The New York Times ran an article this week about a lawyer in Galveston, Texas, who was penalized by a judge for working took hard on his cases. The matter is the subject of a Federal lawsuit. The lawyer was appointed by the judge to represent a man charged with breaking into a car. The defendant faced a year in jail. After the lawyer did a rigorous investigation, the case was reduced to a misdemeanor. When the lawyer submitted his bill for the work on his case, the judge cut his bill more than in half. The lawyer appealed the cut in his bill, and the amount was sustained. Over time, however, the lawyers stopped getting court appointments. And he was removed from some of his cases. The practice of cutting the bills of court-appointed lawyers is so common that lawyers pretty much take it for granted. The Times article underscores some of the systemic issues in the court appointment system. In a 2011 study, the RAND Corporation found that indigent clients fared better when…
When The Lawyer Works Too Hard and is Penalized
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E.D.Va.: CP SW for images “created, modified or stored in any form,” including electronically included a cell phone
A child pornography search warrant for images “created, modified or stored in any form,” including electronically included a cell phone. As to defendant’s Franks challenge, his complaint about hearsay completely fails because whatever the police had, they obtained another person’s … Continue reading →
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Dads In Divorce: Now More Than Just A Wallet
Dads In Divorce: Now More Than Just A Wallet Dads are considered an important part of children’s lives, now more than ever. A shift in society has finally filtered down to the divorce process. No longer is the secondary role of “visiting parent” a guaranteed outcome for dads during the divorce process. Thanks to a new way society looks at men, more flexible gender roles, the influx of new, younger judges on the bench, and a fresh generation of family law attorneys, dads are no longer considered a non-essential appendage to the family unit. New Family Patterns In today’s society, the makeup of families is not quite as traditional or cookie cutter as in the past. Marriage is not an essential element in any relationship and society no longer looks down on single-parent households. There are households with one parent, two parents, households in a constant state of flux, and military families that have a hard-wired whirlwind of…
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"The Intersection between Young Adult Sentencing and Mass Incarceration"
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NYTimes: Hey, Alexa, What Can You Hear? And What Will You Do With It?
NYTimes: Hey, Alexa, What Can You Hear? And What Will You Do With It? by Sapna Maheswari: Amazon and Google have filed patent applications, many still under consideration, that outline how digital assistants can monitor more of what users say … Continue reading →
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Wired: The Hairy Problem With Drug Testing
Wired: The Hairy Problem With Drug Testing by Ellen Airhart: Boston police officers whose hair tests positive for drugs usually have two options: admit their substance abuse problems and agree to a stint in rehabilitation, or relinquish their position. But … Continue reading →
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The Economist: There will be little privacy in the workplace of the future
The Economist: There will be little privacy in the workplace of the future: AI will make workplaces more efficient, safer-and much creepier.
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Top-Ten Recent SSRN Downloads in Criminal Law eJournal
are here. The usual disclaimers apply. Rank Paper Downloads 1. Brain Development, Social Context and Justice Policy Elizabeth S. Scott, Natasha Duell and Laurence Steinberg Columbia University - Law School, Temple University and Temple University - Department of Psychology Date...
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Danny Ray Thomas shooting cast harsh spotlight on Harris County police shootings
The shooting of Danny Ray Thomas, a mentally ill man with his pants around his ankles who was shot to death by a Harris County Sheriff's deputy, has made national headlines and led to a greater-than-ever light cast on shootings by law enforcement in Texas' largest county.Grits wanted to round up a few of the more notable stories, as this episode appears as though it will frame debates over police accountability in Texas for the foreseeable future:The Intercept (Shaun King): Danny Ray Thomas was a broken man who needed help. Instead he was gunned down by a cop in broad daylightBBC: Houston officer shoots unarmed man with trousers downTexas Monthly: Fatal shooting of Danny Ray Thomas tests Houston's progressive law enforcement leadersHouston Chronicle: Deputy's shooting of Danny Ray Thomas reignites debate over use of force, police accountabilityHouston Chronicle: Deputy's bodycam was charging when unarmed man was fatally shotHouston Chronicle:…
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Is criminal justice reform really likely to be "a winning issue in 2018"?
