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Chicago White Sox Rehire Nevest Coleman after he was Wrongfully Incarcerated for 23 Years

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On April 5th, Nevest Coleman will rejoin the Chicago White Sox at their first home game of the season as a grounds crew member. Coleman previously worked as a grounds crew member in 1993, a year before his wrongful arrest. In 1997, Coleman was wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated criminal sexual assault. In 2016, nearly 20 years after Coleman’s conviction, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s conviction integrity unit began reinvestigating Coleman’s case and sent items to the Illinois State Police crime lab for testing. Coleman and his co-defendants were excluded from the DNA found on the victim’s sweatshirt, underwear, and fingernail clippings. The testing indicated the presence of an unidentified profile, which was ultimately submitted to CODIS and matched a man who had been convicted of several rapes and lived in the same area as the victim. Coleman was exonerated in 2017.…

Week of March 19 - 23, 2018

Vandalism Not Such a ‘Petty’ Crime in San Jose

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When you think of vandalism, you may think of school age children pulling petty pranks, such as egging a neighbor’s house and getting into general mischief. While this is sometimes the case, vandalism also includes damage that results in thousands of dollars in repair costs. A rash of vandalism crimes in San Jose has cost property owners significant amounts of money and has both citizens and police on the lookout for offenders. If you have been charged with this type of crime, you need a strong criminal defense lawyer working on your side to prevent a conviction and potentially heavy penalties, including fines and a possible jail sentence. Vandalism Crimes in San Jose According to a March 2018 report in the Mercury News, San Jose police are currently on the lookout for suspects in a rash of vandalism crimes that have plagued the area. Roughly a dozen crimes were reported during a two-day period alone, in which a BB gun appears to have been used to damage windows…

Dangerous Product Defects Common Among Children’s items

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As any parent can attest, caring for small children and babies tends to require a certain amount of equipment and gear. Aside from the standard strollers, high chairs, and clothes that are quickly outgrown, there are any number of toys and specialty items that promise to either educate and entertain your child or make your life as a parent easier. There are plenty of good products available; however, there is also a shockingly large number of defective products for children from otherwise reputable vendors that end up getting recalled each year. Through a product liability claim against the manufacturer or distributor, you may be entitled to compensation in the event your child suffers injuries as the result. Dangerous Children’s Products The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) acts to protect consumers against injuries and damages that are caused by dangerous and defective products that are sold in this country. The CPSC estimates that costs…

Hessick on The Myth of Common Law Crimes

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Carissa Byrne Hessick (University of North Carolina School of Law) has posted The Myth of Common Law Crimes (Virginia Law Review, 2019 Vol. 105, No. (Forthcoming)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Conventional wisdom tells us that, after the United...

Wedded Bliss Turns Violent When Husband Forgot Anniversary

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A woman who accused her spouse of forgetting their wedding anniversary was arrested on Wednesday when her disappointment and their arguing allegedly led her to hit him. On the morning of March 21, 35-year-old Carol Lynn Stone began arguing with her husband, 41-year-old Ronnie William Alexander, when she was convinced that he had fallen prey to the cliché of forgetting their anniversary. Alexander left for work and their bickering reportedly continued through text messages throughout the day. When Alexander returned home from work later that afternoon he brought his wife a rose and said he had plans to take her to a hotel on a weekend getaway. Stone was allegedly still very heated over the belief that Alexander had let their anniversary slip his mind and she decided to take a shower. Continue reading →

Texas completed fourth execution on 2018

Can Social Media Get Me Arrested?

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Social media can connect you to friends, jobs, DIY project ideas, and both fake and real news. But can it get you arrested? For two men in the Chicago area, the answer was “yes.” Social Media Distraction Contributes to Aggravated DUI Charge A 23-year-old Berwyn man had a little too much going on as he drove through the Cook County suburb of Lyons during the evening rush hour on Monday, October 9, 2017. Speeding through an intersection, he crashed into a work van carrying two men in their 60s, killing both. The responding police officers found the deadly driver still sitting in his car with earphones plugged in and, on his lap, a cellphone opened to a social media app. While hospitalized for his crash-related injuries, the Berwyn man was found to have both marijuana and cocaine in his system. Do you think he posted about his arrest on charges of Aggravated DUI and Reckless Homicide? Perhaps he used his social media skills to find a good criminaldefense attorney. As…

"What If Prosecutors Wanted to Keep People Out of Prison?"

