"State legislators hear death penalty measures," is AP coverage, via the Garden City Telegram. Kansas Sen. Greg Smith, whose own daughter was brutally murdered seven years ago, told a committee of state lawmakers Thursday that they should reject a bill...
News Coverage of the Kansas Senate Committee Hearing
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Legislation Considered in Virginia
"Bill would mandate electric chair if lethal injection chemicals are not available," is by Markus Schmidt in today's Richmond Times-Dispatch. Death row inmates in Virginia who wish to die by lethal injection still could face execution by electrocution under a...
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'First 48' profits from false accusations against innocent people
The New Times in Miami has an exceptional piece about an reality show on A&E titled "The First 48 makes millions off imprisoning innocents." Premised on the (dubious) notion that most murders are solved in the first 48 hours or not at all, the reality show depicts police investigations during those first two days after a murder. In Dallas, Detective Dwayne Thompson, whose interrogation methods were highlighted in this Grits post, has been one of the detectives profiled.The Miami New Times hones in on the fact that the show's producers are looking for good television, not necessarily the truth about who committed the crimes depicted. One of the innocents they identify who was falsely accused on the show was from Houston:1,300 miles south in Houston, an innocent man named Cameron Coker languished inside a Harris County jail awaiting trial. In mid-July 2009, 16-year-old Eric Elizarraraz had been shot at an apartment complex just off Highway 6. The boy had confronted a group of men who'd insulted his girlfriend. At least three witnesses offered county deputies a similar description of the killer — tall, light-skinned, skinny — and later picked 18-year-old Coker out of a lineup. As cameras rolled, Coker, who professed innocence, was arrested and charged with murder.When the episode "Straight Menace" aired on March 11, 2010, viewers howled for Coker's execution. "Put him down," one commenter wrote in an online forum. "They got the death penalty in Houston?" But the case was substantially more fraught with error than viewers realized. Though the show didn't broadcast it, none of the witnesses whom detectives used were positive Coker was the shooter.In February 2012 — after Coker had spent nearly three years in jail — Steven M. Smith, a professor of psychology at Texas A&M and an expert in human memory, tracked down the witnesses as part of Coker's defense. The first, Andrew Nguyen, confessed he hadn't seen the shooting and had "taken a good guess," picking Coker out of the lineup "based on what my other friends had told me," according to court documents.Another witness, Roberto Valdez, who confessed he'd been drunk and high on weed and Xanax the day of the murder, said he told detectives he wasn't sure who pulled the trigger and would "guess." At the bottom of the photo array, he wrote, "I'm p.," which he later told Smith had meant, "I'm probably wrong." A third witness also admitted he hadn't been sure.In mid-2012, after spending 1,095 days in prison, Coker was released. Prosecutors' closeout memo had cited "witness identification problems.""I couldn't believe they did that to me," Coker now tells New Times. "It was like a torture that no one should have to go through in this life." Coker's attorney, Vivian King, says she's repeatedly asked The First 48's producers to stop rebroadcasting the episode now that Coker has been exonerated, but they've declined. First 48 producers refused to comment for this article."Just imagine the image they made out of me," Coker says, adding he fears retribution for a crime he didn't do. "Even when I walk places I've never been, people know me from The First 48 without really knowing what happened."Read the whole story. Grits has never been comfortable with the notion of crime as entertainment, so I must admit this New Times story confirms many of my own biases. It's irresponsible when accusations are trumpeted from the mountaintops but dismissals are back-page news, if they're acknowledged at all. They'll keep doing it, though, as long as the method generates strong ratings.
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House committee approves tougher sex offense bills
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NM - Man Given Forced Colonoscopy by Cops Wins $1.6 Million Settlement
It's not just for aliens anymore!Original Article
01/14/2014
By STEVEN NELSON
A New Mexico man forced by police to undergo a colonoscopy has quietly settled his legal case against officials from Hidalgo County and Deming, N.M.