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Case o' The Week: Ninth Psh-Shaw after SCOTUS Remand - Shaw and Bank Fraud Jury Instructions
The good news, Mr. Shaw, is you won a remand from the Supreme Court of the United States. The bad news . . . United States v. Shaw, 2018 WL 1473599 (9thCir. Mar. 27, 2018), decision available here.Players:Decision by Judge Schroeder, joined by Judges Nguyen and Hurwitz. Hard-fought appeal by CD Cal AFPD James Locklin.Facts: Shaw ran a scheme that siphoned off funds of a bank depositor, through online payment and PayPal. Id. at *1. The losses were borne by the victim and by Pay Pal – not the bank. Id. Shaw was convicted of bank fraud, and on appeal argued that he had not defrauded the bank within the meaning of the statute. Id. The Ninth affirmed the conviction, and the Supreme Court agreed on that issue. Id. SCOTUS remanded on a different issue, however, that the Ninth had not considered: the disjunctive form of the “scheme to defraud” instruction. Id. The instruction given during trial allowed a conviction if Shaw had intended to…
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NY Times story on Galveston indigent defense ripe for other reporters to localize
In the New York Times last week (March 29), former Austin Statesman editor Richard Oppell authored an article that could resonate throughout Texas indigent defense systems, as it describes a practice that's widespread, not remotely limited to the judge or attorney in Galveston at the center of the story. Here's the heart of the allegations:A criminal defense lawyer in Galveston, Tex., says he was pulled off cases defending poor clients because he spent too much time on them and requested funds to have their charges investigated. Needless to say, his clients were not the ones complaining. Instead, it was the judge, Jack Ewing, who appoints lawyers for those in his courtroom who cannot afford them. “You overwork cases,” Judge Ewing told the lawyer, Drew Willey, according to excerpts from a recorded conversation cited in the lawsuit. Though an estimated four of every five criminal defendants in the United States use court-appointed lawyers or public…
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THE CRIME OF ABDUCTING YOUR OWN CHILD IN ILLINOIS
You think your child’s other parent is a horrible person. As a result, you want to protect him or her from that parent. Maybe you sent your child out of state or hid them when the other parent came to visit. Under these circumstances, however, you may be charged with child abduction—even though the child is your own. The crime of child abduction by a parent is a Class 4 felony, punishable by 1 to 3 years in prison. Child abduction can include intentionally violating a custody order by concealing or detaining the child or taking the child out of the court’s jurisdiction. While married to the other parent, you may not knowingly hide, keep or remove the child with physical force or its threat. Nor can you do so because someone without legal custody has promised to pay you. If you have been charged with child abduction or a similar offense, contact an experienced criminal attorney immediately. An attorney can review your case for its best possible defense.…
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Breve nota sobre definición de la Cooperación Judicial Internacional
Cervini R.(1995) esboza el siguiente comentario “Definida en términos generales, como una de las variedades de Entre-ayuda Penal Internacional, la CJPI se concreta cuando el aparato judicial de un Estado, que no tiene poder de imperio sino dentro de su territorio, recurre al auxilio, a la asistencia que le pueden prestar otros Estados por medio de sus respectivas actividades jurisdiccionales” (p.12) El mismo autor siguiendo a Paulo Mosso acota:“un hacer procesal jurisdiccional convergente en el plano internacional al que acordamos en designar como interacción procesal, cuyo fulcro legitimante reposa tanto en el cumplimiento efectivo de la tarea procesal de entreayuda jurisdiccional penal requerida como en el marco de garantías con que la misma se implementa”. En ese frágil equilibrio dinámico entre eficacia de la prestación asistencial y garantías de los concernidos, se encuentra precisamente la…
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"The Pot Rush: Is Legalized Marijuana a Positive Local Amenity?"
