In Chicago, the government has pushed legal help for juveniles involved in murder cases. This means that whenever the police interrogate juveniles, a lawyer should be present. This includes the juveniles who are younger than 15 years of age and are involved in sex or murder offenses. Illinois lawmakers believe that this will diminish the cases of false confessions. This law was proposed only last year. Before, the state only necessitated legal representation for kids younger than 13 years of age in the cases of murder or sex. This was applicable even when the juveniles were not the criminal investigation targets. Governor Rauner propagated justice for children when he signed SB2370 on August 22, 2016. Public Act 99-0882 came into effect on January 1, 2017. The new bill was sponsored by two Democratic legislators. They said that juveniles aged 14 and 15 years old should certainly get legal protection. The bill included the following stipulations. Videotaping is required by…
Juvenile Interrogations in Chicago
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Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, Please Wake Up!
The Sixth Amendment guarantees "an impartial jury of the State and district whereof the crime shall have been committed." It doesn't say anything about them being awake. Nicole Hong reports for the WSJ:The right to a jury trial is a pillar of America's justice system, enshrined in the Constitution from a tradition dating back more than 1,000 years. The problem these days is making sure jurors stay awake.* * *"From time immemorial, jurors have been falling asleep because from time immemorial, lawyers have been boring," says John Gleeson, who was a federal judge in Brooklyn for 22 years. "We're the dullest people in the world, for Christ's sake."
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Urban Decay Executive Faces Grand Theft Charges for Pilfering over $1 Million
An executive for the cosmetics company Urban Decay has been accused of stealing more than $1 million through bank transfer transactions between the business and fraudulent accounts he created. He is facing felony charges for the allegations. Irvine resident Ranjeet Reddy Paladugo holds a position as the vice president of finance at the Newport Beach based company Urban Decay. He is suspected of utilizing several banks in order to create fake accounts, which were similarly named after business affiliates of the company, in order to embezzle funds that he transferred from Urban Decay. On July 17 he allegedly stole over $1 million from Urban Decay. Paladugo purportedly commissioned a transaction in the amount of $598,500 which he transferred through one of the phony accounts. He then transferred that money into his personal bank account. This procedure was repeated again in the same amount, and routed through a second bogus business account. Paladugo is said to have used the…
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Friday Open Thread
I'm sure there's news to discuss today. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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You Can't Make This Stuff Up: Clarence Thomas' Wife Gives Award To Man Who Tried To Discredit Sexual Assault Allegations Against Roy Moore At Trump Hotel
James O'Keefe's most recent stunt attempted to discredit the Washington Post's credible reporting on Roy Moore's sexual improprieties with underage girls. O'Keefe hoped to show the Post was promoting fake news about Moore by trying get them to bite on a false story about another woman's relationship with Moore that purportedly resulted in an abortion when she was 15. Had the Post published the story, O'Keefe would have revealed the story as untrue, thus calling into question the other allegations against Moore and helping a pedophile win a Senate bid. Fortunately, the Post did their due diligence and exposed the scheme. Ginni Thomas is a right wing activist and powerful lobbyist. Formerly employed by the Heritage Foundation, a right wing think tank, she set up a political consulting business, Liberty Central, which has been described as an advocate for…
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News Scan
Homeless Camps Called a Fire Hazard: With wildfires sweeping across southern California, residents of San Clemente are asking local authorities to clear out homeless encampments because they pose a fire hazard. Fred Swegles of the Orange County Register reports that the calls for clearing out the encampments came after a November 25 fire burned seven acres in a rural area frequented by vagrants near homes and a high school. There has been a significant increase in the homeless population in California over the past five years, with an estimated 55,000 living on the streets in Los Angeles and over 9,000 in San Diego. A large percentage of homeless living in rural areas lite fires for cooking and heat and many smoke cigarettes. The homeless population also includes drug users including those who smoke crack cocaine and marijuana.
