"Florida’s prisons waste money and lives"
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"The $3.4 Trillion Mistake: The Cost of Mass Incarceration and Criminalization, and How Justice Reinvestment Can Build a Better Future for All"
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Top-Ten Recent SSRN Downloads in Criminal Procedure eJournal
are here. The usual disclaimers apply. Rank Downloads Paper Title 1 618 Student Surveillance, Racial Inequalities, and Implicit Racial Bias Jason P. Nance University of Florida Levin College of Law Date posted to database: 29 Aug 2016 2 244 What...
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Can You Go to Canada with a DUI?
I get a lot of clients that ask, “Can I go to Canada with a DUI?” The short, simple answer is, “No.” But there's a “maybe” behind it. If you have a DUI conviction, there is a period of time that can go by where Canada may consider you rehabilitated, but there's a lot of paperwork hurdles that you're gonna have to get through in order to go there. For example, if you've been suspended by our Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Not even convicted, you've been suspended, Canada will treat that as a conviction and you are persona non grata. So you're going up with all your friends up to Labrador for some big expensive, exotic fishing trip to go for Big Brook Trout, and you get to the border, and they let everybody go except you. They tell you you gotta turn around. That's not a place you wanna be. If you have any concerns about admission Canada or you're thinking about traveling, that's where you need…
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5 Reasons Women Need More Seats at the Peace Table
Paris, FRANCE: (FILES) This file picture taken 14 December 2005 at the Elysee Palace in Paris (MICHEL GANGNE/AFP/Getty Images) By Christina V. Harris, Women’s Human Rights Coordination Group “When will we learn that no peace can be sustainable and just without the active and meaningful participation of women?” said Gorana Mlinarević, Nela Porobić Isaković and Madeleine Rees, commenting on the lingering ethnic tensions and gender inequality in Bosnia and Herzegovina 20 years after the Dayton Peace Agreement was made. The Dayton agreement, which was formally mediated, negotiated, witnessed, and signed exclusively by men, is today thought by many to have been a failure. The agreement came about at a time when just 11 percent of peace agreements included even a reference to women, and five years before the passing of the landmark United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325—the first UN resolution to acknowledge war’s unique, and too…
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New Temporary Tattoo May Curb Drunk Driving
With drunk driving and drunk driving accidents being such an epidemic in the United States and the rest of the world, scientists and law enforcement agencies are constantly looking for new ways and technology to help curb this epidemic. While breath-testing equipment has come a long way, it is still mainly used to convict people for drunk driving after the arrest or accident and is not a preventative measure. There are vehicle breath ignition interlock devices that will not allow a car to start without the driver blowing a clean sample, but there are various ways to defeat this technology. We have even seen cases where repeat drunk drivers with ignition interlock devices will have their child illegally sit in the front seat, so he or she can blow into the device instead of the driver. A recent news article from CBS takes a look at a piece of new technology that is still very much in the experimental stage that could prevent a person from driving drunk. It is…
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Avoiding An Arrest On Halloween
Halloween is a frightening night, but the night can become even scarier if you end up in handcuffs. There will be extra police presence on the roads tonight in hopes of catching speeders, distracted drivers and drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol, so be sure to make good decisions. Today, we share five tips for avoiding an arrest on Halloween night. Arrested On Halloween Here’s a look at five tips for avoiding an arrest on Halloween, and what you should do if you find yourself in a stick situation. 1. Don’t Drink and Drive – Although Halloween falls on a Monday, there will still be plenty of people who want to ring in the holiday tonight with some spirits – and not the costumed kind. If you’re going out to a Halloween party or just heading over to a friend’s house to watch some scary movies, do not get behind the wheel if you’ve been drinking. Make sure you have a sober driver, because not only will kids be running around…
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Police Shootings, Abuse and The Mentally Ill
The killing of a mentally ill, 66-year old, African American woman by police has been officially criticized as violating NYPD police policy. Deborah Danner was shot after she dropped a pair of scissors she was holding during the psychiatric episode and picked up a baseball bat. Police had been called to Ms. Danner’s home several times before and she was taken away safely. Mayor Bill deBlasio criticized the shooting stating that had police protocols been followed Ms. Danner would still be alive. One in Four People Shot by Police are Mentally Ill According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the police book some 2 million mentally ill persons into the nation’s jail system each year. NAMI reports that roughly one in three women in the jail system suffer from some form of mental illness while 15 percent of the men housed there are mentally ill. More alarming is the fact, says NAMI, that one in four of the people involved in…
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Recent criminal law/procedure cert grants
From Friday, issue summaries from ScotusBlog, which also links to papers: Packingham v. North Carolina: Whether, under the court’s First Amendment precedents, a law that makes it a felony for any person on the state's registry of former sex offenders...
