In Illinois, you commit burglary when you knowingly and without authority enter or remain within a building, housetrailer, watercraft, aircraft, motor vehicle railroad car, or any part thereof, with intent to commit a felony or theft. (See Illinois Burglary Statute). Does a storage trailer fit the above categories? An Illinois Appellate Court says it does. In People v Harris, the defendant entered a 36-foot long enclosed trailer that the owner kept on a leased space in an open parking lot. Defendant argued that the trailer was not a building because it was not a permanent structure. The court rejected this argument stating that the law intended to protect the security of a wide variety of structures. The structure was not required to be permanent. Even a tent could fall under the law’s protection. If you have been charged with burglary or another crime, contact an experienced criminal law attorney immediately. An attorney can review your case for its best…
WHAT IS A BUILDING UNDER ILLINOIS BURGLARY LAW?
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Whistleblower lawsuit leads to $66 million settlement in procurement fraud case
The Department of Justice recently announced a big settlement with a Japanese manufacturer in a serious case of government procurement fraud. Japanese manufacturer Toyoba has promised to pay $66 million to resolve two lawsuits brought against them under the False Claims Act. According to the lawsuits, Toyoba and an American distributor, Second Chance Body Armor,… The post Whistleblower lawsuit leads to $66 million settlement in procurement fraud case appeared first on Pate & Johnson Law Firm.
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Tampa’s Central Breath Testing (CBT) Unit Compromised
After a DUI arrest in Hillsborough County, FL, you will be taken to a room at the Central Breath Testing (CBT) unit located within the Orient Road Jail in Tampa, FL, and asked to submit to a breath test on an Intoxilyzer 8000. In order for the breath test result to be admissible at trial, […]
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5th Circuit benchslapped! All about the money, Tx bodycam law a boon to bad cops, and other stories
Here are a few odds and ends which merit Grits' readers interest while my own is focused elsewhere:Benchslapped!The US Supreme Court issued a unanimous benchslapping to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Ayestas v. Davis for denying funds for a defense investigator to develop a record about the defendant's mental health and family history. Mandy Marzullo and I had discussed the case on the Reasonably Suspicious podcast in November.All about the moneyThe Texas House Appropriations subcommittee that covers criminal-justice will hear testimony next month regarding two interim charges which may interest Grits readers: Adult and juvenile probation funding formulas, and whether to establish a fee-for-service model at DPS crime labs to cover the looming shortfall.The former is important because adult probation directors are the most vocal and strident opponents of sentencing reform, fearing that reducing drug-possession charges to a misdemeanor, for example, would result…
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Meaningless Sentences for Murder
After the jury found federal life prisoner Jessie Con-Ui guilty of murdering correctional officer Eric Williams, it had two choices on punishment: (1) death, or (2) effectively no punishment at all, as a second life sentence means nothing.Eleven jurors sensibly chose the only meaningful punishment but one refused. The result? Under the federal system's single-juror veto rule, the decision of the one effectively prevails over the decision of the eleven, and Con-Ui got a second, meaningless life sentence.In how many states does a jury deadlocked in the guilt phase at eleven for guilty and one for acquittal result in an acquittal and the defendant walking free? Zero. A single-juror veto in the guilt phase would be crazy, and everyone recognizes that. Why on earth does any jurisdiction conduct its penalty trials that way? Why not do it just like the guilt phase, where "unanimous" means unanimous one way or other, and a hung jury…
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CATO Study Highlights the Need for Better Policy on U.S. Arms Sales
On March 13, 2018, CATO published a report by A. Trevor Thrall and Caroline Dorminey entitled Risky Business: The Role of Arms Sales in U.S. Foreign Policy. The report observes that since 2002, the U.S. has sold more than $197 billion worth of major conventional weapons and related military support to 167 countries. In just his first year in office, President Donald Trump signed arms deals at an accelerated rate, generating hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of potential sales. According to the report, U.S. government-to-government arms sales since 2002 reveals that the U.S. has repeatedly sold weapons to nations engaged in deadly conflicts, and to those with horrendous human rights records, under circumstances in which the U.S. has not been able to predict where the weapons would end up or how they would be used. The report argues that economic benefits of arms ales are dubious and that their…
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Esperanza Spalding to Perform at Innocence Network Conference March in Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King
Innocence Network Conference will March for Justice in Honor of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis March, which includes exonerees, their family members and Network members, will conclude at National Civil Rights Museum with a performance by Spalding On Saturday, March 24th, exonerees, their family members and Innocence Network members will march together in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the precipice of the anniversary of his assassination to conclude its two-day annual network conference in Memphis, Tennessee. The march route is just under a mile and will commence at the Memphis Peabody Hotel and convene at the National Civil Rights Museum for an outdoor rally featuring eight exoneree speakers. In addition to the Innocence Network’s fight for justice for the wrongfully convicted and its connection to Dr. King’s work, speakers will touch upon contributing systemic factors and the need for changes in policies across the nation.…
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Pro Gun Control Rallies Across America Today
Today is Gun control Rally day across America. More than 800 rallies are planned. The sponsor is March for Your Lives, formed in the wake of the shootings in Parkland, FL. Photos are here. The NY Times reports (no link due to autoplay video) On... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Next week's criminal law/procedure arguments
Issue summaries are from ScotusBlog, which also links to papers: Monday U.S. v. Sanchez-Gomez: Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit erred in asserting authority to review respondents' interlocutory challenge to pretrial physical restraints and in ruling...
