When former Harris County, Texas, district attorney Devon Anderson jailed a rape victim as a material witness, screams of outrage were heard. It wasn’t the the witness, the alleged victim, wasn’t needed to prosecutor the defendant, but callousness of treating the victim as a criminal. It reflected a failure to grasp her relative role in the system, that Anderson’s desire to convict overrode any sensitivity to the needs of the person who suffered the harm of the crime. But this outrageous handling of a victim gets taken a step too far when the victim assumes that it’s now her system, to do as she wills it, to accomplish her goals. Crimes are prosecuted in the name of the people, not the victim. The victim is not the client, the complainant, the boss. She’s a witness to a crime. She should be treated respectfully in the process, but not because it’s all about her, but because prosecutors shouldn’t be monsters. And most aren’t.…
Crime and Victim’s Control
↧
↧
Fighting Over The Final Thought
Philosophy professor Rebecca Tuvel was all social justice-y, through and through, but she still wasn’t pious enough to survive being devoured by her own. She talks about “biological sex” and uses phrases like “male genitalia.” What was she thinking? After the townsfolk, armed with their torches and pitchforks, marched on feminist philosophy journal Hypatia, which collapsed like a cheap pantsuit, a bold voice come forward in Tuvel’s defense. Suzanna Danuta Walters, editor of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, took to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Explain this: We are in the midst of the Trumpian apocalypse. Actual bigoted provocateurs like Charles Murray and Ann Coulter throw flames in the academy. Hate crimes against trans people and people of color and Muslims are on the rise; women’s reproductive rights are on the line, as are just about every other aspect of bodily autonomy and gender justice. So…
↧
Short Take: The Price of Activism
Brothers Henry McCollum and Leon Brown did 30 years for a crime they didn’t commit. They never stood a chance. McCollum and Brown’s limitations have been central to their story since their arrest in 1983 for the brutal rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. Agents for the State Bureau of Investigation and officers from the Town of Red Springs elicited detailed confessions from the brothers after hours of interrogation. They were teenagers at the time, living in a small town in Robeson County. In 2014, a judge freed McCollum and Brown after DNA evidence led investigators to the real killer, a man police had originally considered a suspect in 1984. It wasn’t just that the crime was horrific, or that they were black. They lacked the capacity to put up a fight. Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, whose low IQs limit their ability to read and write, spent 30 years in prison for another man’s crime. There are some recurrent themes in criminal law, that people…
↧
NY: No REP in LPN on any vehicle; it can be run at any time for any reason
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in the LPN on a vehicle, and it can be run at anytime for any reason: “To ensure the safety of our roads, a police officer may run a license plate number through … Continue reading →
↧
OR: Here, “the ‘Private Drive’ and ‘No Trespassing’ signs did not objectively manifest an intention to prohibit public access”
“Thus, when viewed together, the ‘Private Drive’ and ‘No Trespassing’ signs did not objectively manifest an intention to prohibit public access to Lowe Road, particularly in the absence of other barriers to entry, such as fences, gates, or signs clearly … Continue reading →
↧
↧
LA4: Having PC for an hour before arrest doesn’t require officers get a warrant
The police had defendant’s vehicle under surveillance for an hour waiting for him so they could arrest. Just because they had time to get a warrant doesn’t mean that they constitutionally were required to get one. State v. Brown, 2017 … Continue reading →
↧
UT: Officer safety permits extending stop long enough to check passenger’s ID
“This case presents a single issue: does a law enforcement officer violate the Fourth Amendment if she requests that a passenger voluntarily provide identification and then runs a background check on that passenger without reasonable suspicion that the passenger has … Continue reading →
↧
Police accountability bills bottled up by House leadership, and other stories