The title of this post is the title of this intriguing new paper authored by Diego Zambiasi and Steven Stillman. Here is its abstract: This paper examines the amenity value of legalized marijuana by analyzing the impact of marijuana legalization on migration to Colorado. Colorado is the pioneering state in...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/SCPUAf2IWDg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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Photo Arrays and In Court Identification: Understanding the Law in New York
A new law has recently gone into effect in New York State which fundamentally changes a basic tenant of New York Criminal Practice. New York was the only state in the United States that still did not allow evidence of a prior identification made by a witness via a photo array to be introduced at trial. The thought by New York criminal lawyers has always been that presentation of a photo array to a jury would suggest that the defendant has been in trouble before – why else would they have a photo of him at the time of the identification procedure. This was deemed to be unfair to the defendant and improper. However, many felt that this concern was outdated, and New York decided to join the vast majority of other states in allowing for the prior photo array to be introduced at trial, but with very strict requirements on how the photo array is compiled and how the identification procedure is conducted. Strict requirements or not, this new allowance will have a wide-reaching…
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The Substance Use Evaluation in Michigan Driver’s License Restoration and Clearance Cases – Part 1
The substance use evaluation is really the foundation of a Michigan driver’s license restoration or clearance appeal. At its most basic, it is supposed to be an objective, clinical examination of a person’s alcohol and drug use history and an assessment of the person’s current relationship to those substances, followed by a prognosis of the likelihood that the person will be able to remain clean and sober. Ultimately, that prognosis is seen as a kind of prediction about the person remaining alcohol and/or drug-free. The prognosis is provided within its own section of the substance use evaluation form, and the evaluator must check a box indicating that it is either “poor,” “guarded,” “fair,” “good,” or “excellent.” By rule, a license appeal must be denied if the prognosis is either “poor,” “guarded” or “fair.” In other words, you can only win…
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Why We Punish: Lessons in Indeterminacy
Gabriel S. Mendlow, The Elusive Object of Punishment, (forthcoming), available at SSRN. SpearIt In the adjudication of criminal law, judges tend to agree upon the elements that make up a given crime, but are less certain about exactly which element the law seeks to punish. For example, in child pornography possession statutes, it is difficult to determine the underlying transgression that is targeted by the punishment. Is it the act of possessing the images that is blameworthy or is there something else? And if so, what? Does the law actually seek to punish certain thoughts that the images engender – particularly to steer people away from thinking about children in a certain way? The closer one looks, the more one might suspect that the law is punishing thoughts about certain images. From this perspective, the crime of possession takes the shape of a thought crime more than anything else. However, this very state of mind—which might be the true object of…
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McKinley Down
When the argument was grounded in mass produced statues of confederate generals that were erected just as the civil rights movement was gaining momentum as a reminder to blacks in the south to stay in their place, there was no reason not to tear them down. They were offensive and meant to be. They weren’t artifacts of history, but tin soldiers. Even those whose heritage was at issue conceded that the statues were crap and had to go. The concern that remained, however, wasn’t about the statues per se, but about whether this would be a slippery slope. “Presentism,” the viewing of history through the prism of current values, was already taking its toll. Christopher Columbus was a rapist colonizer. Washington and Jefferson were slaveowners. And our first Chief Justice, John Marshall, was, ahem, problematic. There were strong arguments put forth against statues and monuments honoring the losers in a terrible war. But surely, the argument went, it was…
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Injury crash Southbound US95 @ 420.9
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: 04/02/2018 2:08 am Please direct questions to the District Office On April 2nd, 2018 at 2:08 am, an injury crash occurred on US95 at milepost 420.9, near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. A white 2001 Ford Ranger driven by Leon G Blood, 73, of Hayden, Idaho, was travelling southbound when he lost control on the slick roadway and struck a northbound lane guard rail, causing his vehicle to come to a roll into a ditch. Blood was not wearing a seatbelt and was transported to Kootenai Health. The investigation is continuing. MRW -------------
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