WaPo: The Watch Blog: On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear a case with major implications for the Second and Fourth Amendments by Radley Balko: In Monday’s morning links, I noted the story of Andrew Scott, a Florida man who … Continue reading →
WaPo: The Watch Blog: On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear a case with major implications for the Second and Fourth Amendments
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Turner on Plea Bargaining
Jenia Iontcheva Turner (Southern Methodist University - Dedman School of Law) has posted Plea Bargaining (in Academy For Justice, A Report On Scholarship And Criminal Justice Reform (Erik Luna ed., 2017), Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This report...
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Vernehmlassung zur Änderung der Finanzmarktinfrastrukturverordnung
Das Eidgenössische Finanzdepartement (EFD) hat am 13. Februar die Vernehmlassung zur Änderung der Finanzmarktinfrastrukturverordnung (FinfraV) eröffnet. Mit der Revision der FinfraV (siehe E-FinfraV) werden insbesondere die Bestimmungen über die Besicherungspflicht für nicht über eine zentrale Gegenpartei abgerechnete OTC-Derivatgeschäfte an die entsprechenden Regelungen der EU (namentlich der EMIR) angeglichen. Folgende wesentlichen Änderungen werden vorgeschlagen: (i) Die Ausnahmen von der Pflicht Sicherheiten auszutauschen werden an die Regelung in der EU angeglichen und konkretisiert (vgl. Art. 100, 100 a und 100 b E-FinfraV); (ii) Der Zeitpunkt der Berechnung und Leistung der Ersteinschusszahlung wird konkretisiert und namentlich klargestellt, dass für die Abwicklung der Sicherheitsleistung die handelsüblichen Fristen gelten (vgl. Art. 101 Abs. 3 E-FinfraV); (iii) Die Vorschriften zum Zeitpunkt der Berechnung und Leistung…
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SCOTUS: Manuel v. City of Joliet: Pretrial detention is governed by the Fourth Amendment, especially when the probable cause for detention is on fabricated evidence
Manuel v. City of Joliet, 14-9496 (U.S. March 21, 2017): During a traffic stop, police officers in Joliet, Illinois, searched petitioner Elijah Manuel and found a vitamin bottle containing pills. Suspecting the pills to be illegal drugs, the officers conducted … Continue reading →
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How Long Does The District Attorney Have To File DUI Charges
DUI CHARGES CAN BE FILED UP TO ONE YEAR AFTER A DUI ARREST When a person is arrested for suspected misdemeanor DUI, he or she is typically booked at the police station, issued a citation to appear in court, and released once someone comes to pick them up. The citation to appear in court concerns the criminal charges, not the DMV administrative sanctions. The citation advises the arrestee of the court location and date in which he or she is to appear. If the arrestee does not appear on that date, a bench warrant for his or her arrest will probably be issued. The bench warrant is usually recalled once the person does appear in court. But what if the person appears in court on the date and time stated on the citation and the clerk informs him or her that the case is not on the court’s calendar. It happens. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that the arrestee somehow lucked out and the…
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IN THE MIND’S EYE
Our system of justice is designed to be impartial and fair. But judges and juries are not robots. In any criminal case, the judge and jury will not only view the evidence with neutral eyes and ears but will also rely on “soft” skills such as intuition and biases. A perfect example of this is during the sentencing phase. When a defendant is convicted of a crime, the sentence he or she receives depends—perhaps too much—on the perceived remorse of the defendant. We like to think that we are good at detecting the heart and minds of others. When an offender is convicted of a crime he or she will often be called upon to make a statement during sentencing. This is the opportunity for the now guilty offender to offer contrition and remorse. It is not uncommon to hear a judge or juror opine after such a statement that he or she didn’t believe the offender really meant it — that the statement was merely used as an opportunity. And, that may be true.…
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JUVENILE MINOR IN POSSESSION OF ALCOHOL CHARGE AVOIDED