KOB-TV reports that _____, 64, will be paid $1.6 million by the local governments – $650,000 from Hidalgo County and $950,000 from the city of Deming – to resolve the case, which was filed in U.S. District Court in November.
_____'s lawsuit alleged his Fourth...
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Cell phone search incident--cert granted in two cases
Cert granted in two cell phone search cases: Riley v. California and United States v. Wurie. See Court to rule on cellphone privacy on SCOTUSBlog.
I'm going to go out on a limb here: Can one compare a smartphone (a computer) capable of holding a million pages of documents and a few hundred thousand photographs be compared to the crumbled cigarette pack in 1973's Robinson? To ask is to answer. No.
Update: Here, if a cell phone was seized, I assume it was dumped into the police computer whether the discovery mentions it or not. Too many times I've read about seized cell phones and the police bragging about their electronic toys to copy phones. Twice I've had clients arrested and released ("catch and release") where the police held the cell phone for about two hours and returned it. And what were they doing with it?
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Felons in Possession and Suppression Hearings
Convicted felons arrested for possession of a firearm may face significant charges and penalties. Any felon charged with possession of a firearm could be punished with up to 10 years in prison. Under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, felons will face additional penalties if the firearm was used to commit a crime of violence or a … Continue Reading
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FL - The First 48 Makes Millions Off Imprisoning Innocents
Original Article
01/16/2014
By Terrence McCoy
No one thought twice about the gunshots. It was just before midnight on NW 77th Street in Little Haiti. At that time of night, neighbors would later tell police, they often hear gunfire. Usually, it's some jacked addict playing around like a fool. Other times, it's significantly worse. But in this Miami neighborhood, where nearly one in 60 is a victim of violent crime, you don't mess with someone else's business.
So when a curvaceous 18-year-old...
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Victor Gerena, 35, died today while cleaning a large machine in a New Bedford seafood plant
Early this morning while cleaning a large shucking machine, Mr. Gerena became entangled in a rotary turbine engine. The fire department had to partially dismantle the machine to free Mr. Gerena, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
An investigation has been opened by the occupational safety and health administration (OSHA); investigators interviewed witnesses and gathered information this morning. The investigation is expected to take several weeks.
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Commentary to the RAI ...cont
The question of whether child pornography defendants should be scored with RAI points because the “relationship” between the defendant and his victims is one of a “stranger” was addressed by the Court of Appeals in a case. In the...
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Florida Accountant Arrested in Suspected $6 Million Ponzi Scheme
Florida authorities arrested a Pinellas county man suspected of masterminding a $6 million real estate development Ponzi scheme. David George Dreslin, 54, was arrested yesterday by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on charges of racketeering, conspiracy to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity, three counts of sale of an unregistered security, three counts of sale of a security by an unregistered dealer, securities fraud and organized fraud. Dreslin turned himself in to authorities and is currently being held on a $920,000 bond.
Dreslin was the principal of Dreslin Financial Services, where he acted as a certified public accountant and business advisor. According to authorities, Dreslin began soliciting investors for various real estate projects in which he promised substantial returns in a short period of time. Investors were assured that their investment would be a safe and secure investment, and some investors entrusted Dreslin with retirement funds. In return, investors were provided with periodic account statements depicting their account performance.
However, authorities allege that Dreslin's venture was nothing more than a Ponzi scheme that depended on the continuing flow of new investor funds to pay distributions to existing investors. Officials from FDLE discovered that Dreslin did now have ownership over all of the real estate he pitched to clients, and also diverted their investments to himself or for other unauthorized purposes. In total, authorities believe at least $6 million of investor funds were lost.
According to the press release distributed by FDLE, additional arrests are expected.
Those seeking further information may contact:
Gretl Plessinger, Samantha Andrews or Steve Arthur
FDLE Office of Public Information
(850) 410-7001
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Obama's NSA Reforms on Bulk Data Collection
President Obama today released his reforms to the NSA's bulk data collection program.
