"Is the death penalty dying in Dallas County?"
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My Boyfriend Told me to Refuse the Test
/Criminal-Defense/Traffic-Offenses.aspxMy Boyfriend told me to Refuse the Test I repeat client called me yesterday to tell me she was arrested for her third DUI last weekend. She was driving home from work at a local night club and was pulled over for swerving. I asked her about the contact with law enforcement and she told me she performed the field sobriety tests and attempted the field breath test at least 6 times. She was then arrested and taken to Van Nuys Police Station for booking. The officers asked her if she wanted to take a breath or blood test at the station and she refused both. When I asked her why she refused she told me that her boyfriend had always told her to refuse the test. Her boyfriend is not a lawyer, or a police officer or a judge. He is another former client of mine, having been in trouble more than once and is in no position to give legal advice. Now my client is facing a mandatory minimum 120 days jail for her third dui, plus…
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Sonoma County – Sebastopol Driver Disputes DUI
A man arrested for drunk driving on May 27, 2017, after being pulled over for running a red light disputed a Sebastopol police officer’s claims that he was impaired and was falling down drunk, because he could play hopscotch and do math equations. Sebastopol Police indicate that the suspect ran a traffic light at Sebastopol and Petaluma avenues and a breath alcohol tested showed that he had a blood alcohol content slightly above the legal limit of 0.08%. Although the driver contended, that he wasn’t driving under the influence because he could play hopscotch and perform mathematics equations, the Sebastopol Police stressed that a driver need not be stumbling drunk or sloppy drunk in order for their driving ability to be effected by substances, including alcohol, marijuana, and, over-the-counter prescription medicines Sonoma and Marin County drivers face an estimated $10,000.00 expense for a first DUI and a conviction…
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Prisoners of Childhood
Boys will be boys. Kids will be kids. Children are not yet adults. And the adults running our country are insane. [R]esearch has suggested that—for better or worse, and despite laws already prohibiting the practice—the majority of teens have engaged in sexting, though most don’t know it could land them in jail. A 2014 study by Drexel University, for one, found that more than half of undergrads who’d participated in an anonymous online survey admitted to sexting when they were teens, with almost 30% saying they’d included photos, and over 60% revealing they were unaware such acts violated child pornography laws. Now comes a bill to make it a federal crime, punishable by anywhere from 15 years to life in federal prison. It somehow managed to pass the House of Representatives. Our representatives. Thankfully, Unicorn Booty is on top of the story. There is so much wrapped up in this story I almost don’t even know where to…
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Cohen on Predicting Sex Offender Recidivism
Thomas H. Cohen (Government of the United States of America - Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts) has posted Predicting Sex Offender Recidivism: Using the Federal Post-Conviction Risk Assessment Instrument to Assess the Likelihood of Recidivism Among Federal Sex Offenders...
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Can Teens Get in Legal Trouble for Sexting?
Today, young people and teenagers do more communicating online than they do in person Parents today face a lot of challenges. Back in the day, parents had to worry about things like their children watching too much television or maybe pigging out on junk food in the middle of the night. The internet didn’t exist, and kids rode their bikes until the street lights turned on. Teenagers hung out at the mall or spent hours on the phone. The twenty-first century is a lot different. Today, young people and teenagers do more communicating online than they do in person. It’s common for teens to maintain multiple social media accounts, and the majority of teens (73%) own a smartphone. For today’s teenagers, social media is simply part of everyday life. Because they have grown up with it, they don’t always know when online behavior crosses the line from innocent to illegal. A portmanteau of “sex” and “texting,” sexting occurs when a person…
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Preparing to win your Michigan License Appeal Hearing
It’s been a while since I’ve written about my pre-hearing “prep-session” that I have before every driver’s license restoration or clearance hearing I handle. I do these preps with all of my clients, and feel that it is not only key to my success, but also helps alleviate much of my client’s pre-hearing stress. It’s normal, as the hearing date approaches, for a person to be apprehensive and nervous, so I want to help my client gain a sense of calm, and confidence. When I’m done, beyond merely having made my client ready for the hearing, I will have also demystified the whole hearing process for him or her so that they understand there’s no real reason to be fearful. It is important that when my client walks into the Michigan Secretary of State’s Administrative Hearing Section (AHS) hearing room, he or she knows exactly what to expect. Equally important is that my client has the security of…