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Rehab company and owner agree to pay $145 million to settle whistleblowers’ allegations of claims for medically unnecessary services
On October 24, the Department of Justice announced that nursing home company Life Care Centers of America and its owner have agreed to pay $145 million to settle civil allegations, initially brought by two whistleblowers, that the company submitted false claims for rehabilitation services that were medically unnecessary. According to DOJ’s press release: Life Care Centers of America Inc. (Life Care) and its owner, Forrest L. Preston, have agreed to pay $145 million to resolve a government lawsuit alleging that Life Care violated the False Claims Act by knowingly causing skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) to submit false claims to Medicare and TRICARE for rehabilitation therapy services that were not reasonable, necessary or skilled, the Department of Justice announced today. Life Care, based in Cleveland, Tennessee, owns and operates more than 220 skilled nursing facilities across the country. * * * This settlement resolves allegations that…
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Judge Disqualified from Cases When Previously Participated as Counsel for State
There are times when courts of appeals entertain certain issues of the law because the trial court failed to take reasonable steps to safe guard to appearance of impropriety. The decision handed down by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on October 19, 2016 in the criminal case of Anthony Austin Metts is a prime example. The issue in that case concerns when a judge, who was prior prosecutor in the case, should be disqualified. The law on this issue is quite clear. Previously Participated as Counsel for the State Article 30.01 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure and Article V, Section 11, of the Texas Constitution both require the disqualification of a judge “who has previously participated as counsel for the State in a pending matter.” Metts pled guilty in 2004 to two counts of sexual assault of a child in Midland County. The plea was the result of an agreement between the State and Metts. The terms of the agreement were that Metts…
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If Prop 64 Passes, Will We See More Marijuana-DUI Traffic Collisions?
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how California DUI law could be affected generally should voters pass Proposition 64 this coming November. If you haven’t read it, here’s the gist: If Prop. 64 is approved, California would legalize recreational marijuana this November 8th. As the sixth largest economy in the world and an already existing thriving medical marijuana market, it is estimated that the marijuana industry could become a $6 billion industry by 2020. While THC is the psychoactive component of marijuana that is detected in cases of DUI of marijuana, there is no way to determine how impaired someone is regardless of how much THC is in their system Unlike alcohol, there is not an established correlation between THC and impairment. As a result, a number of companies are racing to create a roadside test to determine impairment of marijuana rather than just presence of THC. If Prop. 64 passes, there are many more questions that need answering. One of these…
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Tennessee Sex Offenders and Halloween
It may be Halloween , but the Tennessee Department of Corrections will be conducting Operation Blackout on those on the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry. It has been recently reported about the increased scrutiny that Tennessee Sex Offenders will be facing on Halloween. For example, here is a partial list of prohibited activities; No decorations may be displayed. Not even a pumpkin is allowed. A curfew from 6:00 P.M. to 6:00 A.M. No attendance at any haunted houses, corn mazes or other Halloween events. No porch lights are allowed and the door cannot be answered. A violation of these rules could result in a violation of Tennessee's sex offender laws and land you in jail. The legal issue is whether these severe rules related to preventing sex abuse cases. It appears there is always some relationship between a sex offender and the victim. Family, social or school relationships are the most common. Civil libertarians are concerned about the loss of…
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Witmer-Rich on Whren
Jonathan Witmer-Rich (Cleveland State University - Cleveland-Marshall College of Law) has posted Arbitrary Law Enforcement is Unreasonable: Whren's Failure to Hold Police Accountable for Traffic Enforcement Policies on SSRN. Here is the abstract: A core mistake in Whren v. United...
