Son las 8.51 pm he dejado de ver “Hora Clave” estando como entrevistada la señora Diana Miloslavich, antes que ella lo hizo la señora Patricia Donayre Pasquel quien es congresista, a ninguna de las dos conozco y cuando vi a la señora Donayre Pasquel inmediatamente recordé la versión moderna de “Hansel & Gretel” y no precisamente por Gretel. De ambas entrevistadas me confundió la posición de la señora Miloslavich quien sugería en el caso de la elección para ocupar las alcaldías que cada partido o movimiento político se obligue a postular no menos del 40% de mujeres a ocupar tal cargo así sin más, las condiciones y calidades personales entiendo de estas candidatas son lo de menos, se me ocurre pensar en una rifa, en un concurso de belleza o alguna otra perezosa actividad; Pero si no lo fueran y realmente importaran los conocimientos,…
REFORMA ELECTORAL
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Media advisory: 27 new Idaho State Police Troopers receive their badges today, Capitol Rotunda, 10:00 a.m.
Immediate Release, 28 April 2017 Contact: Tim Marsano, ISP PIO (208) 884-7122 Who / where: Twenty seven newly commissioned ISP Troopers will receive their badges today in a ceremony on the 2nd floor, Capitol Rotunda. When: 10:00 a.m., TODAY, Friday, April 28, 2017 What: The 27 men and women of "Advanced Training Class #45" have undergone 4 months of rigorous training and this is the culmination of that training. As part of the training, they have learned arrest techniques, driving skills, report writing, communication skills and evidence collection. They have also undergone demanding physical training during this 16-week course. The newly minted ISP Troopers have all been issued patrol cars and these will be on display in front of the Capitol building. The ceremony will be overseen by former ISP Trooper Richard Wills. The Troopers have each been assigned to one of 6 district offices throughout the state. Why: These ISP Troopers replace former Troopers who…
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Morse on Involuntary Competence
Stephen Morse (University of Pennsylvania Law School) has posted Involuntary Competence in United States Criminal Law (in Fitness to Plead: International and Comparative Perspectives (Ronnie Mackay & Warren Brookbanks eds., Oxford University Press, Forthcoming)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:...
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New Scientific Research Entitles Florida Father to Evidentiary Hearing on Child Abuse Charges
The case of a father convicted of child abuse in Pinellas County back in the 1990s is back in the news again. Multiple news sources, including CNN and the Tampa Bay Times, have revisited the father’s story after the Second District Court of Appeal recently ruled that the newly discovered evidence presented by the father’s legal team entitled him to a hearing. The evidence, according to the defense lawyers, showed that the child’s injuries were due to a bone disease and that the child was not a victim of abuse at all. The headline-making case shows just how important scientific evidence can be in certain criminal defense matters. The facts of this case and the arguments on appeal sound like something from a medical drama on TV. A father and mother noticed that their infant son was in pain and not using the left side of his body. They took him to the emergency room. There, the medical staff diagnosed the child with 13 broken bones and a skull fracture. The…
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AGGRAVATED DUI: WHAT REALLY CAUSED THE ACCIDENT?
Before the Illinois legislature amended the law, you could be convicted of Aggravated DUI if you were the proximate cause of an accident that resulted in great bodily harm or death, and you had any amount of a controlled substance in your system. The state did not have to prove the drug caused impaired driving. The 2016 changes to the law, also known as the trace law, defines how much marijuana is enough to presume you were impaired. But what if you can prove that something else really caused your accident? Are you automatically guilty? A recent Illinois Supreme Court decision has held that a driver may show that another factor was the sole and exclusive proximate cause for an accident. In People v Way, a driver claimed that a sudden loss of blood pressure, rather than the drugs in her system, was the real reason for her crash. The court reasoned that nothing in the law prevented a driver from raising the defense that a sudden, unforeseeable medical condition made…
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Florida Spring Breakers, Tourists, Grapple With Hangover of Vacation Arrest
Throngs of spring breakers and tourists start to flood Florida coasts beginning in March, with spring break hitting its peak around the middle of the month. However, those who came for a week may find they are dealing with our court system for much longer. The Sun-Sentinel reported spring breakers kept local law enforcement agencies busy, with offenses ranging from slapping the rear quarter of a police horse and underage drinking. Fort Lauderdale police issued a warning to both locals and visitors in advance of spring break, insisting there would be a “zero tolerance” policy of enforcing state laws and local ordinances. In many cases, that meant arresting spring breakers, who now may face the expensive possibility of having to return to Florida to face the music in court. Our Fort Lauderdale criminal defense attorneys know that for arrested tourists and spring breakers, these kinds of ordeals can cost them into the thousands of dollars when all…
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Driving Under the Influence of Drugs is Now Deadlier than Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol
Headline: Driving Under the Influence of Drugs is Now Deadlier than Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol You might have heard something on the news or read a news story, or perhaps you only caught the headline suggesting that drugged driving now surpasses drunken driving in fatal crashes. Well, not exactly. What these news stories are citing is an updated report from the U.S. Department of Transportation Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). The FARS study surveyed data of drug and alcohol testing of drivers who died in a car crash and found that 44.6% of the drivers had drugs in their system, while only 39.1% had alcohol in their system. But the statistics are murky: not all fatally-injured drivers were tested for drugs or alcohol; 57% were tested for drugs and 70.9% were tested for alcohol. At first glance, the fact that more fatally injured drivers were tested for alcohol than for drugs and less showed positive for alcohol might seem to make an even better case for…
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Executions, Movement, Sounds, and Expectations
Fox 16 News in Arkansas has this 12-minute video with its reporter Donna Terrell, a witness to last night's execution of Kenneth Williams. Five minutes in, she says Williams' chest was going up and down, though her description is less dramatic than that of another media witness. This lasted about four minutes, she says. She does not say that anything she observed indicated pain. She saw no grimacing or clenched fist, but what she saw was not the peaceful "going to sleep" that she expected.I wonder how the witnesses are briefed on what to expect. Movements do happen. This article by Dr. Patty Khuly (DVM, presumably) on PetMD, regarding animal euthanasia, says:Movement after death (such as an intake of breath) is not considered a sign of pain or incomplete euthanasia. It is common. In fact, some postmortem movement is typical. It happens because of electrical impulses remaining in the peripheral nerves of the body after…
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Washington Appeals Court Finds No Prosecutorial Misconduct in Vehicular Assault Case
In cases involving driving under the influence, the state often relies on test results to show that the defendant was intoxicated. However, the prosecutor may also point to the defendant’s behavior as evidence of intoxication. A Washington appeals court recently considered whether a prosecutor committed misconduct when she referenced negative statements the defendant made about the other driver and her passenger after the accident in a recent unpublished case. The defendant appealed his convictions for two counts of vehicular assault. According to the appeals court’s opinion, the defendant had three or four drinks on the evening of the collision. His blood alcohol level after the accident was .12 grams per 100 milliliters. A witness had seen the defendant’s truck swerve across the yellow line several times. The witness saw the defendant drive into the opposite lane toward an oncoming car. The two vehicles collided head-on. …
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"Rethinking Federal Diversion: The Rise of Specialized Criminal Courts"
The title of this post is the title of this notable new paper authored by Christine Scott-Hayward now available via SSRN. Here is the abstract: Over the last five years, there has been a proliferation in the federal system of front-end specialized criminal courts. Most of these courts are drug courts, but there are also veterans courts, courts for youthful defendants, and new "alternative to incarceration" courts. Although these courts are often described as "diversion" courts, most of them do not offer true diversion, whereby a defendant does not receive a criminal conviction. They have received significant support from a variety of stakeholders, including former Attorney General Eric Holder. This paper explores the origins and development of front-end federal specialized criminal courts, and situates them in the existing landscape of diversion and alternative to incarceration laws and programs, particularly those in the federal criminal justice…
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The "Supreme Court's new guy," so far
Brent Kendall and Jess Bravin have this article at the WSJ on Justice Gorsuch's initial days at the Supreme Court. The title of this post comes from the article subtitle. About all they have to report so far, of course, is style during oral argument.While the new justice's future votes and opinions remain to be seen, his early style suggests, at minimum, that he will be not just a conservative justice but a forceful one, unafraid to articulate potentially bold approaches that may or may not attract support from his colleagues.His sole opportunity to take a meaningful action so far came off the bench, when he sided with fellow conservative justices to let Arkansas execute three inmates, though he issued no opinion. The next chance to take Justice Gorsuch's measure comes when the court delivers new opinions in the coming weeks. He will have the opportunity to author one, perhaps two, majority decisions--and as many concurring and dissenting opinions as…
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W.D.N.Y.: SW materials not yet releasable because investigation is ongoing; defense can get it later
The search warrant materials in this case are not released yet because the case is still pretrial and there is investigative and CI information that shouldn’t be disclosed yet. “In evaluating a common law claim of access to judicial documents, … Continue reading →
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D.Mont.: Possession of a camera phone was violation of release conditions and justified PO search
