St. Paul police have announced that they plan to make a couple changes to the commission that reviews claims of police misconduct in order to heighten the commission’s credibility. “We need to have a process that has the confidence of both our community members and our police officers,” said Mayor Chris Coleman at a news conference Tuesday. However, other groups are leery about the proposed changes. Leaders at the St. Paul Police Federation and the local NAACP expressed doubts that the changes will have the intended effect. New Commission Changes If the proposed changes are granted approval, here’s what would change with the commission: The number of civilians on the panel would increase from five to seven. There would still be two police union representatives on the commission, but they would both need to hold a commander’s rank to be considered eligible for the panel. Police internal investigators would no longer be able…
St. Paul Police Changing Internal Review Commission
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How should Californians, as taxpayers, think about the state's competing death penalty initiatives?
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"It's Black And White: The Social Justice Case For Legalizing Marijuana"
The title of this post is the headline of this notable new local commentary authored by Carol Rose, who executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. Here are excerpts: When thinking about how to cast your ballot on Question 4, to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana, consider the social justice...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/b6m9RWfm5PA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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Misdiagnosis can Cause Serious Harm
When you visit the emergency department or your doctor’s office with certain symptoms, you should expect that they will perform the necessary tests and ask the necessary questions to accurately diagnose any medical condition you may have and recommend the proper course of treatment. While this is a normal expectation – after all, doctors charge a lot of money for their services – there are thousands of patients every year that go home with an incorrect diagnosis. While some misdiagnoses can be relatively harmless and can be corrected fairly easily, others can leave patients with serious harm and facing extensive and unnecessary costs. Cancer Misdiagnosis Cancer can have many symptoms1 that can vary from patient to patient. Because of the different signs and symptoms, doctors should be aware of when they should perform tests to at least rule out cancer as a possibility. In too many situations, a patient will go in with certain symptoms and a doctor will…
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CCA: TX junk science writ can't challenge bad forensics at death-penalty sentencing
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today adopted a particularly ungenerous interpretation of Texas' so-called "junk science writ" (Code of Criminal Procedure 11.073) to say that habeas challenges may only confront junk science used in the guilt/innocence phase of a conviction, not in the sentencing phase.As a practical matter, this mainly excludes use of the writ to challenge evidence in the sentencing phase of capital cases, where "special issues" supporting the death penalty must be proven "beyond a reasonable doubt" just like with the adjudication of guilt. For most other felonies, the judge or jury may choose from a range of sentences without facing additional layers of proof.Judge Keller's majority opinion carried six members of the court. Judge Richardson authored a concurrence, joined by Newell and Hervey, to say this was a "harsh result" and arguing that the Lege should expand access to the writ to include the…
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I Didn’t Know Stealing an iPhone or Smart Phone was so Serious: Felony and Misdemeanor Crimes of Cell Phone Theft in New York
No, there is not a crime of cell phone theft, iPhone stealing or smart phone heist in the New York Penal Law. However, merely because there is no specific statute addressing cell phones, mobile phones, smart phones and other personal devices such as iPads does not mean there is no crime or crimes that occur when one is stolen. On a base level, whenever you steal anything – from a pen or shoelace to a million dollars in cash or a diamond engagement ring – a larceny has occurred. Irrespective of value, the theft is a Petit Larceny and the possession of the property is Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the Fifth Degree as set forth in New York Penal Law 155.25 and New York Penal Law 165.40 respectively. These offenses are both class “A” misdemeanors. Putting behind the misdemeanor crimes the NYPD will arrest you for and a District Attorney will prosecute, the following entry will briefly examine some crimes for cell phone theft routinely seen by New…
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Cal DP Repeal Still Alive and Dying
"Still alive and dying" is a running gag in Marty Feldman's Last Remake of Beau Geste.SurveyUSA, a poll we have mentioned several times, has a new California poll, finding that Proposition 62, the death penalty repeal initiative, is losing 39-50. That is a smaller margin than last time, but still wide.As before, the poll did not ask about Proposition 66, the "make it work" initiative.