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OK: State can’t show refusal to consent as consciousness of guilt (surveying cases), but here it was harmless
In this death penalty appeal, the heavy weight of authority (surveying many cases) is that defendant’s refusal to consent cannot be used to show he is hiding evidence or to show consciousness of guilt. Some cases find it a due … Continue reading →
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E.D.Va.: Potential fraud conspiracy provided inference for PC to search cell phones
There was probable cause for the search of defendant’s cell phones in his car. He fled from an attempt to make a purchase at a store with a stolen prepaid credit card. When his car was stopped, he consented to … Continue reading →
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D.Ariz.: Body camera video and audio showed the officer was diligent and not prolonging the stop
“Indeed, as pointed out by the magistrate judge, the ‘body camera video and audio demonstrate that Trooper Duckett was working diligently in trying to locate Ms. Glenn’s license information, but it did take some time to find it.’” Finally, the … Continue reading →
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A Utopian Interrogation
Frank Bruni tries desperately to salvage the Utopian dream of Evergreen State College following the videos revealing the flies trying to feed on the carcass of Bret Weinstein. Racism pervades our country. Students who have roiled college campuses from coast to coast have that exactly right. But we’re never going to make the progress that we need to if they hurl the word “racist” as reflexively and indiscriminately as some of them do, in a frenzy of righteousness aimed at gagging speakers and strangling debate. That’s a mechanism for shaming, not a strategy for change. It mesmerizes all. It converts none. The argument begins with a facile premise. It’s not facile because it’s necessarily false, but because it’s necessarily unilluminating. It’s unhelpful to call something “exactly right” before defining what it is. And Bruni’s post achieves circularity by condemning the use of hurling the word “racist as…
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Short Take: Pink Prisons
Everyone know women start out made of “sugar and spice, and everything nice.” But some change over time and end up committing crimes. Not real crimes, according to Professor Mirko Bagaric, Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Sentencing at Deakin University, Melbourne, at the Guardian, but girl crimes. Women almost never scare us; commit random acts of serious violence; violate our sexual integrity; or form organised crime networks and yet their prisons numbers are now the highest in recorded history. The homogeneity of the human species breaks down when it comes to criminal behaviour. Women, who constitute slightly more than 50% of population, commit only about 20% of all crime. They commit even a lower portion of all serious crime. And, indeed, women commit fewer crimes than men. So much for gender being merely a social construct. And the crimes they commit tend to be different as well. Moreover, when it comes to sexual offences, rounded off to the…
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Whether criminal defendants will throw their lawyers under the bus and other tales
http://katzjustice.com/practice-areas/dwi-drunk-drugged-driving-defense Early in my criminal defense career, two different public defender lawyers who were much more experienced than I at the time opined that (1) many of our convicted felony clients are seriously mentally ill and (2) many of our clients will not hesitate to do anything to save their skin, even if that includes turning on their own lawyers. With the first comment, I already had dealt with clients with serious mental health illness — and most of them have been very kind with me — and have felt that on balance a large percentage of my clients who committed their alleged crimes are not seriously mentally ill rather than that many are challenged with anxiety, depression, impulsiveness, and lack of a feeling of balance and grounding, which often leads to drug and alcohol use and abuse, and to assaultive, stealing/embezzlement, and other criminal behavior. With the second comment, I…
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THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