Defendant had a release condition to stay away from children, but he babysat two and he let them use his cell phone connected to his computer. This was reasonable suspicion for a search of the cell phone and computer for … Continue reading →
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D.Kan.: 37 day old knowledge of def’s suspended DL wasn’t stale for RS for a stop
The officer’s prior knowledge that defendant’s license was expired wasn’t considered stale for a stop, even for 37 days. [It’s a stop on reasonable suspicion, not a search on probable cause.] United States v. Bell, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62616 … Continue reading →
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The Court-Martial, Indecent Exposure and Transmitting a Photograph of a Penis
This post examines a recent opinion from the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals: U.S. v. Entzminger, 76 M.J. 518 (2017). The court begins the opinion by explaining that[i]n this case, we find appellant was improvident when he pleaded guilty to violating Article 120c, UCMJ, for indecent exposure when the underlying offense was based on appellant electronically transmitting a photograph of his penis to a victim. The staff judge advocate (SJA) provided incorrect legal advice to the convening authority in the addendum to the staff judge advocate's post-trial recommendation (SJAR) when he advised the convening authority that no legal error occurred regarding appellant's conviction for indecent exposure under Article 120c Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. § 920c (2012) [hereinafter UCMJ] in light of United States v. Williams, 75 M.J. 663, 669 (Army Ct. Crim. App. 2016).U.S. v. Entzminger, supra.The Court goes on to explain that[a] military judge…
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NFL commissioner reluctant to support allowing players to use "addictive" marijuana
During an interview this morning on ESPN's "Mike and Mike," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he doesn't yet believe marijuana use has any place in the league. According to this CBSSports.com article: Although the league has lowered its penalties for testing positive for marijuana -- and not, you know, suspending...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/NJUczMn6VPU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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CA10: Successful suppression of evidence is not a “favorable outcome” for malicious prosecution purposes against the prosecutor; QI granted
Successful suppression of evidence is not a “favorable outcome” for malicious prosecution purposes against the prosecutor. It doesn’t show actual innocence. Margheim v. Buljko, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 7421 (10th Cir. April 27, 2017): Dismissal of the Drug Case was … Continue reading →
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Must I sue the FBI to resolve my NICS appeal and exercise my Second Amendment right to keep and bear firearms?
Suppose the government somehow prohibited you from speaking or writing on a vital topic. The economy, for example, or foreign policy, or even the designated-hitter rule. Or suppose the government prohibited you and others from gathering in a private home for religious study. And suppose you objected to the government, and explained that the First Amendment protected your right to speak, to write, to assemble as a group, and to freely exercise your religious belief. And suppose the government responded to your objection by telling you that it would give your complaint thorough and thoughtful consideration and give you a response in about 20 months. Continue reading
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Splitting the Ninth, Again
The idea of splitting the Ninth Circuit is in the news again. In this article by Sarah Westwood of the Washington Examiner, based on an interview, she quotes President Trump saying he has considered the proposals to break up the Ninth. He states that his main concern is judge-shopping.At the WaPo, Amber Phillips writes, "So, no. President Trump cannot wave his pen and break up a federal court like he suggested he wants to do." Phillips does not quote any language by the President saying or implying that he believes he can do that unilaterally, and there is none in Westwood's article, so I don't know where she gets that. It would, of course, take an act of Congress.Phillips goes on to state some reasons for not breaking up the Ninth, but she fails to recognize the best one from the President's point of view. Breaking up the Ninth would aggravate, not ameliorate, the judge-shopping problem that is the President's…
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Police Use Fitbit Data to Charge Husband with his Wife’s Murder
Richard Dabate, a 40 year old man from Connecticut, was charged with the alleged murder of his wife after the police found electronic evidence which included data from her Fitbit fitness tracker. In December 2015, Dabate told the police that he left his home to go to work at 8:30 a.m., but then received an alert from his home security system, that the alarm had been activated. Dabate claimed to have emailed his boss from his car to let him know he would be late for work. But, the evidence had indicated that the alarm had not been activated, and that Dabate had actually emailed his boss from his laptop at home. Dabate also allegedly checked the time of his wife’s exercise class from his laptop. Dabate had told police that he was unable to stop an intruder from shooting and killing his wife after she had returned home from her exercise class. The Fitbit data records, however, told a different story. The data showed Connie Dabate’s movement up until 10:15 a.m. on the…
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