La. Man Faces Death Penalty for Murdering Detective: Prosecutors announced Thursday that they plan to seek the death penalty against a Louisiana man who fatally shot a JPSO detective four months ago. Michelle Hunter of the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that the announcement by the Jefferson Parish district attorney's office came after a grand jury handed down an indictment charging Jerman Neveaux Jr., 19, with first-degree murder in the death of Detective David Michel Jr., 50. Neveaux also faces charges of aggravated assault with a firearm, illegal possession of a stolen firearm and two counts of resisting arrest by force or violence. On June 22, Neveaux fatally shot Michel three times in the back after Michel stopped him while he was walking. It is the first time since 2013 that the Jefferson Parish district attorney's office will pursue a death sentence.FL High Court says Jurors Must be Unanimous on Death Sentences: A ruling…
News Scan
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Massachusetts Drug Crimes: Charged Doesn’t Mean Guilty – Part One of Two
When what you do in your profession involves defending as legal counsel people who have been charged with some very serious crimes, a common question is “How can you defend people who have been accused of such serious crimes?” My answer, as a Wrentham Mass. criminal defense attorney, is always the same: “Because they may be legally innocent.” Drug crimes are an area that many people misunderstand – or perhaps more accurately, mis-context. They often assume that anyone charged with a Massachusetts drug offense must be some kind of drug-crazed criminal, or the local version of something like a ‘drug lord.’ Hardly. In fact, the truth is almost anything but this. Some examples? Being found by police to be carrying a controlled substance without a prescription on your person. This could happen while traveling through Logan Airport, or even if stopped in your car by…
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Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Fall From Grace (and resurrection?)
Her title was “justice,” not “social justice,” yet they latched onto her as if she was one of them. An old-school Jewish intellectual feminist, the diminutive Justice Ginsburg was adopted by the young set.* For Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s many liberal fans, the Supreme Court justice has long been an icon of progressive grit, a happy warrior battling racism, sexism, and homophobia—a reputation that in recent years earned her that famous sobriquet, the Notorious RBG. Apparently, she liked the rapper name, and it ended up the title of her biography, written for sale to passionate social justice warriors obsessed with her. She was the embodiment of their yearning desires. RBG validated them, while others called them unpleasant names that denigrated their confusion between mindless irrational feelings and reason. Then it came crashing down around them. Mark Joseph Stern led the mob in tearing the statue of the Notorious RBG off the pedestal built of sad…
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MI: Search exceeded scope of consent
Defendant had standing to contest seizure of items from his mother’s home because he lived there and could control them and the area searched. His mother’s consent to search for illegal drugs did not admit the items because the officers … Continue reading →
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Linda Greenhouse: Love The Legislature of Nine
Now that she’s no longer shackled by the expectation of relative neutrality, Yale lecturer cum Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse has seized the opportunity to blast both barrels at the current Republic candidate (and his sidekick) as well as the long-standing trope of their position toward the type of justices who should sit on the bench. …Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, the Republican nominee’s running mate, under the headline“Donald Trump Is Ready to Lead.” His essay contained this line about the Supreme Court: “Donald Trump will appoint men and women who will strictly construe the Constitution and not legislate from the bench.” No points for originality, that’s for sure. Amusement value? Not immediately obvious. “Strict construction” and judges who won’t “legislate from the bench”: these are among the most trite and tired lines in the Republican playbook. If lines are “trite and…
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IL: Officer’s false report of burglary to get def home to ask for consent to search made it involuntary
The officer here suspected a grow operation in defendant’s house. He used a false claim defendant’s house had been broken into to get him to come home. When he arrived, the officer asked for consent, which defendant refused. Later, defendant … Continue reading →
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Exploring that as goes Massachusetts so goes New England on marijuana reform
This Hartford Courant article, headlined "Massachusetts Marijuana Vote Could Mean Legalization Across New England," highlights reasons why I expect the recreational marijuana legalization initiative vote in the Bay State to have important ripple effects well beyond the state's borders. Here are excerpts from the piece: As a multimillion dollar fight...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/TqtNSH6lzzI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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"Cost-Benefit Analysis and Retroactivity: The brief for respondent in Beckles v. U.S."
