A defendant appealed from a judgment of sentence imposed in March 2016, after he was found guilty of two counts of DUI-controlled substance and one count of failing to drive on the right side of a roadway. The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed his conviction. On January 11, 2015, at approximately 1:50 a.m., two Pennsylvania State Troopers were driving in the Canandohta Lake area. One of them was driving south on Lakeview Drive when he observed the defendant’s car approaching him. The officer testified that he saw that the defendant’s vehicle was somewhat in his lane of travel and that as the two vehicles approached each other, the defendant’s vehicle slowly moved back into its proper lane. The officer then turned left into a private driveway, backed out onto Lakeview Drive, and proceeded northbound to follow the defendant. He testified that he decided to follow the defendant based on the observation that he…
Pennsylvania Appeals Court Upholds Defendant’s DUI Conviction
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//blawgsearch75.rssing.com/chan-6519914/article23522-live.html
1. United States v. Job, No. 14-50472 (3-14-17)(Friedman w/Tashima and Paez). The 9th reversed the denial of a suppression motion, vacated a conviction, affirmed a conspiracy conviction, made sentencing rulings, and remanded for resentencing. This case concerned a meth conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute. The search of the defendant was supposedly conducted under a probation waiver of 4th amendment rights. However, the officers conducted the search of person and car without knowing of the defendant's probationary status or the waiver. As to the search of person and car search, the 9th found it unreasonable, and not falling under Terry. As such, the evidence was suppressed. This had the effect of vacating the possession with intent conviction. The conspiracy conviction was affirmed, however, because independent evidence supported it.As for sentencing, the district court failed to make findings as to three…
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More notable comments about marijuana and federal enforcement from AG Sessions in new speech and Q&A
Over at my Sentencing Law & Policy blog, I have this new post highlights various aspects of this extended speech delivered by Attorney General Jeff Sessions today in Richmond, Virginia. Though covering various topics, these passages from the speech are sure to intrigue those following marijuana law, policy and reform:...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/zAJg2XyTMv8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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Selfie Leads Florida Police to Alleged Reckless Rider
Technology has made our communications and interactions instantaneous. It’s become second-nature to document almost every waking moment – from what we’re eating for breakfast to conflicts at work to expressions of affection, amusing observations and plans. But the platforms on which we share these insights and information aren’t as private as we might think. Law enforcement agencies and prosecutors have gotten very adept at scouring these sites for evidence that may help bolster a criminal case. That could include identification of a suspect or evidence that might be used against a known person or both. People need to be very mindful of this fact when they go to post anything on the internet – even in seemingly closed communications. Recently, The Sun Sentinel reported Hollywood police officers were able to track down a man who evaded police with active lights-and-sirens on an all-terrain vehicle while riding down the highway during a, “Bikes…
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[VIDEO] Will Virginia Possession of Marijuana Suspend Your License?
The answer is yes, but you might have some options so there is no license suspension at risk. Take a look in this video at some options you may have. Video Transcription – Hi, I’m Andrew Flusche, your Virginia defense lawyer. If you’re charged with possession of marijuana in Virginia, will your license be suspended? The the answer is yes, if you’re found guilty of the offense, or if you opt to do for the first offender program. By law, either option, either a guilty finding for marijuana, or doing the first offender program to have the case dismissed, either one will result in a six month suspension of your license. But that’s not the end of the story. So many people hear that and think, oh, I can’t drive to work, or I can’t drive to school. What am I going to do? In most cases, at least around the Fredricksburg, Stafford, Spotsylvania area, most of the time, if you’re in that situation where you get a possession of marijuana…
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A Fustian Bargain: Your Speech For His Feelz