On February 10, 2017, BH, a sixteen year old student at a prestigious private school, decided to have a party. BH invited a number of school age friends – and of course they brought along a few other friends one of whom brought alcohol to the party. They all drank for several hours. One of the young girls at the party apparently consumed some drugs. BH became very drunk and ultimately went out the back door of his house and collapsed in the snow. The girl left the party and went to a local store and collapsed in the store. She had to be brought to a local hospital. The police were summonsed to the house by neighbors. The rest of the party-goers scattered. The police found BH collapsed in the snow and brought him to the hospital. After investigation the police determined that the girl who collapsed in the store had been at the party and had consumed alcohol and drugs at the party. BH had hosted the party. Subsequently BH received a Notice of Complaint Application from the…
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News Scan
Illegal Suspected in Brutal Rape: Maria Zimmerman of Fox News reports that one of the two suspects arrested for the brutal rape of a 14-year-old girl at Rockville High School last Thursday was caught last August illegally entering the country. While the suspects, Jose Montano from El Salvador and Henry Sanchez-Milan from Guatemala, were 17 and 18 years old respectively and neither spoke English both were admitted as ninth graders at the Maryland high school, where all of their classmates were 14 or 15. The victim was walking in a school hallway when the two suspects dragged her into a boy's bathroom and repeatedly raped and sodomized her and forced her to perform oral sex. A policy director from the Center for Immigration Studies told reporters, "the surge of Central American kids has become a significant problem in many of the school districts where they are allowed to resettle," and Montgomery County has one of the "more notorious…
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Neil Gorsuch Confirmation Hearings
Donald Trump is the rudest person ever. He's interrupted Neil Gorsuch's confirmation hearing to have Spicy give a press conference. CNN is out of service on my TV, Fox and MSNBC are airing the presser. Online is the only place for the... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Recent NJ Supreme Court Case Holds That Incarceration Outside the State on Out-Of-State Charges Does Not Entitle a Defendant to Jail Credit on New Jersey Charges
The New Jersey Supreme Court decided State v. Joe on March 7, 2017. The case is significant because it relates to the issue of jail credit, which is an important issue in any case where the sentence includes the imposition of a custodial term. Briefly, the two types of credit that arise most frequently in criminal cases are jail credit and gap credit. By way of example, a defendant who has a single set of charges that are brought in a single indictment will be entitled to credit for any time spent in custody on those charges while the case is being resolved. This type of credit is generally referred to as jail credit. If the defendant is ultimately sentenced to a custodial term of five years with a three-year parole disqualifier, the jail credit will count against the three years, and the defendant will become parole eligible that much sooner. Jail credit is not to be confused with gap credit. Gap credit results when a defendant who has…
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Confirmation Hearing Follies
I've been following the Gorsuch confirmation hearing off and on today, sometimes listening and sometimes following SCOTUSblog's live blog. It's pretty much the usual, predictable, and often lamentable stuff that confirmation hearings have become today.One point I thought I would mention. At about 11:14 ET, Senator Leahy refers to the Federalist Society as a "far right" group. Seriously? I have been a member for decades, and I do not recall meeting a single Nazi or Klansman at any of the events. There is a significant diversity of viewpoint, due in large part to the organization's chimera nature of "conservative and libertarian," which are not at all the same thing. But far right?How do we define "far" and "extreme"? By the absolute value of the distance of one's views from the American median, of course. Is the Federalist Society any further from the median than…
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Opinion permitting Fourth Amendment claim based on pretrial detention following the start of legal process
Justice Kagan delivered the opinion of the Court in Manuel v. Joliet. Justice Thomas dissented. Justice Alito also filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justice Thomas joined.
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Senate confirms two (holdover) nominees to US Sentencing Commission!!