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Federal Charges Against Marijuana Use
When Attorney General Sessions began advocating for more rigorous enforcement of marijuana use, federal prosecution began to enforce cases involving marijuana use much more strictly. This shift occurred when Attorney General Sessions rescinded the Obama-era memo that allowed federal prosecution in states where marijuana is legal. In states where recreational use of marijuana is still legal, however, many people have begun to wonder if there are changes coming to marijuana cases. Instead, federal law enforcement remains on prosecution on only the most serious marijuana cases. Given this change in perspectives between administrations, people who are charged with drug offenses might wonder when a drug case will become prosecuted at a federal level. Simply put, any drug charge has the potential to be prosecuted at either a state or federal level. There are some factors, however, that make a drug case more likely to be prosecuted at a federal level. If you are facing federal drug…
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Our firm helps nurses file whistleblower lawsuit and expose Medicare fraud at hospices
Our experienced whistleblower attorneys helped secure a victory for our clients, the taxpayers and advocates for the elderly when a hospice company entered into a settlement with the federal government to resolve a whistleblower lawsuit that alleged Medicare fraud. Our firm represented two nurses who exposed fraudulent billing practices of their former employer, Compassionate Care… The post Our firm helps nurses file whistleblower lawsuit and expose Medicare fraud at hospices appeared first on Pate & Johnson Law Firm.
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Was an Arizona woman a bride in a wedding gown when arrested for DUI?
Police said the photo showed a bride in handcuffs on her way to her wedding. A police officer in the photo is about to open a patrol car door for the woman in a long, white dress with her hands cuffed behind her back. The 32-year-old Arizona woman had just been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. But her defense attorney says the Marana Police Department got it all wrong. The lawyer says her client was not wearing a wedding dress and she was not on her way to her wedding. The woman isn't even engaged, the attorney said in a statement. The woman told her lawyer that she was in reality on her way to lunch with a friend and that she had been wearing a sun dress. She has been subjected to ridicule and shaming on social media since the Marana Police Department tweeted the photo out with the story of the "bride" arrested for drunk driving. (That tweet has since been deleted.) The woman had been driving a white SUV on a Tucson street around 10:30…
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State Senate Passes Marijuana Bill
Legalizing marijuana through an amendment to the state constitution remains a possibility, but independent of this of this massive policy shift lawmakers are still working diligently to modernize marijuana laws. There have been over twenty marijuana related bills introduced by Maryland lawmakers this year, but few will end up as law, and even fewer will have a impact in courtrooms across the state. One marijuana bill that could potentially have an impact on the court system recently passed in the Senate by a wide margin, and is now headed to the House for a vote the first week of April. If this bill passes and is later signed into law the threshold for criminal possession of marijuana would increase from 10 grams to 1 ounce, meaning it would no longer be a crime to possess between 10 and 28 grams of pot. If the marijuana threshold bill becomes law the amount of civil citations would likely double, but these cases have much less of a burden on the court system than…
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"Unique treatment potential of cannabidiol for the prevention of relapse to drug use: preclinical proof of principle"
The title of this post is the title of this notable new research just published on-line from the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. Here is the abstract: Cannabidiol (CBD), the major non-psychoactive constituent of Cannabis sativa, has received attention for therapeutic potential in treating neurologic and psychiatric disorders. Recently, CBD has also been...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/xDlk_XLsifY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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"Prison Crime and the Economics of Incarceration"
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Top-Ten Recent SSRN Downloads in Criminal Procedure eJournal
are here. The usual disclaimers apply. Rank Paper Downloads 1. Harmless Errors and Substantial Rights Daniel Epps Washington University in St. Louis - School of Law Date Posted: 16 Feb 2018 207 2. State Criminal Appeals Revealed Michael Heise, Nancy...
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NYTimes: Justice Dept. Revives Push to Mandate a Way to Unlock Phones
NYTimes: Justice Dept. Revives Push to Mandate a Way to Unlock Phones by Charlie Savage: Federal law enforcement officials are renewing a push for a legal mandate that tech companies build tools into smartphones and other devices that would allow … Continue reading →
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NYTimes: Opinion: How Democracy Can Survive Big Data
NYTimes: Opinion: How Democracy Can Survive Big Data by Colin Coopman: An adequate ethics of data for today would include not only regulatory policy and statutory law governing matters like personal data privacy and implicit bias in algorithms.
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Just Security: Opinion: Congress Should Place More Limits on Cellphone Location Tracking After Carpenter
Just Security: Opinion: Congress Should Place More Limits on Cellphone Location Tracking After Carpenter by by Jake Laperruque: In the (knock on wood, likely) event the court does rule that location tracking requires a warrant, Congress will need to step … Continue reading →
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Daily Beast: New Facebook-Backed Law Would Let Foreign Governments Get Your Data Without a Warrant
Daily Beast: New Facebook-Backed Law Would Let Foreign Governments Get Your Data Without a Warrant by Spencer Ackerman: Facebook urged Congress to pass a measure, the CLOUD Act, that privacy advocates warn makes it easier for a foreign government to … Continue reading →
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