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TECH LAW ENFORCEMENT AND OUR CIVIL RIGHTS
Dystopian films and literature are usually thought of as science fiction, but while this entertainment might be classified as fiction, it often portends a future that may already be here. That is especially true when it comes to crime fighting. In my previous post, I discussed a few of the tools now at law enforcement’s disposal that would have been considered science fiction only a generation ago. Are we heading towards a world with oppressive societal controls and a loss of civil rights as the dystopian novels and films depict? Many civil rights advocates fear just that. One of the emerging crime fighting techniques is facial recognition and many fear that this technique not only violates the rights of innocent people. There is also legitimate concern about facial recognition errors identifying innocent people. No one really knows how widespread the use of this law enforcement technique is because there are very few controls or reporting requirements and almost zero…
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Why Most People Want A Death Penalty
As someone who has debated death penalty opponents many times, I have gotten used to their tactic of drawing attention away from the actual crimes that jurors determined required a death sentence. The cost, the possibility of someone actually innocent of the murder being executed, the deterrence argument, and even the rare cases where the mother of a victim chooses to reconcile with the murderer, are diversions from the moral question of what constitutes justice for the worst kind of killer. Time and again, when most people hear the details about a particularly gruesome murder, they tell pollsters that the death penalty is the appropriate punishment. Because California voters will decide next week whether to repeal the death penalty or adopt reforms to streamline the current process, I am presenting a California case after the break.On June 24, 1979, ex-cons Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, after planning for weeks to kidnap, rape, and murder…
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Expert Roundup: Legal Marijuana and DUIs in California
This November, Californians will vote on legalizing recreational marijuana through Prop. 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act. The Golden State is already the nation’s largest marijuana market, having legalized medical marijuana back in 1964 with few restrictions. While some pro-legalization groups have come out against Prop.64 (generally arguing it favors big growers over smaller ones),... The post Expert Roundup: Legal Marijuana and DUIs in California appeared first on Graham Donath.
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Orlando Substitute Teacher Accused Of Sleeping With Student
A 28-year-old female substitute teacher at an Orlando-area private school is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old male student. The woman faces charges of sexual activity with a 16 or 17 year old child and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. According to an arrest affidavit, the woman was a substitute teacher at an Orlando school. The affidavit said that a representative from the school called a Florida Department of Children and Families hotline late last week to report the woman after teachers became suspicious of her relationship with the boy. A DCF investigator looked into the claims and allegedly determined that the woman had sex with the teen at her home on the evening of Oct. 14 after exchanging Snapchat messages with him and giving him alcohol. The woman was booked into the Orange County Jail on Friday night. Accusations of sexual misconduct between a teacher and a student are very serious in Florida and in every other state across the country. Even if a…
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News Scan
Two IA Police Officers Killed, Suspect in Custody: Two Iowa police officers were fatally shot early Wednesday in what appears to be ambush-style attacks, and a suspect is in custody. Jason Hanna and Max Blau of CNN report that Des Moines police Sgt. Anthony Beminio and Urbandale police Officer Justin Martin were found two miles apart, both shot while sitting in their squad vehicles near intersections. Scott Michael Green, 46, was named a suspect was detained, though detectives didn't elaborate further. The shootings come eight months after two other Des Moines officers were killed when a wrong-way driver slammed head-on into their vehicle. They also come just four months after five Dallas police officers were ambushed and killed by a sniper during a protest and three Baton Rouge officers were slain in a surprise attack. Wednesday's shootings bring the number of police officers fatally shot in the U.S. and Puerto Rico in 2016 to 51, the…
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Spiranovich et al. on Outcomes of Juvenile Justice Programs
Caroline Spiranovic, Helen Cockburn, Lorana Bartels and Roberta Julian (University of Western Australia - Faculty of Law, University of Tasmania, University of Canberra - School of Law and Justice and University of Tasmania) have posted Outcome Measures for Evaluating the...
