The new Annual Statistical Report on the Texas Judiciary from the Office of Court Administration is out.Grits took a quick look at the data for felony drug possession cases in Texas District Courts. On. p. 112 we see that District Judges in Texas generated just more than 25,000 new felony drug possession convictions in 2017. Of those, nearly all were sentenced to incarceration of some sort:Sentences Related to Felony Drug-Possession Convictions in Texas, 2017 Prison: 5,281State Jail: 7,243*Local Jail: 8,554Probation/Community Supervision: 3,859Shock probation: 15Fine Only: 58Other: 410 Only 15 percent of drug-possession convictions resulted in a probated sentence in 2017, according to these data.In an additional 8,557 drug cases, a defendant with a prior drug conviction was revoked to prison in 2017. So probation revocations accounted for about 40 percent of drug offenders entering TDCJ last year.*State Jails are Texas' euphemism for prisons which hold low-level…
Most felony drug convictions in Texas get incarceration as a sentence
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Continuing confusion on lab tests
Stu Dedopoulos, who does a wonderful job of keeping me informed, has brought to my attention the decision of the supreme court of his home state of New Hampshire, issued today, in State v. Watson. It provides a good opportunity to comment on the sad state of affairs regarding forensic lab tests.Watson was charged with felony sale of a controlled drug resulting in death, so toxicology tests on the victim were critical to the prosecution. In all autopsy cases, the state's Chief Medical Examiner sends specimens to a private lab based in Pennsylvania. In this case, the lab was asked to test for over 200 substances. How many different tests the lab actually performed is not clear from the court's opinion. In any event, the prosecution presented one witness from the lab, Dr. Daniel Isenschmid, a toxicologist, who supervised the lab's report but apparently observed none of the testing. He testified to the presence in the victim's…
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Mavila Huerta en los sórdidos caminos de la justicia
https://elcomercio.pe/politica/vale-lavarse-manos-mavila-huertas-noticia-516538 No he comentado la resolución del TC sobre el caso Heredia/Humala, no pienso hacerlo, no vale la pena, donde todo está podrido la porquería flota sola. Si me gustaría opinar sobre este artículo. La señora Huerta indica que, al declarar el Fiscal Vela que si se produce una fuga o se entorpece la investigación, está implícitamente culpando al TC. Debo recordarle que, nadie quiere ir a la cárcel aunque fuera dorada, como la que disfrutó Alberto Fujimori, menos si en la conciencia de los Heredia/Humala existe certeza de su culpabilidad, además y no debemos olvidar que ejercieron el poder y quien disfrutó de los placeres que brinda hundiendo en el olvido a la mayoría de peruanos, también conoce la vida y milagros de mucha gente, geste que al ser requerida aportará su…
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Should Prez Trump grant clemency to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich?
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Group Motorcycle Riding: Kicking the Stereotype
If you ride motorcycles, you know that group motorcycle riding can quickly become one of your favorite pastimes. It’s just you, like-minded people, and the open road— what could be better than that? Group motorcycle riding is a fun to do, but not all car drivers see it that way. In fact, many Americans that own passenger cars think of riders as reckless people on the road. On the other hand, riders are responsible people who just want their share of the road. Because of the bad stereotype against motorcyclists, car drivers often do not fully share the road with them. At any rate, when motorcyclists ride in groups they are at risk because cars can drive aggressively around the group. Group Motorcycle Riding: Kicking the Stereotype Seeing a group of motorcyclists should not become a headache for any other vehicles on the road. However, many cars remain intimidated when a large group of riders take to the road. In turn, they might slow down, speed up, block you…
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Anthony Jakes’ and Robert Bouto’s Convictions Overturned in Chicago
Yesterday, two Exoneration Project clients—Anthony Jakes and Robert Bouto—had their convictions overturned. Jakes and Bouto are not co-defendants, but they were both wrongfully incarcerated as a result of police misconduct. Coincidentally, Jakes and Buoto were both exonerated yesterday in Chicago. When Jakes was 15-years-old, two notoriously corrupt Chicago police detectives beat him until he falsely confessed to murder. After a special prosecutor conducted a three-month review of Jakes’ case, he determined that the evidence used to convict Jakes did not meet the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt and requested that his case be dismissed. In a similar vein, Bouto was convicted after two other corrupt and notorious Chicago police detectives beat and bullied two witnesses into identifying Bouto as the gunman. Bouto’s attorney, Russell Ainsworth, said that both witnesses have since recanted their identification. After investigating the detectives…
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Feds Allege Mississippi Man Ran $85 Million Timber Ponzi Scheme
"Greed is not good. Greed drove this individual to lie, cheat and steal from fellow Mississippians, and led him to prey upon others outside our state, simply to personally benefit himself." - U.S. Attorney D. Michael Hurst, Jr. In what may be the largest Ponzi scheme in Mississippi history, civil and criminal authorities charged a 58-year old man with raising at least $85 million from investors who thought they were profiting from the harvesting of timber. Arthur Lamar Adams, 58, made his first appearance today after being arrested earlier in the day on two counts of wire fraud and one count of bank fraud. Each of the wire fraud counts carries a maximum twenty-year prison sentence while the bank fraud charge carries a maximum thirty-year term. The type of charging instrument used, a criminal information, suggests that Adams and prosecutors have reached a plea agreement. According to the New York Times, Adams' lawyer has confirmed…
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Bandes on Expressive Theories and the Death Penalty
Susan A. Bandes (DePaul University - College of Law) has posted All Bathwater, No Baby: Expressive Theories of Punishment and the Death Penalty (116 Michigan Law Review 905 (2018)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In Courting Death: The Supreme...
