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AG Sessions Seeks to Tighten Asylum Rules

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AG Sessions wants Congress to tighten asylum rules. Attorney General Jeff Sessions called on Congress Thursday to tighten the rules for people seeking asylum through a system he said is filled with “rampant abuse and fraud.” ... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Thursday Open Thread

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Here's a new open thread, all topics welcome. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Elm et al. on Immigration Defense Waivers in Plea Agreements

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Donna Lee Elm, Susan R. Klein and Elissa Steglich (University of Texas at Austin - School of Law, University of Texas School of Law and University of Texas at Austin - School of Law) have posted Immigration Defense Waivers in...

What to Know about Texas’s New Sex Crimes Against Children Unit

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Crimes against children, especially sex offenses, receive more significant law enforcement attention that other criminal offenses. Texas is on the precipice of establishing a special unit specifically designed to handle child sex and human trafficking cases.   Last month Texas Governor Greg Abbott tweeted, “Texas is helping establish the ‘Crimes Against Children Unit’ to streamline prosecution of human trafficking cases” along with a link to an official press release about the unit.   The Office of the Governor’s Criminal Justice Division is awarding a grant of more than $260,000 to the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office in order to help create the new Crimes Against Children Unit by providing funding for prosecutors “to specifically handle cases involving juvenile victims of human trafficking and sex crimes.”   Goals of the Crimes against Children Unit   With its grant money, the Crimes Against Children…

DNA Evidence Excludes Indiana Man from 1975 Rape

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New testing of DNA evidence clears an Indiana man of a 1975 rape for which he was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison, according to his attorneys from the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, who have filed a petition on his behalf for a writ of actual innocence with the Virginia Supreme Court. Winston L. Scott was convicted in Virginia before the advent of DNA testing, but semen from the victim’s clothes was preserved and tested in 2010 as part of a review of cases from 1973 to 1988 ordered by then-Governor Mark Warner. So far 11 people have been exonerated as a result of the review. Scott was notified last year that testing of the semen had yielded a profile. He contacted Shawn Armbrust, executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, who set about having his DNA tested. A sample was also taken from the victim’s then-boyfriend—her only sexual partner at the time of the attack. Both men were excluded as contributors of the semen.…

Fagan on Legal Cycles and Stabilization Rules

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Frank Fagan (EDHEC Business School) has posted Legal Cycles and Stabilization Rules (The Timing of Lawmaking, Frank Fagan & Saul Levmore (eds.) Edward Elgar Ltd., 2017) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: A legal cycle is legislation that takes effect...

Call Me, Harvey. I’ll Defend You

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Not since Meg Ryan’s fake orgasm sitting across a diner’s table from Billy Crystal in “When Harry Met Sally”  have we seen such disingenuous huffing and puffing about sex from Hollywood. The starlets are atwitter with allegations of being groped, and worse, by Harvey Weinstein, a man who launched more starlets than, well, forgive me, the Big Bang. Really, people. Hollywood sells sex. We buy the fantasy. People get obscenely rich in the process. Is it any surprise that, assuming the allegations are at least in part true, those tiptoeing the line between fantasy and reality from time to time crossed libidinal boundaries? Even Hillary Clinton has come out of retirement, exclaiming in horror about the accusations involving Weinstein, as though Monica Lewinsky’s dry-cleaning bills weren’t her husband’s — the former president of the United States — problem. Let’s hope this libidinal storm passes, and soon.…

Texas carries out 20th execution in US in 2017


NEW JUDGES

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"No Judge writes on a wholly clean slate."Felix Frankfurter, 1937. Judges Ivonne Cuesta and Laura Stuzin were elevated from county court to circuit court this week, replacing the vacancies that occurred with the retirement of Judge Cardonne-Ely, and elevation of Judge Lindsey to the 3rd District Court of PCA Appeals. Judges Altfield, Brinkley and Multack, along with ASA Luis Perez-Medina were among those whose names were sent to Tallahassee but were not given a seat when the music stopped. Judge Rosa Rodriguez, a former Dade Public Defender, resigned from the Circuit court after 18 1/2 years on the bench, effective Halloween, 2017. Boo!Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.Francis Bacon, "Essay LVI: Of Judicature", Essays (1625).Site Feed

Yet another study finds link between marijuana reform and a reduction in opioid deaths

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The evidence suggesting that marijuana reform could and should be a part of the toolbox of responses to the opioid crisis is starting to become overwhelming. I make that statement as a result of this latest study published in the American Journal of Public Health under the title "Recreational Cannabis...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/f3rIwz-hDoQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

Slobogin on Neuroscience and Culpability

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Christopher Slobogin (Vanderbilt University - Law School) has posted Neuroscience Nuance: Dissecting the Relevance of Neuroscience in Adjudicating Criminal Culpability (Journal of Law & the Biosciences, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Most scholars who have written about the...