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said the changes are welcome, but don't go far enough:
The president should end – not mend –...
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Klein on Defense Counsel
Richard Daniel Klein (Touro College - Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center) has posted The Role of Defense Counsel in Ensuring a Fair Justice System (The Champion (Magazine of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers), June 2012, at 38) on...
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Supreme Court to Decide Two Cases on Cell Phone Searches
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear two cases on warrantless cell phone searches. One is a state case, the other is federal:
The court will hear an appeal from David Riley, a San Diego man who was stopped by the police, initially for having...
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Circuit Reverses Alien's Section 1326(a) Conviction: Defendant Was Not "Found In" the United States
United States v. Vasquez Macias, No. 12-3908-cr (2d Cir. Jan. 14, 2014) (Pooler, Raggi, and Wesley), available hereThe defendant, a citizen of Honduras, was convicted after a jury trial of being "found in the United States" illegally after he was deported from the United States, in violation of 8 U.S.C.§ 1326(a). The Circuit reversed the conviction, holding that the defendant was not in the United States when he was "found," and that, when he was later discovered in the United States, he was not here voluntarily. Accordingly, the Court held, the conviction "was plainly erroneous and it would constitute manifest injustice to allow it to stand."The facts were undisputed. Vasquez Macias ("Vasquez"), an alien, was deported from the United States in 2000, following his conviction for a drug crime. He returned to the United States in 2001 and lived here illegally for about a decade. He then went to Canada by walking across the Rainbow Bridge. Canadian officials refused him entry, forcibly returned him in handcuffs to the United States, and handed him over to United States officials, who kept him in custody. He was then indicted and convicted for being "found in the United States" illegally. The Circuit held, in this published decision, that the conviction could not stand. The majority opinion (written by Judge Wesley) concluded that, though Vasquez had been present in the United States illegally for nearly a decade, he was charged only with the crime of "being found" here. But the government did not prove that crime: when Vasquez was "found," he was in Canada, not the United States. At that point, he did not have a physical or legal presence in this country. Though he was then brought back to the United States and arrested, he had been returned to this country involuntarily, with neither a desire to enter, nor a will to be present. Under these circumstances, he was not "found in[] the United States," as required to support his conviction under 8 U.S.C.§ 1326.Judge Raggi concurred in a separate opinion. She agreed that the defendant's conviction had to be reversed, but reached that conclusion on somewhat different grounds. Judge Raggi construed Section 1326 to require proof of a defendant's general intent to be in the United States. In the case of a defendant charged with "being found" in the United States illegally, that means proof either that (1) the defendant was voluntarily in the United States when authorities found him physically present in this country, or (2) his presence in the United States at the time he was so found was a result of his last voluntarily return to the United States. Since neither circumstance pertained in Vasquez's case, his conviction had to be reversed.
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Politico: Aide: Obama made NSA call Thurs
Politico: Aide: Obama made NSA call Thurs by Josh Gerstein:
The decision to end a data-collection program came a night before the speech, an adviser saya.
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Politico: Is Obama Failing Constitutional Law?
Politico: Is Obama Failing Constitutional Law? | Talking and tinkering may not be enough to make the old law professor’s surveillance program legal.
by Jonathan Hafetz:
=> Read more!
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After new revelations, should every defendant ever sentenced by Judge Cebull seek resentencing?
The question in the title of this post is prompted by this new AP report headlined " "Federal judge sent hundreds of bigoted emails," which is a summary of this lengthy report released on Friday by the Committee on Judicial...
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NPR: Privacy Advocates Unhappy With Obama's NSA Changes
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SCOTUS grants cert on pair of cell-phone search cases
As reported in this SCOTUSblog entry, "the Supreme Court agreed on Friday afternoon to rule on police authority to search the contents of a cellphone they take from an individual they have arrested." Here is more from Lyle Denniston's effective...
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