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Consent to Amicus Briefs
In the United States Supreme Court, a person who wants to file an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief must either have consent of the parties or make a motion for permission to the Court. SCOTUS regulars regularly consent to nearly all amicus briefs because everybody knows there is nothing gained by refusing. The Court nearly always grants the motions.Eugene Volokh has done some empirical research on what "everybody knows," and this time "everybody" is right. After excluding a few oddballs, he concludes:So, as best I can tell the Court has never -- not once -- in the last 14 years refused a normal, professionally prepared, rules-compliant amicus brief (one that was filed in time, by a nondisbarred lawyer independent of any party, and with normal, substantive legal argument). If you are asked for consent to the filing of an amicus brief in your Supreme Court case, there is basically no upside to refusing, and some modest…
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An Anniversary of Justice
Seven years ago, President Obama made this statement to the nation:Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.* * *So Americans understand the costs of war. Yet as a country, we will never tolerate our security being threatened, nor stand idly by when our people have been killed. We will be relentless in defense of our citizens and our friends and allies. We will be true to the values that make us who we are. And on nights like this one, we can say to those families who have lost loved ones to al Qaeda's terror: Justice has been done.According to the leader most widely and highly esteemed by our friends on the political left, there is at…
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Duffy & Pitcher on Inciting Terrorism
Helen Duffy and Kate Pitcher (Human Rights in Practice; Leiden University and Independent) have posted Inciting Terrorism? Crimes of Expression and the Limits of the Law (B. Goold and L. Lazarus, Security and Human Rights (Hart Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018)) on...
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Are Property Fires Considered Premises Liability?
Property fires have ruined the lives of hundreds to thousands of families across the United States. From severe burn injuries to death, property damage involving fires can be catastrophic. Fires that occur in one’s household are among the most common. In 2016, there were 352,000 home fires. As a result, 2,735 people perished. But what happens if you are on someone else’s property and there is a fire? More important, what if you get hurt or worse? Premises Liability and Fires The answers to the above-mentioned questions lead us to premises liability. Property owners in New Jersey have a duty to make sure individuals who are invited onto their property or who are likely to come onto their property are not put at risk because of another’s negligence. However, just because you were injured in a fire on someone else’s property doesn’t mean the owner necessarily committed negligence. In any case, we have provided need-to-know information to prevent…
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US v. Misraje, No. 15-50543 (4-30-18)(Woodcock w/Berzon & Bybee). The 9th affirms revocation of supervised release. The defendant was on SR for a child porn conviction. One condition required that he possess and use only those computers and computer devices that he had undisclosed to his probation officer. He allegedly violated this condition by (1) use of a disclosed electronic device on which he had downloaded images via a computer at a Walmart with WiFi from a nearby McDonalds (and he showed images to a young child in a psychologist's office); and (2) looking at a device a friend showed him. On appeal, he argued that it was unreasonable to allege the first violation as it occurred many months previously (7-8) and thus was too stale. He also argued that proof of it came via coercive interrogating. The 9th held that the alleged violation was not too old. The fact that the probation office could have alleged it earlier did not…
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Voluntary intoxication defense
Juaquin Garcia Soto was drunk and high on methamphetamine when he kicked in Israel Ramirez's apartment door and stabbed him to death in front of his girlfriend and young son. Soto was charged with first degree murder and first degree burglary. In California, a murder conviction requires a finding of express or implied malice. Express malice requires intent to kill "unlawfully," while implied does not. California Penal Code section 29.4 permits evidence of voluntary intoxication on the issue of whether a defendant "harbored express malice." At trial, Soto claimed "imperfect" self-defense, which is the actual, but unreasonable, belief that acting in self-defense was necessary. A successful imperfect self-defense claim will result in voluntary manslaughter because "one who holds an honest but unreasonable belief in the necessity to defend against imminent peril to life or great bodily injury does not harbor malice…
