hearing varies for the 86,653 people on probation today, depending on the date of their underlying offense, the date they were placed on probation, the date of their alleged violation, and the date of the violation hearing itself. Today’s post pulls a summary of those changes into one place, in the hope that it will help you apply the right law to the particular probationer before the court. Offenses committed on or after January 1, 1997 The law allowing a probationer…
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What are jackknife truck accidents?
Accidents that involve large commercial tractor-trailer trucks leave thousands of people with devastating injuries each year. Jackknife truck accidents are one of the most dangerous types of these crashes, because they often involve multiple passenger vehicles as well as the truck. Based on the size and weight difference between a passenger car and a semi truck, it comes as no surprise that the occupants of cars, pickup trucks and SUVs do not typically fare well in an accident with a commercial truck.What are jackknife truck accidents?Jackknife truck accidents occur when the trucker brakes suddenly, and the cab stops without warning. Because of forward momentum, the trailer does not stop. Since it cannot continue moving forward because the cab has stopped, the trailer swings out to the side. This results in the characteristic V shape, resembling a jackknife.Because they occur without warning -- and because of the size of the trailer – jackknife truck accidents pose a…
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Nashville Decriminalizes Marijuana What's Next
The Metro Nashville Davidson County City Council passed a law to decriminalize marijuana on final reading. Now , several questions will have to be answered. 1. How will the Metro Nashville Police Department enforce the new law ? I expect Chief Anderson to issue a new general order on how the Metro police should respond to the new law. A general order will provide a bright line rule on whether a to issue a municipal citation, a criminal citation, or an arrest warrant. Without a general order being put down, there is too much discretion in the hands of law enforcement. 2. Will the Tennessee Legislature step in to contest the new law on decriminalizing marijuana ? There is no doubt that the Tennessee Legislature will intervene in this controversy. It will be on the front burner in the next legislative session. Representative William Lamberth was recently quoted on the subject in the Tennessean. He mentioned cutting off road funds to Davidson County. 3. Can a civil…
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