Joanne Sweeney (University of Louisville) has posted Undead Statutes: The Rise, Fall, and Continuing Uses of Adultery and Fornication Criminal Laws (46 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 127 (2014)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Cohabitation is a reality for a...
Sweeney on Adultery and Fornication Laws
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Justice Scalia, Prof. Amar, the Exclusionary Rule, and Utah v. Strieff
Akhil Reed Amar of Yale Law is a rarity -- a prominent legal academic who has his head screwed on straight when it comes to the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule. He has this post at SCOTUSblog titled The Court after Scalia: The despicable and dispensable exclusionary rule. No doubt about where he stands.I agree with what Professor Amar says about the exclusionary rule, but not so much what he says about the Justices. He begins by noting the difference between cases where the Court was focused on the substantive Fourth Amendment question and cases where it focused on the exclusionary remedy:In countless cases over the last forty years, the Court has held that the Fourth Amendment was violated by the facts at hand, and has thus ordered or upheld evidentiary exclusion.... But whenever the modern Court has squarely focused on the exclusionary rule itself - giving express thought to whether the rule's contours should be widened or narrowed - the…
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Does having a DUI affect getting hired?
Finding a job in today’s economy can be tough. Although that is a difficult task on its own for the best of candidates, adding an Arizona DUI conviction to your record can make a job search even more problematic. At best, you may find yourself embarrassed about your poor decision-making that led to DUI charges. At worst, you may not be able to work in your chosen field, travel to other countries without extra hassles or maintain the trust of your peers when you do gain a position. Even just getting to work each day can be made difficult, if you have a suspended or revoked driver’s license.If you are charged with DUI in Arizona, it is very important that you seek the advice of a licensed Arizona DUI defense attorney. Through the help of an experienced lawyer, you can fight the charges for a possible dismissal or reduction of those charges or reduced sentencing.Even when your DUI conviction results in a misdemeanor, you may be asked whether you have been…
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Final Defendant Sentenced in Foreclosure Rescue Fraud
Domonic McCarns, 41, Irvine, California, was sentenced to 14 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller for conspiracy to commit mail fraud for his participation in a nationwide foreclosure-rescue scam, Acting U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. McCarns is the final defendant to be sentenced for a pair of schemes that lured homeowners […]
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Two Year Sentence For Obtaining and Falsely Releasing Mortgages
Denise Bruce, 56, Hingham, Massachusetts, was sentenced for defrauding mortgage companies in connection with multiple mortgages she obtained on a single residence. U.S. District Court Senior Judge Douglas P. Woodlock imposed the sentence of two years in prison, five years of supervised release and restitution of $2,810,497. In May 2016, Bruce pleaded guilty to five counts […]
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14 1/2 Year Sentence in California Mortgage Fraud
Rachel Siders, 41, Roseville, California, was sentenced to 14 and a half years in prison for her involvement in mortgage fraud schemes that cost financial institutions over $17 million. Federal juries returned verdicts in two trials, in March 2015 and December 2015 finding her guilty of multiple counts of bank fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, making […]
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Children Are Often Victims in DUI Crashes
The State of California law recognizes that children involved in incidents of DUI in Los Angeles are at special risk; in fact, California Vehicle Code 23572 mandates enhancements in penalties for anyone driving DUI with kids in the car. For a first offense, convicted DUI drivers have to serve a mandatory 48 hours in jail. A second offense results in a 10-day jail stay and a third offense in a 30-day jail sentence. Drivers caught DUI for a fourth time with children in their vehicles could spend three months in jail. A September 5th crash in Cuyama, California, illustrates just why authorities are so concerned. Jerald Holman was traveling westbound on Highway 166 when his Toyota Camry drifted into the eastbound lane. When Holman hit a Chevrolet in that lane, the impact ejected two young passengers—a 7-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl—from the car. Emergency responders pronounced both children dead at the scene. The children’s mother, Todeshia Lewis, was also a…
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Child pornography sentence of 151 months found to procedurally and substantively reasonable
In United States v. Cubero the Defendant appealed from his 151 month sentence and life-term of supervised release after pleading guilty to one count of distribution of child pornography and two count of possession of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2252(a)(4)(B). For various reasons he argued that his sentenced was procedurally and substantively unreasonable. His procedural challenges were anchored to a double counting argument that he received a two level increase under the sentencing guideline provision U.S.S.G. 2G2.2(b)(3)(F) for the distribution of child pornography, in that both the base offense level and the section 2G1.2(b)(3)(F) cover the act of distribution. The court of appeals rejected the argument by finding that the base offense level covers multiple possible violations of §2252(a)(2) including knowing distribution, knowing receipt, and knowing reproduction, and the guideline addressed the range of harms associated with child…
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Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Asks – Should Being Poor Mean You Have to Stay in Jail?