At the totally not-fake-news site, Slate, University of Chicago senior Osita Nwanevu argues that it’s not at all outrageous to stamp out bigoted speech under the catchy headline, The Kids Are Right. His post is directed at the campus attack on Charles Murray, a cause he deems unquestionably righteous. Charles Murray, an author and political scientist, was scheduled to give a lecture at Middlebury College earlier this month. Murray is best known for co-authoring The Bell Curve, a book published in 1994 in which he argued that blacks are less intelligent than white people. On March 2, a mix of students and “outside agitators” shut down Murray’s talk and forced him off campus. A professor was injured and hospitalized, and Murray’s car was mobbed. Putting aside that Nwanevu apparently never read The Bell Curve, since that wasn’t what Murray “argued” at all, his embrace of the pop culture notion that it’s good enough to…
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Wednesday Open Thread: Ketchup Edition
Who doesn't put ketchup on steak? They go together like coffee and milk, peanut butter and jelly, pork chops and applesauce. The only steaks I don't eat with ketchup are those in fajitas and Thai and Vietnamese steak salads (the chili-lime... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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News Scan
Jihadists Getting Religious Visas?: Security experts and religious leaders are warning that the 5-year visa granted to non-immigrant clerics may be an avenue that Islamic extremists are using to enter the U.S. According to Hollie McKay at Fox News, The R visa program is for non-immigrant clerics and religious workers, allowing successful applicants to stay in the U.S. for up to five years. Following the 5-year period, holders of the R visa would have the chance to pursue citizenship in the United States. Col. James Williamson, who founded a group that advocates for U.S. special forces, said the program, which was created in 1990, must be tightened because of the extent to which it makes the U.S. vulnerable to jihadi attacks. "The administration should at least temporarily suspend this dangerous loophole in our immigration process," he said. Victim's Fiance says "The System Failed Us": The fiance of a women killed in a drunk…
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Police Searching For Rockville Gun Shop Burglars
Two suspects who burglarized a Rockville gun shop last week remain at large, and now law enforcement officers believe they may be linked to another recent burglary in nearby Virginia. Montgomery County police officers were alerted to the crime scene last week by the store’s alarm system at round 4 a.m., and they quickly responded to the Rockville shop to find the door pried open and glass cases smashed. Several firearms were taken from the glass cases as well as from racks behind the counter. In total the store reported more than 30 missing handguns and long rifles. The burglary gained national attention after the entire 90-second spree was captured on two high definition cameras, which were played for television and internet audiences. Both suspects were covered head to toe on black garb, and their faces were covered, thus making visual identification nearly impossible. A small clip of one of the suspects warning the other that it was time to leave the scene is…
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Do You Have a Warrant out for Your Arrest?
Imagine you are driving with your family and you see flashing lights in the rearview mirror. As you pull over, you believe that you may only get a ticket – or even a warning – for going too fast. Instead, ten minutes later, you are sitting in the back of the police car being taken to jail in handcuffs. The officers arrested you right then and there in front of your family because they said you had a warrant out for your arrest. Suddenly, you are facing more than embarrassment, as you receive a summons to court to face criminal charges. Unfortunately, this situation is all too real for many people who were unaware they had active warrants in the Baltimore area. Once a warrant is issued, police officers have the options of seeking you out to serve the warrant and place you under arrest. However, unless you are suspected of committing a serious crime, police will often wait until they encounter you at a traffic stop or in person and then will act upon the warrant.…
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NACDL Report: Policing Body Cameras: Policies and Procedures to Safeguard the Rights of the Accused.
Washington, DC (Mar. 15, 2017) — The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), with support from the Foundation for Criminal Justice (FCJ), today releases Policing Body Cameras: Policies and Procedures to Safeguard the Rights of the Accused. This report … Continue reading →
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D.Mont.: Def’s live-in girlfriend’s consent was enough to expand the SW beyond its particularity; she volunteered something police weren’t even looking for
Defendant had an argument with his live-in girlfriend which escalated about the time the police arrived to hear it outside. They got a search warrant for his handgun, some papers, and her belongings to help her get out. She assisted … Continue reading →
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Recent action – “CPT Pete” goes back to the courts-martial circuit – Wins!