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GIZMODO: Don’t Buy Anyone an Echo
GIZMODO: Don’t Buy Anyone an Echo by Adam Clark Estes: The newfound privacy conundrum presented by installing a device that can literally listen to everything you’re saying represents a chilling new development in the age of internet-connected things. By buying … Continue reading →
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Does Your Juvenile Need Defense? Contact Attorney Carbone
Did your child get into a fight that led to assault charges? This can be a serious matter, especially if you never dealt with the criminal legal system before. You may be worried about your child’s case and have fear about his or her future. What you need is a criminal defense lawyer who can help you in this trying time. For nearly three decades, the Law Offices of Anthony Carbone has been dealing with ins and outs of the New Jersey juvenile court system. Anthony Carbone and his team know how to help your child during this tough and stressful time. With an aggressive criminal defense, your child’s future will not be in jeopardy because of an act of violence. The types of charge your child can face could be simple assault. This means the juvenile had injured, threatened, or intended to injure another person or persons. Even if the juvenile and the other party were just roughhousing or fooling around, your child could still face criminal charges. Simple assault is…
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The Crime of Chronic Pain
The numbers are indeed alarming. 100 million Americans live with chronic pain. It is the most common cause of long-term disability in this country. Pain affects more people in the U.S. than diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), this public health crisis costs society anywhere from $560 to $635 billion each, roughly $2,000 for each person living in the U.S. Tremendous Costs of Pain Beyond the fiscal restraints this crisis has on the nation’s health care system, it exacts a tremendous toll on the lives of those addicted to the opioids used to treat severe or chronic pain. The NIH says there are two million people in this country with a substance abuse disorder involving prescription opioids. This disorder has claimed the lives of roughly 50,000 people from overdoses during each of the past two years. These deaths, and the massive law enforcement and media attention given…
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Special Counsel Subpoenas, FBI Agent Texts, GoGo Penguin Groove
An unusual point arose here (at the end) regarding an FBI agent’s political text-messages and cross-examination: Jack Sharman – MSNBC – Meet the Press (Dec. 5, 2017) from LFW on Vimeo. Text Messages and FBI Agents The interview question focused on an agent in the Special Counsel’s office, Peter Strzok, and the fact that he was taken off the the investigation because of alleged anti-Trump, pro-Clinton text messages or other communications. Congress has requested information from the Department of Justice about Agent Strzok, who was also apparently one of the agents who interviewed Hillary Clinton regarding the matter of her personal email server and who allegedly watered-down the FBI’s conclusions about her. What the heck, indeed. On a more practical note, what about FBI agents’ text messages (or emails or posts) and their use at trial? A leading case is United States v. Suarez, A2010 WL 4226524 (D.N.J. Oct. 21, 2010). In Suarez,…
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Week of December 4 - 8, 2017
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The Role and Impact of Nationwide Injunctions by District Courts
Sam Bray at the Volokh Conspiracy has this post on developments in this area. He links to this page on the House Subcommittee on the Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet with video of a hearing held on November 30 and PDF versions of testimony by Bray, Amanda Frost, Michael Morley, and Hans von Spakovsky. Judiciary Committee Goodlatte's remarks are here.
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Michigan Man Cleared in 2007 Child Murder
A Michigan circuit court judge set aside the perjury conviction of Michigan Innocence Clinic client Ray McCann II on Thursday in relation to the 2007 murder of a young girl. Ten-year-old Jodi Parrack went missing in November of 2007. McCann, who was a reserve police officer at the time, helped conduct the search and suggested her family look in the local cemetery. When the child’s body was eventually found there, McCann became a person of interest in her murder. McCann was interrogated nearly 20 times over the span of a few years, during which he denied involvement in the killing 86 times. Detectives lied to him, saying they found his DNA on the child’s body and had surveillance video footage that contradicted his alibi. In an attempt to charge McCann with something, a detective persuaded the county prosecutor to issue a subpoena to require McCann to testify under oath about his whereabouts at the time of Parrack’s disappearance. Due to a minor discrepancy…
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This Week in Innocence News – December 8, 2017
Here are some of this week’s news highlights: Editorial: Kansas must compensate its wrongfully convicted An editorial in the Kansas City Star calls for the Kansas legislature to establish a law entitling wrongfully convicted individuals in the state to compensation for their years of wrongful incarceration. Two Chicago men released after DNA excludes them from 1994 rape and murder With the prosecution’s consent, a Cook County court vacated the 1994 rape and murder convictions of Nevest Coleman and Darryl Fulton based on DNA testing pointing to their innocence and released them on their own recognizance while the prosecution decides whether or not to retry the men. Chicago Tribune Texas man languishes in prison despite evidence of innocence Centurion client Benjamine Spencer has been in prison for 30 years for a 1987 murder, despite a declaration of actual innocence from a judge. All Things…
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"White Ex-Cop Gets 20 Years for Walter Scott Slaying"
From The New York Times: Attorneys for the former North Charleston officer said he shot the 50-year-old Scott in self-defense after the two fought and Scott grabbed Slager's stun gun. They said race didn't play a role in the shooting...