When they can’t pay, they are stuck in jail until their case moves forward. In the meantime, their job, their children, and their other responsibilities exist in a sort of limbo. No one should be punished for being poor says Texas criminal defense lawyers Broden & Mickelsen In many parts of the country, being too poor to make bail leaves ... Read More The post Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Asks – Should Being Poor Mean You Have to Stay in Jail? appeared first on .
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Why Would Angelina Jolie Demand Sole Custody?
When I read this morning that Brad and Angie were kaput, I didn’t believe it. After all, every month for the past several years some gossip magazine has splashed this headline across their cover page. Only it was never true. But today it is, and to my surprise the liberal heroine of human rights, Ms. Jolie, wants to deprive her children of a basic human right: the right to have a full relationship with their father. Yes, children have a right to know both their parents, a right so precious that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child includes this provision in Article 18: “State parties shall use their best efforts to ensure recognition of the principle that both parents have common responsibilities for the upbringing and development of the child.” In this day and age when a mother, like Ms. Jolie, asks a court to award sole custody of the children to her, it can only be interpreted as a denunciation of the children’s…
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Vandevort on Implied Consent and Sexual Assault
Lucinda Vandervort (University of Saskatchewan) has posted Book Review ― Michael Plaxton, Implied Consent and Sexual Assault: Intimate Relationships, Autonomy, and Voice. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2015 (Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here...
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Trump's Bold Plan for the Fourth Amendment
Politico reports on an exciting development in Donald Trump's policy proposals. When asked how he would address "violence in the black community," Trump was ready with this nuanced discussion of police procedures:“I would do stop-and-frisk. I think you have to. We did it in New York, it worked incredibly well and you have to be proactive and, you know, you really help people sort of change their mind automatically,” Trump told the questioner. “You understand, you have to have, in my opinion, I see what’s going on here, I see what’s going on in Chicago, I think stop-and-frisk. In New York City it was so incredible, the way it worked. Now, we had a very good mayor, but New York City was incredible, the way that worked, so I think that could be one step you could do.”The Politico headline says that Trump called for "national stop-and-frisk," so that's what I'll assume he said there.I'm intrigued to see how…
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US v. Williams, No. 15-10008 (9-20-16)(Wallace w/Kozinski & Whaley, Sr. D.J.). The 9th reversed the suppression of a search of crack cocaine and a firearm. The 9th held that the officers had reasonable suspicion of the defendant from a tip, his actions, and possible offense (trespassing). The Gov't did not waive the argument that, after the initial stop for reasonable suspicion, probable cause for arrest was developed for violating a state statute (obstruction) that makes it unlawful not to flee and to give identity when suspected of an offense. The 9th upheld the officer's arrest of the defendant and the seizure of crack and a firearm.The decision is here:http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2016/09/20/15-10008.pdf
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South St. Paul set to dramatically restrict where sex offenders can live
9-22-16 Minnesota: Shange McNeal was found guilty of criminal sexual assault in 2001. So when he moved into a South St. Paul neighborhood in June, locals took notice. Eyebrows also raised when Anthony Bulmer moved to the inner-ring suburb. Bulmer was busted for criminal sexual conduct in 2011 after repeated contact with a 10-year-old girl. But it was Christopher Blair's arrival that caused
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State v. Lindsey: Another Close Call on Probable Cause for DWI
