What is the maximum punishment for possession of child pornography? When I have a client that's facing federal charges, if they've never been in trouble, then the maximum is ten years. Why is it that the sentencing guidelines so high at or above that maximum? And the answer is in the question, because of the federal sentencing guidelines. If you have no criminal history, you're in a good place to start with, but every child pornography case involves a computer and the use of a computer to commit a crime under federal law is an enhancement. If you have more than 600 images, that's a major enhancement of that baseline sentencing. Every video is considered to be 75 so essentially if you have 8 videos or more, you've already hit the maximum and gone over that 600 limit. Then depending on how many total images, whether or not there are victims involved, there are so many different enhancements in child pornography cases that put these sentences above…
What is the maximum punishment for possession of child pornography?
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Tuesday Open Thread: Amazon Prime Day
Has anyone found any great deals on Amazon? I haven't so far. I'll be in a CLE (via webinar) this afternoon so I can't blog. They ask you questions periodically to make sure you are paying attention. As for Don, Jr., the one thing I... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Harmonizing with Only One Note
Ed Kozak in his Lifezette article yesterday notes that one prominent crowdfunding site turned its back on police officers targeted for murder because the lawsuit they aim to file does not promote "harmony:"The website YouCaring, which describes itself as a company fostering "compassionate crowdfunding," has sent a loud and clear message to law enforcement officers across the country: It finds pro-police causes to be too "controversial" to host.On Sunday the crowdfunding site removed donation pages set up by Donna Grodner, a lawyer who is suing Black Lives Matter and its leaders. Their legal action is on behalf of Baton Rouge police officers who were targeted for assassination by assailants inspired by Black Lives Matter rhetoric."In alignment with our mission, we removed this fundraiser because it was not within our community guidelines around promoting harmony," YouCaring chief marketing officer Maly Ly told PBS in an email. "We are…
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Latest comments by AG Sessions on drug problems and federal prosecutorial policies
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"It’s time to refocus the punishment paradigm"
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US Sentencing Commission releases new overview of mandatory minimums in federal system
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Can the State's Attorney Conduct a Traffic Stop and Search Your Car for Drugs?
Anyone who has seen the television show Law & Order knows the familiar opening narration: “In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important, groups: the police, who investigate crime; and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders.” But what happens when these functions become blurred, i.e. the district attorney’s office starts acting as the police? The Illinois Supreme Court recently addressed this question in an important case arising from the controversial policies of LaSalle County's former top prosecutor. IL Supreme Court Says Ex-LaSalle Prosecutor Conducted Illegal Stops, Arrests In 2011, then-LaSalle County State's Attorney Brian Towne formed a team of special investigators known as SAFE. Special investigators are individuals appointed by a State's Attorney to serve subpoenas and conduct limited investigations to “assist” prosecutors in performing their duties.…
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Quick Look: Living Lives of Fear
I had a hard time coming up with a title for this post: living lives of fear seems the best fit, but I also considered “put a bullet in it.” Because this post is about yet another incident in which police shot first, fabricated later. But I’m trying to be nice. And I’m hoping this one allows for a little more evenhanded discussion of what’s wrong. Why do police shoot first, and prevaricate later? Trying to see this evenhandedly, I have to admit, is hard. This is a complete re-write of an article I had actually “finished” earlier today. I was prepared to post it, but realized it was just too “angry.” The sad thing about re-writing it was when I had to remove really cool characterizations like “pants-pissing police prevaricators.” But, in the long run, I do want to try to address the issue not only seriously, but in a way that will only alienate less than half those who might read this post. That half I can’t…
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"Mapping medical marijuana: State laws regulating patients, product safety, supply chains and dispensaries, 2017"
The title of this post is the title of this useful new article in the publication Addiction authored by numerous researchers. Here is the article's abstract: Aims 1) To describe open source legal datasets, created for research use, that capture the key provisions of U.S. state medical marijuana laws. The...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/JHMYxzJgcCU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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Trump Sr., Trump Jr., Jared and the Russians
So Donald Jr. released his emails. He has now added page 4: One of the early emails shows it's the Russian Crown Prosecutor he's going to meet with who according to Goldstone, is working on behalf of the Russian government to help Trump... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Can A Personal Injury Attorney Make a Difference In My Case?
