There are a few, but only a limited few, reasons that a law enforcement officer can search your person or possessions without a warrant. If the officer conducts a warrantless search and obtains evidence against you, and you challenge the admission of this evidence at trial, the law requires the state to prove that the warrantless search fit within one of the valid exceptions to the prohibition against warrantless searches. In one recent vehicular assault case, a deputy conducted a warrantless search of a driver’s purse in order to expedite the towing of her car. The trial court said that this was part of the the officer’s “community caretaking” function, but the Washington Court of Appeals later reversed that ruling and awarded the driver a new trial. Without proof that the search was necessary for some health-and-safety-related reason (which the state did not have in this case), the search was not within any exception and therefore was illegal. The…
The Limits of the ‘Community Caretaking’ Function Exception in Warrantless Search Cases in Washington
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Stop The Spread Of Trumpland
Let's put aside that the Republican candidate for president does not believe in climate change and will seek to enact policies to exacerbate global warming. And that he is a misogynist and a sexual predator. And that he is a racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Islam demagogue who has given voice to the most deplorable -- yes, deplorable -- elements of American society. And that his campaign manager is an unapologetic key figure in the alt-right movement. And that his election would ensure a right wing Supreme Court for generations. Let's not bring up the fact that he is the first president in modern history to not release his tax returns. That he has failed to disclose the countless business entanglements he has here and abroad that would create massive conflicts of interest. That he is subject to dozens of lawsuits, has defrauded countless people, and is currently battling three lawsuits based on credible…
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Friday Night Open Thread
I am just getting back from long jail day and have not seen or listened to any news. Traffic was just abysmal everywhere. This weekend it will be worse. Streets around me will closed Sunday while they move a museum to the neighborhood. They are... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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CDCR Finalizes Lethal Injection Regulations
The California Department of Corrections today took a significant step toward putting into effect the barbiturate-only execution protocol it announced a year ago, meeting the one-year deadline. Don Thompson has this report for AP.CDCR sent its final product to the Office of Administrative Law, which reviews regulations for compliance with the state's Administrative Procedure Act.Does this matter? Yes, if neither Proposition 62 nor Proposition 66 passes next Tuesday. The polls are mixed, but that is a possibility we can't rule out. If either passes, the administrative process will be moot. Either we will have no death penalty or the law will revert to what it was understood to be before 2007 -- that the APA does not apply to execution protocols.CDCR was required to establish the new protocol as part of a settlement of a suit brought by Bradley Winchell and Kermit Alexander, family members of victims of murderers on death row. The…
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Obama Commutes Another 92 Sentences
Thank you President Obama. Another 72 inmates received commutations of their sentences today, bringing his 8 day total to 172 and ! President Obama on Friday commuted the sentences of 72 inmates, the latest sign he is accelerating his clemency... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Interrogation Technique
This video featuring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jimmy Fallon will probably not be adopted by the Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training, but it's worth watching anyway.
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Fixing University Justice
In reaction to the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights’s Dear Colleague Letter of April 4, 2011, American universities have eliminated due process for students accused of sexual misconduct. The Dear Colleague Letter does not relieve public universities of their obligation to provide due process to accused students. So public universities are caught between the anvil of the Dear Colleague Letter and the hammer of a civil-rights lawsuit. Private universities are not state actors, and do not have the same due-process obligations: They may kick students out for any reason or for no reason. But they are obligated not to defame students, and publishing (to other universities, for example) false allegations of sexual misconduct is defamation. A university that is required by law to report findings of sexual misconduct on students’ transcript probably has a qualified privilege to do so (it is privileged unless done with actual malice, that is, reckless…
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Injury Crash Near the Idaho /Nevada Border
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: 11/5/2016 5:00 a.m. Please direct questions to the District Office On Friday, November 4, 2016 at approximately 11:00 p.m., the Idaho State Police investigated a two-vehicle injury crash on U.S. Highway 93 4.5 miles north of the Idaho/Nevada State Line. Daniel Ray, 43 of Jerome, was driving northbound on U.S. Highway 93 in a 1997 Dodge Van. Arthur Johnson, 68 of Portland, Oregon was driving behind Ray in a 2009 Buick Enclave. Ray pulled over to the right shoulder at approximately milepost 4.5. Johnson continued northbound when Ray pulled back out in the lane of travel and struck Johnson's vehicle. Ray's vehicle went back onto the right shoulder and…
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Harvard Blows The Teaching Moment
The result is that Drew Faust, president of Harvard, ended the soccer season for the first place boys’ team. How “horrible” this punishment is a fair question. It’s just a Division 1 sport, and its players lost the honor of taking the Ivy League championship and a cool ring.* Sure, for those boys who came to play soccer, as well as get a Harvard diploma, it will be a painful lesson, but it’s not as if they were expelled and branded as sexists in perpetuity, as could just as easily happened. But it was a chance for Faust to teach a lesson, which is sort of what one would hope would happen at Harvard, in a school bound up in its own peculiar issues of addressing sexism by eradicating all tradition in contravention of almost everybody’s desires. The students didn’t go to Harvard on a lark. They worked hard to get there, and want the gloss of a Harvard education to pay their freight for the rest of their natural lives. But when the Crimson…