Here are a few odds and ends that merit Grits readers attention while mine is focused elsewhere:Tragic shooting colors legislative debatesA Balch Springs cop who shot a fleeing 15-year old with a rifle has been fired from his job and faces murder charges. See the Dallas Morning News coverage. This news spurred the black caucus in the Texas Legislature to issue a stern complaint that none of the important police accountability legislation proposed this session has received a vote on the House floor. Their frustration surely contributed in part to the death of HB 2050, which expanded secrecy provisions related to police misconduct cases.Sandra Bland Act gutted in senateThe Senate Criminal Justice Committee this week passed out a radically stripped down version of the Sandra Bland Act, but quite frankly it's hard to get too excited about the minimalist items left in the bill. Wrote the Texas Tribune's Jonathan Silver:Whitmire's version most notably removes language…
↧
Juan Claudio Lechin y las cavernas del pensamiento
No sé quien miércoles es Juan Claudio Lechín, pero por lo que he leído en el enlace que comparto: http://peru21.pe/opinion/juan-claudio-lechin-pequena-estrategia-venezuela-2280630 Es muy rico o muy idiota, no sé si peruano o de otra nacionalidad, debería ser juzgado por los desprotegidos del Mundo, las barbaridades que escribe sólo podrían ser compartidas por los ricos o idiotas como él. Este pobre hombre que si algo debe saber es de fútbol asumiendo que es rico, sostiene que las marchas de la oposición deben aumentarse pues ello denotaría el descontento del pueblo, que en su perturbado pensamiento no significa los prolegómenos de la "Guerra Civil" en Venezuela. Se preocupa por Cuba y los intereses de Castro, China y Rusia, también por los militares que saquearán la República Bolivariana. Este pobre hombre, asalariado del poder no tiene idea de…
↧
↧
Case o' The Week: Ninth Inspired When Counsel Not Fired - Velazquez and Motions for New Counsel
The Honorable Judge Michelle Friedland As any experienced district judge knows, some prosecutions are two-attorney cases. And some, explains the Ninth, are three. United States v. Velazquez, 2017 LEXIS 7674 (9thCir. May 1, 2017), decision available here.Players:Decision by Judge Friedland, joined by Judge Kozinski and (Sixth Circuit) Judge Gilman. Facts: Guadalupe Velazquez, a teenager attending Arizona State University on a scholarship, dated a man involved in a marijuana importation conspiracy. Id. at *3. She was charged federally, along with her boyfriend and a dozen or so others. Id. at *4. Her first appointed withdrew after an irreconcilable conflict. Id. Her second attorney, Countryman, was appointed. Id. Countryman missed a deadline to file a suppression motion. Id. Velazquez filed a pro se motion seeking new counsel, citing the missed deadline. She also filed pro se motions related to discovery, trial timelines, and jurisdiction. Id.…
↧
Alabama’s Criminal Laws — Trafficking drugs
Alabama’s laws provide for three levels of drug offense — Possession, Distribution, and Trafficking. Trafficking is by far the most serious of these offenses and carries a mandatory prison sentence as outlined below. The distinction between Possession, Distribution, and Trafficking is based mainly on the weight of the drugs involved. As you will see by reading below, the punishments for Trafficking offenses in Alabama are severe and, importantly, mandatory. Prison time called for by these laws cannot be suspended or split by the sentencing judge. These are extremely serious charges and should not be taken lightly by anyone facing a Trafficking charge. A skilled, experienced lawyer is a must for anyone facing a Trafficking offense. This blog entry will outline the most common forms of Trafficking in Alabama — Cannabis (Marijuana,) Cocaine, and Methamphetamine — and will discuss the weights necessary to qualify under each substance: Trafficking in…
↧
Notable new Atlantic series "on efforts across the United States to move beyond the age of mass incarceration"
↧
Healthcare Claims Fraud is Back in the News
Dr. Salomon Melgen, a soon-to-be former ophthalmologist, who still faces criminal charges for bribing New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, was recently found guilty of healthcare claims fraud following a seven-week jury trial. His case is significant because it highlights some of the activities that typically cause medical service providers to becomes investigative targets and, ultimately, criminal defendants in serious healthcare claims fraud cases that can result in the loss of a professional license, an entire medical practice, and jail time. Briefly, Melgen was charged in a 67-count federal indictment with fraud, falsifying medical records and submitting fictitious claims to Medicare. Federal prosecutors alleged that between 2008 and 2013, he billed more than $190 million to Medicare, which paid him approximately $105 million. According to the Government, the vast majority of his billings were based upon false and/or fictitious diagnoses, unjustified…