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OR: Def’s SDT for narrow computer files of alleged rape victim was reasonable when it pertained to credibility
Defendant was accused of rape, and the victim told others she had searched Google for information about rape under Oregon law shortly afterward. Defendant sought production of her Google search history to attempt to attack her credibility. The state could … Continue reading →
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Make Your UConn Arrest Disappear – 3 Tips to Know Right Now
Many of the best Storrs and Rockville Connecticut criminal law firms frequently see teenagers and college students get arrested by UConn police for petty crimes like marijuana possession, Fake IDs, marijuana possession and alcohol distribution. It’s hard to believe that the UConn Police Department would actually waste police resources on prosecuting these “quality of life” crimes, but if you ask any top UConn criminal defense attorney, they can confirm that not only are these crimes regularly prosecuted, but they are also causing good, hard-working UConn students to get suspended and expelled. So before going to Rockville Superior Criminal Court alone to fight your UConn arrest, check out our in-depth UConn arrest page, and then give a quick read to these 3 tips below that can hopefully help you during your UConn Police Department arrest and school discipline hearing… Whatever You Do, Don’t Lie to UConn Police The UConn Police Department…
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Car Accident subsequent to a Maryland DUI resulting in Medical Malpractice
Some interesting things to note following a DUI in Maryland which has resulted in a car accident and a trip to the hospital where medical malpractice becomes a real concern. Thankfully the great majority of DUIs in Maryland and elsewhere originate from simple traffic infractions like swerving or speeding; some are innocuous as a burnt tail light. There are a few DUIs however that result from a car accident where people are injured and must seek treatment at the hospital. This is where things begin to get hairy because if you were not terribly hurt before going to the hospital, you certainly risk life and limb at the hospital as a result of infection decease and negligence medical care which occurs at the hospital. Research the instances of medical malpractice, MERSA or other deceases that are contracted at the hospital and it is enough to scare you into not going. Not suggesting of course that proper medical attention should not be sought as a result of…
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Sassafras Oil, the IP Address and the Fourth Amendment
This post examines a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit: U.S. v. Caira, 2016 WL 4376472 (2016). The court begins by noting that Frank Caira pled guilty in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Rebecca R. Pallmeyer, J., to possessing and conspiring to manufacture illegal drugs, after his motion to suppress was denied.U.S. v. Caira, supra.The Seventh Circuit goes on to explain that[s]omeone used the email address gslabs@hotmail.com to contact a Vietnamese website in an attempt to buy sassafras oil—a chemical that can be used to make the illegal drug known as ecstasy. The website was being monitored by the Drug EnforcementAdministration, which began an investigation that culminated in Frank Caira being convicted on drug charges. A key step in the investigation was learning that Caira was the person behind the gslabs @hotmail.com address. The DEA made that discovery by issuing administrative subpoenas to…
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"The Myth of the American Jury"
Suja A. Thomas (Illinois) has this piece at International Judicial Monitor. In part: Notwithstanding these perceptions of American exceptionalism, decision-making in the United States is actually much more similar to the processes in many other countries than one might think....
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Pleading No Contest – What Does it Mean?