Seventy-five years ago today, Sunday, June 4, 1942, exactly six months from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, American Naval Aviators changed history and saved the world.The US had broken the Japanese code. Admiral Nimitz, who at the direction of Roosevelt had taken over from Admiral Husband Kimmel at Pearl, found himself commanding a Pacific fleet with most of it at the bottom of Pearl Harbour. Except for the aircraft carriers, Yorktown, Enterprise, Hornet, Saratoga, and Lexington although On June 4, the Lex had been sunk a month before at the Battle of the Coral Sea. The Yorktown was severely damaged in the same battle, trailing a ten mile oil slick as she limped into Pearl. Needing three months for repair, Nimitz ordered all hands on deck and 1400 welders descended on the Yorktown and had her back out steaming for Midway three days later.The Japanese sent six carriers to Midway, led by Admiral Yamamoto on his flagship, the largest battleship in the world. Yamamoto…
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Carolina Jatene - Alonso Gurmendi y LAVA JATO
http://elcomercio.pe/opinion/colaboradores/lava-jato-problemas-cooperacion-carolina-jatene-alonso-gurmendi-428492 “Si bien el Perú tiene obligaciones de mantener reserva de los documentos recibidos, desde una perspectiva internacional, Brasil solo puede exigirle al Perú que respete los acuerdos de lenidad celebrados con motivo de delitos cometidos en Brasil. Compartir información relacionada a delitos cometidos únicamente en el Perú no tendría por qué ser sometido a una condición de celebrar un acuerdo de lenidad con Odebrecht, pues en estos casos debería regir la legislación peruana”. MI COMENTARIO El Derecho como regulador de la conducta humana NO puede ser un intricado laberinto de disposiciones únicamente posibles de ser entendidas por los que han estudiado para ejercerlo. Un Abogado lee, analiza e interpreta LETRAS no realiza ecuaciones matemáticas ni estudia…
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Grundbuchämter des Kantons Bern - Handbuch
Die Grundbuchführung im Kanton Bern ist derzeit daran, ein elektronisches Handbuch für den Verkehr mit den Grundbuchämtern und die Grundbuchführung zu erstellen. Seit dem 1. Juni 2017 sind drei neue Artikel verfügbar. Die Themen "Dienstbarkeiten, Plan" (Ziff. 4.1.3), "Nutzniessung" (Ziff. 4.1.4) sowie "Übertragung von Dienstbarkeiten bei Vorgängen nach dem Fusionsgesetz" (Ziff. 4.1.14) sind ab sofort in das elektronische Handbuch für den Verkehr mit den Grundbuchämtern und die Grundbuchführung integriert. Adrian Mühlematterhttp://www.lawblogswitzerland.ch
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Case o' The Week: Judicial Restraint(s) - Sanchez-Gomez and Shackling of Pretrial Defendants, En Banc
“At the heart of our criminal justice system is the well-worn phrase, innocent until proven guilty . . . . And while the phrase may be well-worn, it must also be worn well: We must guard against any gradual erosion of the principle it represents, whether in practice or appearance. This principle safeguards our most basic constitutional liberties, including the right to be free from unwarranted restraints.” The Honorable Judge Alex Kozinski United States v. Sanchez-Gomez, 2017 WL 2346995 at *8 (9thCir. May 31, 2017) (en banc) decision available here.Players: Admirable decision by Judge Alex Kozinski, joined by Chief Judge Thomas, and Judges Reinhardt, Paez, and Berzon. Potent concurrence (and dissent commentary) by Judge Schroeder. (Six). Dissent by Judge Ikuta, joined by Judges O’Scannlain, Silverman, Graber, and Callahan (Five). Important shared victory for Reuben Cahn, Executive Director, Federal Defenders of San Diego,…
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Federal District Judge Mark "Bennett says 80% of the mandatory sentences he hands down are unjust"
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Defining Felony Assault In Nevada
Assault is not always charged as a felony in Nevada. However, when a deadly weapon is involved, then the crime may be charged under NRS 200.471. This means that it will be charged at the felony level, which carries harsher penalties than misdemeanor assault. If you’re facing felony assault charges in Las Vegas, you need an experienced criminal defense attorney to take your case. Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t necessary to make contact or actually physically harm someone in order to be charged with felony assault in Nevada. A defendant who actually made physical contact with another person would be charged with assault and battery, with battery being a separate crime. Examples of felony assault include brandishing a knife or gun at another person, throwing a rock toward another person or lunging at someone while holding a gun. Note that no physical contact is made in any of these instances. Still, the suspect may be arrested and tried on serious charges. The…
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NH: After reversal on bad search, state free to argue alternative grounds
After the defendant got his conviction reversed on appeal for an unreasonable search, the state was free to make an alternative argument to sustain the search, and here it was independent source and inevitable discovery, which the court finds. Law … Continue reading →
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