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Houston's budget busting police budget, crime lab glitches in Dallas, and other stories
Here are a few odds and ends to clear Grits' browser tabs of items which deserve readers' attention, even if I haven't gotten around to blogging about them:Crime lab DNA glitches delaying Dallas casesIn Dallas, reported WFAA, a capital murder case was delayed "because of a recent issue with county’s new DNA testing kits, which proved to be defective. The county crime lab suspended DNA testing in cases set for trial. The lab plans to restart testing in September with new testing kits."Most Twin Peaks biker cases soon to be dismissedSpecial prosecutors in the Twin Peaks biker cases in McLennan County dismissed one high-profile case, reported the Waco Tribune Herald, with many more likely to come soon:In a status conference Friday, Assistant District Attorney Amanda Dillon told Judge Ralph Strother that the DA’s office likely will dismiss all but 25 to 30 cases during a re-evaluation of the Twin Peaks cases. Many of those dismissals could come…
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Sessions v. Dimaya: A Blow to Trump’s Deportation Policy
It has been the law in this country for decades that if a lawful permanent resident is convicted of an “aggravated felony,” the offending individual is subject to removal from the United States. The Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) defines a “crime of violence” as an aggravated felony if it carries a penalty of at least one year. This definition is drawn from Section 16 of Title 18 of the United States Code. Subsection (a) of § 16 is clear about what constitutes a crime of violence: “an offense that has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another.” But Subsection (b) of § 16 is not nearly as clear: “any other offense that is a felony and that, by its nature, involves substantial risk that physical force against the person or property of another may be used in the course of committing the offense.” Is Burglary a Crime of…
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Spotlighting modern tendency to invest more in prisons than in schools
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Center for American Progress produces short report on "Rethinking Federal Marijuana Policy"
The folks at the Center for American Progress have this new Issue Brief titled "Rethinking Federal Marijuana Policy." Here are parts of its recommendations: Congress now should seriously consider proposals that lead to the legalization of marijuana. This is a time-consuming process that involves numerous issues, industries, and stakeholders, but...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/VMV5G_yVB54" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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Prom: Have fun and be safe (Life Saving Tips)
Prom season is upon us. Young people will be dressing up, going out, dancing and having a blast. It should be a fun and memorable night for everyone. It should also be safe. Prom night poses several unique risks for teenagers out on the road, and both prom-goers and parents should be will aware of the dangers that students might encounter during the night, and how to best avoid them. Studies have indicated that a large number of drunk driving deaths occur between April and June. Most proms take place in April and May, so there is a strong correlation between prom season and drunk-driving fatalities. Nobody—parent or prom-goer—should have to worry about a terrible or deadly accident on this special night. It is critical that everyone take care to avoid the risks of prom-night fatalities. Number one rule: Don’t drink and drive If there is one rule that every prom-goer should follow unquestionably it is this: Do not take a single sip of alcohol. For…
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Commercial Truck Drivers and G.P.S.: Necessary Distracted Driving?
Whether on road trips or going to an area of town we are unfamiliar with, we use our G.P.S. In any case, paying attention to anything except the road is never safe. However, when it comes to navigating, sometimes it is a bit necessary. But what about for truck drivers? They need to navigate as well. But, it is slightly worrisome because it is distracted driving. Distracted driving is never acceptable as it can cause a wreck. On the other hand, a fender bender differs greatly from an accident with a commercial truck. Because commercial trucks are large and weigh more, getting into an accident with one can end in serious personal injury. Therefore, there might be a higher risk when drivers are using G.P.S. No matter the speed we are at, crashes can occur. You never know what condition other drivers might be under, so it’s important that you drive defensively at all times. Commercial Truck Drivers and G.P.S.: Is it Dangerous? No doubt, Global Positioning…
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