↧
↧
El anonimato en la Red
http://www.expreso.com.pe/opinion/david-santivanez/derecho-al-anonimato-microdebate-la-web/ En este enlace su autor reflexiona sobre el anonimato en la Red, al respecto pienso lo siguiente: Al poder le conviene el anonimato la seguridad que tanto se proclama no vale ni el vuelto de un pan si se paga con una moneda de 50 celtismos, ¿Por qué? Puede detectar el sentir social de los navegantes por más anónimo que el tonto crea ser, así se puede saber la posición de quienes argumentando y fundándose en ideas proponen alternativas a una iniciativa gubernamental que sólo le interesa al poder, identificar al enmascarado sólo es cuestión de tiempo. Es usado por cobardes que tienen miedo hasta del aire que respiran pero no dudarían en apoyar ideas nada santas de la administración de una Nación e incluso impulsar la desobediencia civil ante la arbitrariedad. El…
↧
Michigan Driver’s License Restoration – Winning back your FULL License – Part 2
In part 1 of this article, we began examining an appeal for a “full” Michigan license, and how a person gets off the interlock after having initially won his or her driver’s license restoration case. We noted that simply not losing your restricted license in the intervening year(s) isn’t anywhere near good enough to win back your full license, and that there’s a lot more to this than just coming back and asking for it. Most people (I estimated more than 80%) will experience a “glitch” or two on the interlock device while using it, and those issues will have to be addressed at the hearing for a full license, even if none of them results in a formal ignition interlock violation. We noted that, just as in a first-time license appeal, every hearing officer is different, and that some have more patience than others, the flip side being that some are more prone to “violation fatigue” and begin to shut down…
↧
E.D.N.Y.: 791 days of GPS tracking of a parolee suppressed
Back on December 29th was this post: E.D.N.Y.: 791 days of GPS tracking of a parolee to catch others in a DTO was [somehow] not unreasonable. On review, Judge Weinstein finds that intense tracking violated the Fourth Amendment and there … Continue reading →
↧
3 Ways to Improve Law Firm Innovation
Lawyers need to find witnesses. They look for assets to see if it’s worth suing or if they can collect after they win. They want to profile opponents for weaknesses based on past litigation or business dealings. Every legal matter turns on facts. Most cases don’t go to trial, fewer still go to appeal, but all need good facts. Without decent facts, they face dismissal or don’t even get to the complaint stage. Do law schools teach any of these skills? Ninety-nine percent do not. Good fact-finding requires something not taught at a lot of law schools: innovation and creativity. Of course, good judges can maneuver the law through creative decisions, and good lawyers are rightly praised for creative ways to interpret a regulation or to structure a deal. But when it comes to fact gathering, the idea for most lawyers seems to be that you can assign uncreative, non-innovative people to plug data into Google, Westlaw or Lexis, and out will come the data you need.…
↧
↧
Top-Ten Recent SSRN Downloads in Criminal Law eJournal
are here. The usual disclaimers apply. Rank Downloads Paper Title 1 2,504 Why Prison?: An Economic Critique Peter N. Salib United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Date posted to database: 7 Mar 2017 2 874 Law, Virtual...
↧
Reflecting on decreasing death sentences and increasing life sentences
↧
What is Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment?
Quid pro quo sexual harassment (translated from Latin as “this for that”) occurs when an employer or supervisor asks or suggests through physical conduct that an employee perform sexual favors in return for some benefit at work, such as favorable performance reviews, desirable work shifts or promotions. The suggestion of sexual favors in exchange for avoiding an adverse employment action, such as a poor performance review or even termination, is also an example of quid pro quo sexual harassment. In any case, quid pro quo sexual harassment is illegal under both federal and many state laws. Legal remedies include compensatory damages to recover lost wages, benefits or opportunities; reinstatement to the victim’s former position if they were terminated; and monetary damages due to pain and suffering or emotional distress. Contact a top New York sexual harassment attorney if you believe you are a victim of quid pro quo sexual harassment.…
↧
More Pages to Explore .....