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Minnesota Boosting Funds To Stop Sex Trafficking Ahead Of Super Bowl
Law enforcement agencies in Minnesota will be receiving nearly $800,000 in grant funding that will go towards police training and special courses to help officers better spot and stop sex trafficking leading up to and through the upcoming Super Bowl in Minneapolis. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety Office of Justice Programs announces that the state will be provided with eight grants to help fund the projects, which will be split by two state-level departments and seven local government agencies. The goal of the funding is to get out ahead of the curve, as statistics show that cities that host the Super Bowl are often plagued by a severe uptick in sex crimes and human trafficking. “Taking advantage of youth and adults to use them for sex should concern every Minnesotan,” said Raeone Magnuson, the office’s director. “Providing resources and training to law enforcement enables them to strategically investigate sex trafficking cases to recover…
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Tenth Circuit clarifies and emphasizes import and reach of Graham's limit on extreme juve sentences
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WaPo: Who’s logging your face?
WaPo: Who’s logging your face? by Alvaro Bedoya: You probably remember the day you got your driver’s license. You went to the department of motor vehicles, took a driving test, stood for a photograph and then got your license. What … Continue reading →
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Third Circuit reverses obstruction of justice enhancement where failure to appear for trial was not "willful"
United States v. Kenneth R. Douglas, Docket No. 15-1754 (3d Cir. Feb. 22, 2017)Defendant Kenneth Douglas was an airport employee who used his position and security clearance to help traffic more than 450 kilograms of cocaine from California to Pittsburgh over the course of 10 months. On the day his trial was set to begin, he failed to appear in court. The next day, he filed a motion for a continuance, claiming he was receiving medical attention for a suspected heart attack at the time his trial was set to begin. He submitted medical records and a doctor's note with his motion. Despite the medical records, the district court found no "solid evidence" that Douglas was suffering from a medical condition that warranted missing court. It's really, the court said, "sort of ambiguous." The district court revoked Douglas' bail and later released him on house arrest with electronic monitoring. Douglas was convicted after trial.At sentencing, the…
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Effective Assistance, Fair Trials, and Plea Bargaining
Here is some background on a case that Senator Durbin asked Judge Gorsuch about this morning.The Sixth Amendment guarantees a criminal defendant "the assistance of counsel for his defence." The Supreme Court has interpreted that right to include the effective assistance of counsel. However, a judgment cannot be overturned on the ground of ineffective counsel unless, in addition to the lawyer being ineffective, the defendant makes a showing of resulting "prejudice." The meaning of "prejudice" in various circumstances has been the subject of a lot of cases since the high court established that standard in 1984.The purpose of the Sixth Amendment is to guarantee a fair trial. If the defendant does indeed receive a fair trial, can he get the judgment overturned on the theory that a better lawyer would have gotten him a plea bargain? That idea seems strange, given that there is no right to a plea bargain and that the…
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Baltimore School Principal Charged With Theft
The number of Baltimore City school employees recently arrested for stealing from their own schools climbed to four after a former principal was charged with numerous counts of theft and embezzlement. The 44 year-old female administrator from Owings Mills now faces felony charges in the Baltimore Circuit Court, which has seen more than its share of public corruption cases. The allegations in this particular criminal scheme are disturbing to say the least as this was far from a one-time thing for the ex principal, whose school closed down after the 2016 academic year. She had been working at the school board’s central office on North Avenue, but is now on leave and is likely never return. A male teacher from Randallstown that worked at the same alternative high school has also been charged, and he will be co-defendants with his former boss in one of her three cases. The co-defendant case has an incident date of June 8th, 2016, right around the time the school closed,…
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SIGNIFICANT VERDICT IN SYNTHETIC MARIJUANA CASE OPENS DOOR TO DEFENSE LAWYERS FOR FUTURE WINS
A number of over zealously prosecuted synthetic marijuana drug cases brought by the Justice Department based on faulty laboratory and DNA evidence are finally being undermined with expert testimony from the combined efforts of federal defense lawyers around the country. By working together attorneys were able to anticipate the best argument that federal prosecutors would make in trial and effectively rebut them with experts. A sympatheticSynthetic Marijuana ProducerSome cases are won at trial, but most victories are the result of very hard work before trial. The defense team in this case looked at over 1,100 federal designer drug cases and logged the accumulated evidence of every DEA agent and expert who testified in those cases. As one would expect our federal government over-reached going well beyond current scientific knowledge and even giving jurors contradictory evidence to win convictions where necessary in many of those…
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