The post Can A Personal Injury Attorney Make a Difference In My Case? appeared first on Gregory & Waldo 702-830-7925. If you have suffered a personal injury through no fault of your own and intend to seek compensation, it’s easy to assume that you’ll have no problem doing that. After all, you’ll reason, insurance companies must make good on their end of the bargain, and nobody needs to force them to do what they know they should. If only personal injury cases were that simple. In any attempt to settle an accident insurance or personal injury claim, numerous complications can arise. We can almost guarantee that the more serious your injuries, the more trouble you are going to have. That’s because insurance companies are in business to make money. In the interests of maximizing their profits, they will have no qualms about trying to shortchange you. Once you realize that they are treating you with no more respect than yesterday’s leftover…
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Maryland Bail Reform
If you’ve been arrested and are awaiting trial in Maryland, your ability to pay your bail is what stands between you awaiting trial on the outside and you awaiting trial behind bars – big difference. Bail is intended to balance both positions. Because you are innocent unless proven guilty, it’s reasonable that you shouldn’t be imprisoned unless you are proven guilty. The setting of bail factors your presumed innocence against the possibility that you’ll flee. The amount of bail that’s demanded should represent an amount that balances your presumed innocence with the likelihood that you won’t show up for trial. It’s a complicated but important balancing act. The Determination of Bail Typically, the court will take a critical look at your alleged crime, your personal history, your connections to the community, and your criminal record in determining your bail. If you are deemed a high flight risk or a danger to society, the court…
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Rachelle Bond’s Sentence in Bella Bond Murder: A Tough Legal Choice
Here in Massachusetts and indeed across the country, most of the public who have watched the sick and twisted saga of the murder of young Bella Bond, are understandably outraged at the extremely lenient sentence that the dead girl’s mother, Rachelle Bond, was given today by a Massachusetts Superior Court judge. That sentence? Time already served while incarcerated in this matter – approximately 2 years – plus 2 years of probation & drug monitoring. She will walk free by this Friday, into a rehab program at a halfway house. The Boston Globe has called this sentence – with justification – “The Mother of all Leniency.” I share in the regret over the necessity of this awful outcome. A 2 year-old baby, murdered; her body eventually placed in a trash bag on a Boston Harbor island. It’s nauseating. But as a Boston criminal defense attorney, I need to emphasize to people the word…
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Paper on Terminating Sex Offender Registration
For a recent teaching session, I prepared an outline on terminating sex offender registration. I thought it might be helpful to a broader audience, so I posted it here. The outline covers the requisite statutory procedures for hearings on petitions to terminate, including a summary of the findings a court must make before granting a petition. It also incorporates an updated version of the SORNA tier chart I posted a few weeks ago. (The changes are minimal. I added a note to the CRIMES column to make clear that federal tiering standards apply to attempts and conspiracies, too.) The post Paper on Terminating Sex Offender Registration appeared first on North Carolina Criminal Law.
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Single Motorcycle Crash on US91 Near Preston
IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Idaho State Police District 5 5205 South 5th Ave. Pocatello, Idaho 83204-2299 (208) 236-6466 FAX: (208) 236-6068 For Immediate Release: 07/12/17 9:45pm Please direct questions to the District Office On July 12, 2017, at approximately 4:45 p.m., the Idaho State Police investigated a single-vehicle injury crash on US91 at milepost 20, near Preston. Brian Christensen, 45, of Pocatello, was driving southbound on US91 on a 1985 Honda motorcycle. While attempting to pass a vehicle, Christensen lost control of his motorcycle and went off the right shoulder, where he was ejected. Christensen was not wearing a helmet. He was transported to Franklin County Medical Center in Preston, then taken by air ambulance to Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello. There was no blockage. The crash is under investigation by the…
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N.D.Tex.: SW for apartment didn’t extend to vehicle
Search warrant for defendant’s apartment didn’t extend to his vehicle, which the government concedes. The warrantless search of the vehicle along with the apartment exceeded the warrant, and the vehicle search is suppressed. United States v. Salinas, 2017 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading →
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Law in the Cultivation of Responsibility and Trust
Seana Shiffrin, Enhancing Moral Relationships through Strict Liability, 66 U. Toronto L.J. 353 (2016). Hila Keren Consider the following everyday scenario as a simplified version of complex contracting. Having been invited to a dinner party a guest asked the host what to bring. “A dessert would be nice,” replied the host, to which the guest responded: “consider it done!” On the morning of the party the guest purchased a delicious cake from a celebrated bakery and was ready to make good on the promise. Sadly, in the evening, as the guest got the cake out of the fridge, it was covered with odd green spots and seemed inedible. Clearly, the guest is at no fault for what just happened, but what should the guest do next: Get another dessert on the way to the party or just go empty-handed? Seana Shiffrin’s thought-provoking article Enhancing Moral Relationships through Strict Liability describes and answers this dilemma as it manifests itself in the…
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You Suspect Your Spouse is Hiding Income or Assets
If you think your spouse may be attempting to hide income or assets during your divorce proceeding, your first step should be to tell your divorce attorney. Your attorney should know how to handle situations such as this, and the sooner he or she can act, the more likely you are to see results. You should also quickly gather and secure any documentation that might prove your allegations. Financial documents that you can legally access should be copied and turned over to your attorney. This might include tax returns, pay stubs, credit card statements, bank statements, brokerage statements, contracts, or any other documents which might prove the existence of assets or streams of income. A financial expert with experience in the divorce arena can be invaluable in searching for hidden income and assets. The expert can help you identify the financial documents that will be needed for analysis, and can assist your attorney in determining which documents to subpoena. The forensic…
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Critical Thought And Koch Conspiratorial Cash
At Volokh Conspiracy, there has been a series of posts ripping to shreds a book about libertarianism by historian Nancy MacLean, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America. As Ilya Somin explains: In her badly flawed book Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America, historian Nancy MacLean gets many, many things wrong about the history and purposes of libertarianism. Jonathan Adler, David Bernstein (see also here), Phil Magness (also here), Russell Roberts, and Michael Munger, and others, have highlighted some of her most important fallacies and distortions. Rather than address the accusation that her book was substantively inaccurate, MacLean took to Facebook to attack the motives of her critics and call for social justice warriors to game the system in favor of the cause. Nancy MacLean, author of “Democracy in Chains,” has not responded to substantive criticisms…
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Combating Distracted Driving with a Textalyzer?
Distracted driving—particularly texting while driving—is a growing problem that results in numerous automobile accidents—and fatalities—each year. This type of driving is as dangerous as drunk driving. To address this increasing problem, international tech company Cellebrite has developed a Textalyzer—a computer program that enables law enforcement to unlock cell phone digital evidence to determine whether a […] The post Combating Distracted Driving with a Textalyzer? appeared first on Minneapolis DWI Lawyer Douglas T. Kans.
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