Iowa Appellate Lawyers: How to Appeal Your Iowa Conviction

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IOWA APPEALS AND APPELLATE LAWYERS Criminal appeals can be complicated business. Choosing a lawyer with appellate experience is important. An appeal is not a retrial. There are no hearings, no juries and no new evidence. An appeal is merely an opportunity for a higher court to correct any legal errors which may have occurred in the trial court. Iowa has two courts of appeals: The Iowa Supreme Court The Iowa Court of Appeals The Iowa Court of Appeals is an intermediate appellate court. This means every decision of the Iowa Court of Appeals is reviewable by the Iowa Supreme Court. HOW TO APPEAL YOUR CASE All appeals originate in the Iowa Supreme Court. To appeal an Iowa conviction you must file a notice of appeal with the Iowa Supreme Court no more than 30 days after sentencing. After this notice is filed, a certificate, stating among other things the issues presented for appeal, must be filed. The Iowa Supreme Court then sets a briefing schedule. The party appealing submits…

Kerr on Cross-Enforcement of the Fourth Amendment

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Orin S. Kerr (University of Southern California Gould School of Law) has posted Cross-Enforcement of the Fourth Amendment (Harvard Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Article considers whether government agents can conduct searches or seizures to...

News Scan

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Cop Killer Gets Death Sentence:  An illegal immigrant convicted of murdering two California police officers was given a death sentence by a Sacramento jury Tuesday.  Angela Greenwood of CBS13 reports that jurors took just four hours to return a unanimous recommendation of the death sentence for Luis Bracamontes.   In an October 24, 2014 crime spree lasting four hours, Bracamontes gunned down Sacramento Deputy Sheriff Danny Oliver and Placer County Sheriff's Detective Michael Davis, Jr., attempted to kill two others, and stole two cars before he was arrested.  Bracamontes had been deported four times prior to killing the two officers.  During his trial and sentencing he swore at jurors and the victims' family members and laughed when the jury forewoman announced their recommendation of a death sentence.    Study Blames "ACLU Effect" for Chicago Crime Spike:  A University of Utah study found that a 2015 agreement between…

Cops Accuse Miami Lawyer of Fleeing Scene of Fatal Crash

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A personal injury lawyer from Hialeah was arrested Tuesday and charged with killing a woman at a Miami Lakes crosswalk last year with his Mercedes-Benz and driving away while impaired. The 65-year-old-owner of a law firm in Miami Lakes was charged with DUI manslaughter/failure to render aid, vehicular homicide/failure to stop, leaving the scene of a crash involving a death and tampering with physical evidence in connection with the Dec. 7, 2017 death of the 26-year-old woman. Investigators allege that the woman was using the Fairway Drive crosswalk around 2:30 a.m. when a car hit her, launching her into the air to land on a curb on the west side of Fairway Drive. Police believe that car was the man’s silver C-Class Benz and he was the driver. He remained in Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center Wednesday morning, with bond set at $150,000. A civil lawsuit was filed Tuesday on behalf of the woman’s parents that says the woman was found face down near a gutter at…

Is Failing to Report Child Abuse a Criminal Offense?

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Child abuse is a crime, there is no question about that. But what about the failure to report child abuse? If you suspect that a child has been abused, do you have to speak up? Is failing to do so a crime? It depends. Mandated Reporters Certain people are required to report child abuse due to their profession. In MA, these people are called Mandated Reporters. Individuals designated as mandated reporters include: Teachers and other school personnel Social workers Doctors, nurses and other medical personnel Counselors and other mental health personnel Child care providers Foster parents Clergy Medical examiners Police and other law enforcement If you are a mandated reporter and you fail to report child abuse, you may be charged with a misdemeanor and face a fine of up to $1,000. A MA criminal defense attorney can help you determine how to proceed if you’ve been charged with a crime. What if I’m Not a Mandated Reporter? In MA, as in most states, failure to report…

Wells on Constitutional Remedies for Wrongful Convictions

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Michael Lewis Wells (University of Georgia School of Law) has posted Wrongful Convictions, Constitutional Remedies, and Nelson v. Colorado (Fordham Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article examines the U.S. Supreme Court’s Nelson v. Colorado opinion,...