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Harris Jail overcrowded, again; bail reform desperately needed
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards this week approved having inmates sleep on plastic cots on the floor at the Harris County Jail, which already ships out hundreds of inmates to be housed in other counties. "The commission gave the county the OK to use 192 portable beds until May 31, 2017. Commission members also approved the county's request to extend its existing variance for 580 bunk beds." TCJS executive director Brandon Wood lamented the move, which comes as the county faces federal litigation over an allegedly unconstitutional bail system, saying it "created problems."The kicker, though: Eighty percent of jail inmates are being detained pretrial and have yet to be convicted, according to the Houston Chronicle, meaning these variances and the purported jail crowding crisis spurring them are entirely a self-inflicted wound. Most of those folks could have been released pending trial. The bail reform measures being considered now should and could…
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Bridgegate Convictions and Chris Christie
Chris Christie's former ally and aide were convicted in Bridgegate. William E. Baroni Jr., the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Bridget Kelly, Christie’s former deputy chief of... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Georgia Senate Sexual Offender Registry Study Committee Meets for First the First Time
11-5-16 Georgia: DADE COUNTY, Georgia. (WDEF)- Thursday was the first meeting of the Senate Sexual Offender Registry Study committee. Members met to review ways of monitoring activities of sexual offenders in the state of Georgia. “We want to make sure rule Georgia has a say in what we do in Atlanta for our state laws too.We want to make sure that we find the right temperament. We find the
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Rethinking Nebraska's sex offender registry
11-5-16 Nebraska: OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) -- Do all the people on Nebraska’s Sex Offender Registry really need to be there? Do you think we should know the whereabouts of every sex offender in the state? Some people don’t think so. Groundbreaking research at UNO found that most sex offenders do not reoffend. Research showed that putting every sex offender on a public website can lead to harassment
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Sunday's Albuquerque Journal
Tomorrow's Albuquerque Journal should include the final poll numbers from New Mexico on all statewide races.I'm sure it may even include the numbers from some local races that aren't statewide or even in Bernalillo county.Which means tomorrow's Albuquerque Journal is a must read.I will be up early in the morning.
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"Disenfranchisement and Over-Incarceration"
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Highlighting ways marijuana reform might help undo some drug war harms
This new MarketWatch article, headlined "Marijuana ballot initiatives could get people who’ve done time for drugs back on their feet," reports on ways that marijuana reform efforts in California and other states could help unwind the drug war. Here are excerpts: The war on drugs has disproportionately punished minority groups...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/unDc6VcDdUI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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Two Forces
As always, as we are getting closer to the election, the media is painting the election as being tighter than I expect it truly is.However, this election will be a battle between two forces:1. The hidden Trump support that we all know is out there. You know, the people who will not publicly their support for Trump but will vote for him anyway in the privacy of the voting booth.Or,2. The hidden, unpolled, large Hispanic vote.Throughout America, the early voting numbers have spiked, especially in battleground states.And those spikes are usually on the Democratic side. And that means either one of two things: That there is a large portion of secret Trump support on the Democratic side, or Hispanics are turning out to vote in large numbers.As 1964 was for African-Americans, I suspect the storyline on Wednesday will be that 2016 was for Hispanics.Lastly, all throughout the campaign, the Trump camp has been heavily criticized by the not having a better ground…
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY SY GAER
Happy Birthday Sy Gaer. 11/6/1931- 8/7/2007.Korean War combat veteran.Trial lawyer.Justice Building legend and friend and mentor to scores of young prosecutors and criminal defense attorneys.We miss him every day we walk into the REGJB. The courthouse has never been the same since he left us.Site Feed
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How Prosecutors Can Use a Layperson and Not an Expert in Proving New York Grand Larceny and Stolen Property Cases
Sometimes in a New York Grand Larceny and Criminal Possession of Stolen Property arrest or trial, a criminal defense attorney challenges the value placed on property that his or her client allegedly stole. For obvious reasons, this is done to potentially reduced the degree and severity of the charged crime and to limit exposure to restitution if and when there is a conviction. This defense may be part of or distinct from an overall plan of attacking the prosecutor’s case, but one step in a defense that should not be ignored. Because of the critical importance value has to any theft, larceny or stolen property arrest, indictment or trial, I have dedicated many blog entries to this subject. This particular entry will examine how the District Attorney can present evidence to a jury as to value without an “expert”. In other words, for example, does law enforcement need the antique car dealer to testify that the vehicle in question is valued at $50,000.01 to…
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The Exhausted Overlord
The great female philospher, Lena Dunhan, twitted her cute explanation that this election wasn’t about the extinction of white man, but “the evolution of men into better men.” She didn’t quite explain what she meant by “better men,” as this was twitter, but Jill Filipovic provided a detailed explanation in the paper of record. What this campaign has shown us is that while feminism has transformed American culture, our politics and the lives of women, men haven’t evolved nearly as rapidly. Women changed. Too many men didn’t. What happens next? Filipovic provides the details of feminist evolution, the virtues that are about to culminate in the crowning achievement of an election, the ones that white males have refused to accept. For women, feminism is both remarkably successful and a work in progress: We are in the work force in record numbers, but rarely ascend to the highest ranks. Sexual violence is taken more seriously than…
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