Solan & Gales on Corpus Linguistics

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Lawrence M. Solan and Tammy A Gales (Brooklyn Law School and Hofstra University) have posted Corpus Linguistics as a Tool in Legal Interpretation (Brigham Young University Law Review, 2018 Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In this paper, we...

"India Supreme Court rules sex with minor bride is rape"

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From Jurist: The Supreme Court of India [official website] ruled [judgment, PDF] Wednesday that sexual intercourse with a girl who is under the age of 18 is rape regardless of the marital status of the girl. Section 375 of the...

This Week in Innocence News – October 13, 2017

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Here are some of this week’s news highlights: Editorial calls for release of Eric Kelley and Ralph Lee Last Friday, the Star-Ledger editorial board questioned why Innocence Project client Eric Kelley and Centurion Ministries client Ralph Lee are still behind bars when DNA evidence excludes them from the murder and robbery for which they were convicted in 1996. The Star-Ledger Lawsuit challenging cash bail in Texas could change nationwide policy A lawsuit in which the plaintiffs claim that the use of cash bail violates the United States Constitution is currently before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. If the federal appeals court rules in the plaintiffs’ favor, it could end cash bail as we know it. The Huffington Post Crown Heights panel moves audience at BAM Following a screening of Crown Heights, a film based on the wrongful conviction and exoneration of Colin Warner, Carl…

CAN I BE STOPPED FOR DRIVING SLOWLY?

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A person who has had a few too many often tries to compensate by driving more slowly. But driving too far under the speed limit can also give police the probable cause they need to stop you for drunk driving. In one Illinois case, People v Biagi, the defendant drove 32 mph in a 55 speed limit zone. The defendant then pulled over on the shoulder of a rural road. An officer, believing defendant was having car trouble, stopped to help. The officer then became suspicious that the driver had been drinking. The defendant was charged with DUI. The stop was legal under the officer’s community caretaking function. Community caretaking allows police to make a stop without probable cause, provided the officer is performing some function other than investigating a crime. Any search or seizure must be reasonable because it is undertaken to protect the safety of the general public. Community caretaking includes offering help to stopped cars, determining if someone is having a…

Week of October 9 - 13, 2017

Las Vegas Sheriff's Latest Update

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Here is the interview with the Sheriff today from Las Vegas on the Mandalay Bay shootings. He sounds defensive and nervous -- his voice is shaky. At the end, after reading accounts from victims, he begins to tremble, an associate puts his hand... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Buchhandler-Raphael on Fear-Based Provocation

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Michal Buchhandler-Raphael (Washington and Lee University School of Law) has posted Fear-Based Provocation on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Psychological research has long found that anger may lead to aggression, sometimes even fatal one. The provocation doctrine corresponds to this...

News Scan

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High Court Declines TX Murderer's Appeal:  A man convicted of arranging the murder of his mother and brother in order to collect a $1 million inheritance lost his bid for Supreme Court review of his death sentence Tuesday.  Michael Graczyk of the Associated Press reports that Thomas Whitaker plotted with two friends to kill his parents and brother and even shot himself in the arm to make it appear that he was also a victim.  Unfortunately Witaker's father survived and his two accomplices plead guilty.  In his appeal he argued that prosecutors broke their promise to let him plead guilty to avoid a death sentence.  Last April the 5th Circuit held that while Whitaker's attorneys initiated the plea deal, prosecutors only promised to "consider" it.  A jury decided Whitaker deserved a death sentence. Lifer Who Stabbed Prison Guard Executed:  A inmate serving a 99-year sentence for murder was put to death Thursday for…

No Lawyers for Many Charged with Crimes in South Carolina

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Several weeks ago, the Innocence Blog covered a story about an American Bar Association report which revealed that in Nashville defendants accused of misdemeanors are not given access to legal representation. As a result, the majority of those defendants plead guilty without ever having been advised of their constitutional rights. Yesterday a story in the New York Times described a similar dismal situation in South Carolina, where people are being sent to jail and prison without ever seeing an attorney. In the United States, any person facing time behind bars is entitled to legal representation by the Sixth Amendment. According to the several sources highlighted by the New York Times, more and more often, people—especially those who are poor—charged with misdemeanors are not being provided with attorneys. In a case highlighted by the Times, a homeless South Carolina man named Larry Marsh has been either arrested or cited by the police more than 270 times for…
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