Do the following facts provide probable cause to arrest for impaired driving? An officer pulls behind a vehicle at a stoplight around 3 a.m. and sees that its registration is expired. He activates his blue lights, and the defendant turns into a nearby parking lot. When the officer approaches the car, the defendant tells him that his license is revoked for DWI. The officer smells a medium odor of alcohol coming from the defendant’s breath and sees that the defendant’s eyes are red and glassy. The officer performs an HGN test, noting 5 of 6 indicators of impairment. The defendant tells the officer that he had three beers at 6 p.m. the previous evening. The court of appeals answered this question earlier this week in State v. Lindsey, ___ N.C. App. ___ (2016). Its answer, and the outcome of the case, may surprise you. Yes, the court of appeals held, these facts do provide probable cause to arrest for impaired driving. The absence of poor…
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FARC Celebrates Historic Peace Deal
President Obama yesterday congratulated his Colombian counterpart, Juan Miguel Santos, on the historic peace agreement with Farc. The guerillas, holding their 10th National Conference, (background here) celebrated with a mini-Woodstock. Daylong... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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TX: Anonymous tip was corroborated at the scene by officers for RS
An anonymous tip brought police to where defendant was, and their observations corroborated the tip sufficient to support reasonable suspicion. Furr v. State, 2016 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1094 (Sept. 21, 2016) (dissent): Here, as in J.L., the tip was … Continue reading →
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SJC RULES THAT RUNNING FROM BOSTON POLICE DOES NOT NECESSARILY INDICATE GUILT
In Twelve Step programs, one of the steps to recovery is to “make amends” to people you have wronged. Well, while I am not involved in such a program at present, I do owe you, my readers, an amends. I left you hanging during the police cam festivities, hinting that I was going to be returning to shining the light of truth on that notorious department…the Department of Children and Families. Well, the police cam controversy is over for now and I will wait a bit longer before I return to the truth of …Them. Instead, let’s look at a more recent criminal case about which you should be aware. Especially given the fact that we are probably going to be inundated with data from the police cams. It involves a criminal appeal which, lo and behold, actually recognizes a particular reality which we have discussed many times in this blog. According to the Boston Herald , Massachusetts prosecutors are asking the Supreme Judicial Court to reconsider its…
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Pokémon Go… To Court!
Recently a popular smartphone app has been making headlines all across the world. The app is called Pokémon Go, a smartphone game that bases itself off of Nintendo’s long running franchise Pokémon. The franchise itself involves both a television show and video game series where a “Pokémon Trainer” travels the world collecting cartoonish and cutesy monsters known as “Pokémon.” The smartphone app is game intended to simulate this experience through “augmented reality,” meaning that the creatures will appear on phone screen using the camera, though not in real life. The app has gained immense popularity and its worldwide release has been incredibly well-received. The game is played using the player’s GPS unit in their phone, which will then populate their surroundings with Pokémon. Players will follow their map towards the Pokémon and then engage in a brief timing based mini-game to catch the…
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Washington Supreme Court Upholds Man’s Domestic Violence Conviction for Detaining Ex-Girlfriend
When you are attempting to overturn a conviction in a criminal case, based upon an error by the trial judge in admitting evidence, there are multiple hurdles you must clear. You must not only prove that the judge made a mistake but also prove that the mistake had a “reasonable probability” of altering the outcome. In a recent domestic violence case, the Washington Supreme Court upheld a man’s conviction because, even though evidence of his past acts was admitted for a wrong reason, there was no reasonable probability that the man would have been found not guilty in the absence of the error. The case centered on an incident in Vancouver over Memorial Day Weekend in 2013. Police went to an apartment on Friday, seeking a pair of suspects regarding outstanding warrants for robbery and auto theft, but received no response at the door. They came back on Monday and obtained a key. Entering the apartment, they met Makayla Gamble in the living room. After taking…
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