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Failure to Allege, in an Application for a Search Warrant, that the Premises to Be Searched Is the Suspect’s Home
Sometimes officers have probable cause to believe that a person committed a crime, have probable cause that evidence of the crime will be found in the person’s residence, and seek a search warrant for the address at which the residence is located, but fail to include in the application a statement that the address in question is, in fact, the suspect’s home. What happens then? The best thing that can happen is that the judicial official to whom the application is presented notices the problem and asks the officer to fix it. But sometimes the judicial official doesn’t notice this type of failure to connect the dots. Then problems may ensue. The leading case in this area may be United States v. Laughton, 409 F.3d 744 (6th Cir. 2005), where the Sixth Circuit found that a search warrant should not have issued. Although the application recited that an informant had made controlled purchases; that the suspect had “various stashes around the home”; and…
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"Defendant in U.S. opioid kickback case claims constitutional right to smoke pot"
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News Scan
GA Man Gets Execution Date: A Georgia man on death row for killing his ex-girlfriend over 15 years ago is scheduled to be executed next month, the state Corrections Commissioner announced last Thursday. Kate Brumback of the AP reports that Steven Frederick Spears, 54, will be put to death by lethal injection on Nov. 16 for the August 2001 murder of Sherri Holland, whom he killed after suspecting her of dating someone else. Spears hid in a closet in Holland's home and waiting for her to fall asleep, and then choked her, wrapped tape around her mouth and face, and put a plastic bag over her head. Spears will be the eighth inmate executed in the state this year.Jury Finds NE Man Eligible for Death Penalty: A jury last week found a Nebraska man guilty of murder and determined that there are enough aggravating circumstances to make him eligible for the death penalty. KETV reports that Anthony Garcia was convicted Wednesday of four counts of…
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Routine traffic stop in Georgia leads to drug charges and arrests
Law enforcement agents who make traffic stops in Georgia often claim to find evidence of criminal offenses during the process. Such appears to have been the case in a recent stop made in Fort Oglethorpe. The incident has led to drug charges against several people. Police arrested three occupants of a vehicle after the routine traffic stop turned into an alleged drug bust. The men, ages 42, 34 and 28, now face various charges, including possession of marijuana, methamphetamine, oxycodone and morphine. Allegations of trafficking and possession with intent to distribute have also been asserted against them. One of the men was also cited for a vehicle tag light violation. A sheriff's deputy who was called to the scene with a K-9 unit said he immediately sensed a strong odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle. Officers say a drawstring bag containing drugs was located under the floorboards of the vehicle during a search. They also claim to have found pills, a digital…
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DUI Case Headed to Court After Multiple Postponements
Judges will often grant postponements of cases involving DUI in Los Angeles if the prosecutor or the defending lawyer can provide a good reason for the delay. But a judge in Shasta County, California, finally reached her limit on granting reprieves and ordered a defendant to be ready for her day in court. According to the Record Searchlight, Judge Cara Beatty was determined that Virginia Lyn Anderson of Redding, California, would have her day in court during the last week in October. Police say that Anderson was driving under the influence of methamphetamine and other drugs back in April 2014 when she collided with a motorcycle ridden by Hayley Marie Riggins. The crash killed Riggins, 27. Anderson was initially supposed to stand trial in November 2014, but the judge has postponed her trial seven times since then. Most recently, the defense sought to get the trial postponed another time while they were appealing the specific charges filed against Anderson. Initially,…
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Some DUI Offenders Never Learn
One of the most discouraging aspects of being a police officer on the lookout for cases of DUI in Los Angeles must be the number of repeat offenders that they find on the road. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is not limited to LA or to the State of California, as this case from Tulsa, Oklahoma, clearly illustrates. The website Tulsa World reports an officer with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol arrested Ivan Ramirez on Thursday, October 20th, for DUI and transporting an open container (among other offenses). The same trooper had just stopped Ramirez three days earlier and arrested him for DUI at that time, too. Getting picked up twice in one week for DUI is bad enough, but Ramirez made matters worse on that Thursday night. The trooper pulled over Ramirez’s Honda, which had been moving erratically. The trooper recognized Ramirez and smelled alcohol on his breath. He also knew that Ramirez didn’t have a license, because the officer had confiscated it on the night of the…
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