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"Latest data from National Crime Victimization Survey adds a bit of uncertainty to 2016 crime story"
Doug Berman has this useful post at Sentencing Law & Policy, providing this list of other helpful commentary: From FiveThirtyEight here, "Why We Can’t Be Sure If Violent Crime Is On The Rise" From Vox here, "Federal report: violent crime...
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Fatal Crash 9000 Block Dufort Rd, Priest River, ID
IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE District 1 Patrol 615 West Wilbur Ave. Coeur d'Alene, ID 83815 (208) 209-8620 Fax (208) 209-8619 For Immediate Release: <12/09/17 02:35:00> Please direct questions to the District Office On December 8, 2017 at 9:19 p.m. PST the Idaho State police received a call from the Bonner County Sheriff's Office to investigate a crash in the 9000 Block of Dufort Road, near Priest River, ID. Andrew P. Blum, 29 year old male, of Spokane, WA was driving a maroon 2002 Mazda Tribute westbound on Dufort Road when he lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a curve. The vehicle left the roadway, traveled through the ditch, overturned and came to rest on its top. Blum and his passenger, Jerod M. Paulus, 32 year old male of Nine Mile Falls, WA were not wearing their seatbelts and…
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Judge Alex Kozinski and The Mad Cow
The year was 2008, and the news was huge. It didn’t come at a time when there was a daily man in power being accused of sexual impropriety, so when it happened, it stood out. And lawyers took notice. The blawgosphere is abuzz, awash, atwitter, about the Los Angeles Times revelation that 9th Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski has a kinky side, revealed by “sexually explicit” images on his personal website. That he was currently presiding over an obscenity trial of Ira Isaacs, described by the WSJ Law Blog as “accused of distributing criminally obscene sexual-fetish videos depicting bestiality and defecation. (For background on the Isaacs case, click here for an AP story.)“ Some have seized upon this delicious opportunity to challenge Judge Alex’s ethics and called for his recusal from the case. Others have questioned whether the images are “crude and misogynistic — pictures of naked women as cows;…
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Guide to Navigating the Holidays for the Newly Divorced
Guide to Navigating the Holidays for the Newly Divorced Getting Through the Stress of Your Divorce Since the beginning of the 20th century, divorce rates have steadily risen, making an even greater leap in the 1970’s when no-fault divorce was implemented. Some believe that making divorce an easier process actually strengthens marriages by ensuring it is a personal choice. Others argue few of us have the skills needed to work out the day-to-day difficulties which inevitably arise in most all marriages. While it is true that the actual dissolution of a marriage is a legal act, it is most often accompanied with some level of emotional trauma, and can be painful for all parties involved, including spouses, children, and even extended family members. Any way you look at it, most every divorce brings some level of stress to those involved. However, when a divorce is contentious, stress levels can be nearly overwhelming. Most couples who have…
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DUI Arrests Spike During the Holiday Season
DUI Arrests Spike During the Holiday Season It is definitely that time of year again; there is a chill in the air in many areas, and the time for eggnog, pumpkin pie, holiday feasts and visits with family and friends is just around the corner. Most of us are in a flurry of buying gifts for loved ones and decorating our homes in a festive manner. Along with all these holiday tasks, many of us are also drinking more than we might normally do. According to one body of research, 16 percent of adults admitted to drinking more than normal during the holiday season, and more than half of all high-risk impaired drivers reported drinking more between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, as compared to the remainder of the year. There is definitely an increase in the number of DUI arrests during the holiday season—from November 24th through January 1st—because of the increase in parties and drinking as well as more law enforcement officers stepping up DUI…
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