You know they’ve got something on you. In fact, you feel certain that in this case, the word “guilty” appears in big red letters right across your forehead. Now, the judge is asking how you plead. What are you going to say? Contrary to what you may have seen on TV, the majority of criminal cases never see the inside of a courtroom. Instead, the defendant goes the plea-bargain route, pleading guilty to a lesser crime to sidestep prosecution and thereby receive a lighter sentence. The plea bargain particularly suits the defendant who feels certain of losing a court case and wants above all else to avoid the chance of receiving a harsher punishment. However, the guilty plea, whether or not you have bargained it down, is not the only means of settling a case. Another option, that of nolo contendere, will also save you from going to trial. It’s Latin for no contest, and it’s one way of admitting involvement without actually coming out and saying…
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Top-Ten Recent SSRN Downloads in Criminal Law eJournal
are here. The usual disclaimers apply. Rank Downloads Paper Title 1 256 What is an International Crime? (A Revisionist History) Kevin Jon Heller University of London - School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Date posted to database: 10 Sep...
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Federal inmate refuses Prez Obama's commutation
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Intent to Deprive vs. Intent to Possess: Is Possession a Necessary Element of Petit or Grand Larceny
Most value based theft crimes share the same elements as one another outside of the necessity that the property in question reach a certain amount to raise the level of the offense. For example, Petit Larceny involves property valued at $1,000 or less while First Degree Grand Larceny requires that the property stolen be worth more than $1,000,000. Putting aside Grand Larceny crimes in New York that are item or object specific, stealing a credit card for example is automatically a felony of Fourth Degree Grand Larceny, the underlying elements are generally the same. You can look to NY PL 155.25, NY PL 155.30, NY PL 155.35 or an of the larceny crimes of the New York Penal Law and the common elemental bond is that you are guilty of larceny when you steal property. Taking this analysis one step further, Penal Law 155.05(1) mandates that “[a] person steals property and commits larceny when, with intent to deprive another of property or to appropriate the same to himself…
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Lay Lady Lay
When it was announced that Bob Dylan won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, it was, to say the least, a surprising choice. Not nearly as surprising as Barack Obama winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, given that Dylan actually did something, but surprising nonetheless. After all, this was Dylan. He was a musician, a singer of last resort, a songwriter. Controversial? Sure. Why not? There is often some controversy when someone unexpected, or outside the box, wins something big like this. Dylan was a poet of a generation (actually, a few), but he wasn’t strictly a writer or a poet. Those who were kinda felt miffed. After all, it’s not like they could win Grammys, so why should Dylan get to win their prize? Rolling Stone, sticking to its sole area of competency, applauded the selection: This is easily the most controversial award since they gave it to the guy who wrote Lord of the Flies, which was controversial only because it came next after the immensely popular 1982…
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Locker Room Talking
See a crack in the wall? Work it. Exploit it. Make it your own, and the New York Times is doing everything it can to turn the obvious crack created by Trump, and his insignificant sidekick, Billy Bush, to its own advantage. First, there was the effort to use Trump’s alleged “locker room talk” as proof that masculinity was toxic. Because the only good man is a woman. Peggy Orenstein now teaches us how to raise boys to become her kind of man. ONE afternoon, while reporting for a book on girls’ sexual experience, I sat in on a health class at a progressive Bay Area high school. Toward the end of the session, a blond boy wearing a school athletic jersey raised his hand. “You know that baseball metaphor for sex?” he asked. “Well, in baseball there’s a winner and a loser. So who is supposed to be the ‘loser’ in sex?” A perfect opportunity for an adult to explain the limits of the rhetorical device of analogy, except…
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In a Difficult Political Year, Raise the Bar
The lawyer’s job gets more difficult in proportion to the political climate in which we practice. And I cannot imagine a more difficult one than the spectacle of an election that we are all enduring. I have been saddened, anxious, and have been tempted to grow even more cynical. I have had my intelligence insulted and have been dumbfounded. It is only a matter of time before you see some reflection of the climate unfold itself in the tone of the briefs you read or the climate of the courtroom. And it may be me or you who are lowering the bar if we are not careful. That is, unless you choose to raise the level of discourse and the level of compassion. I personally believe that the court system is the small engine that keeps democracy going. No matter what the other branches do, there is something in our courts that connects us to an ideal that predates our young country. And through many events in my professional life, the justice system is the elastic that always seems to…
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