Oh man, has it really been that long since I last posted on this blog? I feel like I need to go to confession – “Forgive me father for I have sinned, it has been eight months since my last blog post….” But enough about that, instead, let’s start with some success – in the Air Force. Last summer I had a client charged with rape in Twin Falls, but he wasn’t guilty and the prosecutor eventually DISMISSED the case and publicly proclaimed his innocence. Not a bad result considering how difficult it is to get anyone to believe a “victim” would never make up such a story. The truth is they sometimes do make it up. So off we go to an Air Force case in which three women claim to have been sexually assaulted by our client. As we prepared to go to trial last September, we discovered that there might have been video recorded evidence on a phone the Government lab had not been able to fully process. That caused a big time out, and reset…
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Facebook and Attempting To Obtain Property By False Pretenses
This post examines a recent opinion from the Court of Appeals of North Carolina: North Carolina v. Arthiando Lurez Phillips, 2017 WL 899991 (2017). The court begins the opinion, as courts usually do, by explaining how and why the prosecution arose and what happened at the trial court level:On 17 March 2014, Detective Micah Sturgis with the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office attended a meeting with members from multiple nearby police departments and sheriffs' offices. At the meeting, officers with the Gaffney Police Department reported that several items of Michael Kors inventory, including `purses, pocketbooks, [and] backpacks,’ were being stolen from the Michael Kors Outlet store in Gaffney.A week later, Detective Sturgis was on his personal Facebook page when he noticed a posting for Michael Kors backpacks for sale on a website called `One Man's Junk,’ which he described as an online `flea market.’ The backpacks, with accompanying photographs,…
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Leasure & Andersen on Certificates of Relief
Peter Leasure and Tia Stevens Andersen (University of South Carolina, College of Arts and Sciences, Students and University of South Carolina) have posted The Effectiveness of Certificates of Relief as Collateral Consequence Relief Mechanisms: An Experimental Study (Yale Law and...
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Harmless Error and Jury Unanimity in DWI Cases
Shortly after I published last week’s post on State v. Babich, an astute reader asked about the court’s harmless error analysis. How, he inquired, could the improper admission of expert testimony that the defendant had an alcohol concentration of 0.08 be harmless error? Did the jury’s verdict indicate that it found the defendant guilty only under the “under the influence” prong of impairment rather than under the “alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more” prong? To answer these questions, I had to dig into the record on appeal and provide a bit of background on the requirement for jury unanimity in DWI cases. I thought others might be interested in my response. Review. A person commits the offense of driving while impaired if she (a) drives, (b) a vehicle, (c) on a street, highway, or public vehicular area, (d) while impaired. G.S. 20-138.1(a). The State may establish impairment in any one of three ways: by proving that the defendant…
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Griffin on Hindsight Blind Spots
Lisa Kern Griffin (Duke University School of Law) has posted Criminal Adjudication, Error Correction, and Hindsight Blind Spots (73 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 165 (2016)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Concerns about hindsight in the law typically arise...
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AG Sessions directs get tough on crime campaign
OK – I get it. If you are the Prez’ and you ran on a scare platform that crime is rampant in the streets and makes it more likely you will be murdered in Chicago than you will find an empty Starbucks in Seattle, you’ve got to get tough on crime! So the Donald’s new AG is not fooling around. By Memo dated March 8, 2017 he directs the 94 United States Attorneys Offices to “partner with federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement to specifically identify the criminals responsible for significant violent crime in their districts” and then use “the substantial tools at their disposal to hold them accountable….” And those federal agencies like the FBI and other law enforcement types of both state and local varieties have lots of “tools” by which to ferret out crime. And AG Sessions reminds prosecutors to target certain federal crimes and be creative, while awaiting an “upcoming memorandum on charging for…
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Q: Why Do Normal People Ignore Legal Academia? Part II
In a post a few days ago, I noted what was advertised as a scholarly article arguing that "data-driven" analysis, assessed through the lens of law and economics, tells us that we can and should abolish prison. I had my doubts, as did everyone who commented on the piece.Still, legal academics, for all their zaniness from the perspective of normal people, keep on keepin' on.Today's specimen, featured (as was its predecessor) in SL&P, tells us that we can virtually abolish prison through technology. Ankle bracelets, movement monitors, and a nifty gadget called a "conducted energy device" (which appears to be a euphemism for an electronic shock belt) would "achieve all of the appropriate objectives of imprisonment, including both the imposition of proportionate punishment and also community protection."Where to start? One place we can start is with the sole comment so far on SL&P, from a centrist attorney who…
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Domestic Assault Charge Avoided
ED, a 61 year old financier, lives on the first floor of a two family house in North Andover. His brother and father live on the second floor. ED and his brother have been on bad terms with one another for years. On February 19, 2017 ED went upstairs to the second floor apartment to check on his father. ED and his brother got into an argument. The brother called the North Andover Police and told the police that ED had pushed the brother to the floor. The police came to the house and spoke first to the brother. The brother repeated that he had been pushed to the floor by ED. The police then went and spoke to ED. ED told the police that there had been an argument and that the two brothers had pushed one another. The North Andover Police filed applications for criminal complaints for assault against both brothers. The applications were set down for a hearing on March 16, 2017. ED consulted and retained Attorney Robert Lewin from North Andover. ED had no criminal record and worked…
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