In Memory of Innocence Project Exoneree Barry Gibbs

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It is with heavy hearts that we remember Innocence Project exoneree Barry Gibbs, who died on Friday, March 23, 2018. Barry Gibbs was wrongfully convicted of a 1986 second-degree murder in New York City. Barry’s conviction was based on misconduct by a NYPD detective, who was later convicted of arranging and committing several murders and cover-ups on behalf of an organized crime family. Barry was incarcerated for 19 years before new evidence led to his release and subsequent exoneration in 2005. Innocence Project Director of Post-Conviction Litigation, Vanessa Potkin, was Barry’s attorney and long-time friend. She shared her thoughts about her time with Barry: Vanessa and Barry. Photo by Zoe Potkin. “Barry’s case pre-dated my arrival at the Innocence Project in 2000 and even the founding of the Innocence Project itself in 1992.  Barry wrote to Innocence Project Co-Founder Peter Neufeld in 1991 proclaiming his innocence and asking for help getting…

Forensic hypnosis under fire

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In December, Grits posted a "brief primer on forensic hypnosis" after we'd discussed a capital case out of Farmer's Branch involving a hypnotized witness in the November Reasonably Suspicious podcast. Now, Christian McPhate at D Magazine has published an extensive profile of that case and how the courts and law enforcement have handled hypnosis-influenced testimony in Texas over time. Anyone interested in junk-science issues should give it a read.

Time Begins On Opening Day

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You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.  -- Jim BoutonThomas Boswell, the long-time sportswriter for the Washington Post, wrote a timeless piece collected in a book of the same name, Why Time Begins On Opening Day, published in 1984.  Boswell muses on the "resolute grasp" that baseball maintains for so many of us" and why our "affection for the game has held steady for decades, maybe even grown with age."  He asks what baseball is doing among our other "first-rate passions."  And, indeed, when one looks over the posts on this blog, it could seem incongruous to have baseball pieces interrupting the rants on politics and pleas for social justice.  Boswell explains that "in contrast to the unwieldy world which we hold in common, baseball offers a kingdom built to human scale.  Its problems and questions are exactly…

Bail Reform: Time for Presumption of Release and Elimination of Money Bail

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The right to bail in this country was firmly planted by the Framers in the original Bill of Rights: the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution specifically prohibits excessive bail.   Much has changed in this nation’s criminal justice system since the Bill of Rights became effective on December 15, 1791. Wealth and poverty have created two standards of justice in the United States: the rich and powerful enjoy a presumption of innocence while the poor and indigent suffer from an assumption of guilt.   Dual System of Justice   This dual standard of justice is reflected in many ways each day as the justice system deals with the nearly 11 million arrests made each year and the two million juveniles placed in juvenile detention each day. The right to bail following arrest is just one of places where the dual standard of justice erects its ugly head.   According to the Prison Policy Initiative, there are 3,163 jails in the United States, and, according to…

Rules for Breath Tests in DWI Cases

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The easiest way for the State to prove impairment in a prosecution for impaired driving is by introducing the results of a test of the defendant’s breath. Such test results are admissible without the foundation that would otherwise be required for this kind of scientific evidence so long as the testing was carried out in accordance with statutory and administrative rules governing implied consent testing. G.S. 20-139.1(b). Because the rule allowing breath test results to be introduced into evidence is relied upon so often, I thought it might be helpful to review the admissibility rule and the requirements for such tests. There are two admissibility rules set forth in G.S. 20-139.1. The first applies to chemical analyses generally. It provides that in an implied consent case, a person’s alcohol concentration or the presence of any other impairing substance in the person’s body as shown by a chemical analysis is admissible in evidence. G.S.…
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