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How does the Inevitable Discovery Doctrine Apply to Warrantless Searches?
The Inevitable Discovery Doctrine did not Apply in the Brierley Case In the Brierley case, the Utah Supreme Court held that the inevitable discovery doctrine did not apply. Two Layton City police officers investigated a hit-and-run accident by entering a private residence with neither permission nor a warrant. They discovered evidence linking Ms. Brierley to the accident. Brierley moved to suppress the evidence, claiming the City had obtained it in violation of her Fourth Amendment rights. The City argued that the officers were in the process of getting a search warrant at the time of entering the house, and thus the evidence should be admitted under the inevitable discovery exception to the exclusionary rule. The district court granted the suppression motion, but the Utah Court of Appeals reversed the ruling. The Supreme Court of Utah reviewed this decision for correctness. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches of both…
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Court rejects challenge to Ohio's lethal-injection secrecy law
Over a dissent from Judge Stranch, the Sixth Circuit today in Phillips v. DeWine, No. 15-3238, upheld the dismissal of a challenge to the constitutionality of Ohio’s new statutory scheme protecting the identities of individuals and entities participating in the State’s legal-injection process—what the dissent referred to as “state lethal injection secrecy laws.” The new law requires confidentiality of participants’ identities, prevents licensing authorities from disciplining them because of their participation, and allows participants to sue anyone who discloses their identity.A group of current death row inmates challenged the law as violating their right to free speech and as instituting an illegal prior restraint on speech. They also argued that it violates their rights to equal protection, due process, access to the courts, and access to government proceedings. The Sixth Circuit decided that the plaintiffs lacked standing to…
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Re on Perfect Surveillance
Richard M. Re (University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - School of Law) has posted Imagining Perfect Surveillance (64 UCLA Law Review Discourse 264 (2016 Forthcoming)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: How would society react to “the Watcher,” a...
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Alice’s Adventures in Lovett Hall
I just finished assisting a Rice University student who had been falsely accused of sexual misconduct and was facing campus discipline. He had been “rusticated” — ordered not to come on campus without permission except for classes — causing him to fail an exam (first the execution, then the trial!) and he could have been expelled, with a permanent mark on his college record. Did I mention he was falsely accused? Fortunately he had documentation showing that the complainant’s story was not altogether true. A Digression You young’ns are communicating via Snapchat, which doesn’t automatically keep a record of your communications. If you have communications with someone about having or not having sex, keep those Snaps. If you have communications at or around a time when you might be accused of sexual misconduct, keep those messages. It would really suck to have someone entice you over to her room, and then not have a record…
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Golden State Poll
The Hoover Institution at Stanford University has another poll from California, done by YouGov.Conducted between Oct. 4 and 14, the survey's sample is 1,250 likely voters in the upcoming general election in California. The full results of the survey, which has a margin of error of +/-3.28 percent for the full weighted sample, can be found here.This poll finds the repeal initiative only slightly behind and within the margin of error, 42-43.Like the Field Poll noted last month, this poll described Proposition 66 only in the dry, neutral terms of the ballot label, making no mention that it will make enforcement of the death penalty more effective and more timely. With this similarly uninformative wording, they get a similar result: 38% yes, 24% no, and 38% undecided. That is a few percent more for yes and less for undecided than a month ago, but it still indicates that lack of information is the greatest threat to Proposition 66.A few notes on the…
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Advisory Nevada commission advises the creation of a sentencing commission to create advisory sentencing guidelines
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Teen in Weiner Sexting Case Blasts James Comey
The teenager from Gaston County, North Carolina who is the subject of the latest Anthony Weiner sexting investigation is very unhappy with James Comey's recent letter to Congress about emails. She has provided Buzzfeed with an open letter to... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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