An addition to the "dumb crimnals" file, from Reuters: A pair of armed-robbery suspects in New Orleans have given police seeking their capture on Monday a helpful clue: pictures of themselves taken with one of their victim's cell phones and...
"Suspects aid New Orleans police with photos of selves shot with stolen phone"
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Sayreville Football Team Bullying Arrests Offer Hope to Stamford, Greenwich, Darien & New Canaan High School Bullying Victims
This week’s arrest of 7 Sayreville, New Jersey high school football players has reignited a nationwide discussion about the terrors of high school bullying and what high school administrators, teachers, coaches and parents can do to put a stop to this epidemic. It also hits home as a recent article in the Connecticut Law Tribune entitled “Connecticut Schools Hit with a Rising Number of Bullying Lawsuits” reports on the increasing number of parents who are finally taking a stand against bullies on behalf of their kids and filing bullying lawsuits. But the question remains…how do we solve this bullying problem? Are criminal arrests the answer? Expulsions? Civil lawsuits against the bullies and their parents? More education and prevention? As the top bullying lawyers in Connecticut will tell you—it’s a combination of all of the above. Keep reading to learn more… Connecticut School Bullying Reports on the Rise…
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Iuliano on Jury Voting Paradoxes
Jason Iuliano has posted Jury Voting Paradoxes (Michigan Law Review, Vol. 113, 2014) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The special verdict is plagued by two philosophical paradoxes: the discursive dilemma and the lottery paradox. Although widely discussed in the...
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DOJ Criminal Division's "New Qui Tam Process" - Attempting to Share in the Civil Division's Success
Dear Readers:Sorry to have been away so long. There is much to catch up about. The recent remarks by Leslie R. Caldwell, Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Criminal Division, at the Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund Conference, about the "New Qui Tam Process" merit a closer examination than many other blogs or articles have provided. Upon closer examination, AAG Caldwell's invitation to Relators to bring their qui tam cases to the Criminal Division appears to be more an effort by the Criminal Division to share in the success of DOJ's Civil Division than a real effort to increase the criminal enforcement of health care fraud cases that have a parallel qui tam.First, let's be clear: AAG Caldwell is head of the Criminal Division. It is not at all clear what, if any, impact her remarks will have on the Civil Division at the Justice Department or the U.S. Attorneys' Offices…
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//blawgsearch75.rssing.com/chan-6519914/article7745-live.html
214-402-4364-Writ Bond Hotline bo@kalabuslaw.comwww.rosenthalwadas.comwww.kalabuslaw.com Office: 972-562-7549 Bo Kalabus was named a Texas Super Lawyer for the third year in a row. See Bo’s Profile here. The post appeared first on Collin County Criminal Lawyers.
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DoJ Issues New Policy on Plea Waivers
The U.S. Department of Justice Memorandum is at the link, thanks to the Wall Street Journal. "Holder: No Defendant Will Forego Right to ‘Able Representation’," is by Joe Palazzolo for the WSJ Law blog. The No. 2 Justice Department official...
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News Scan
Realignment Offender Suspected of Murder: Police in Barstow, CA believe that the person responsible for murdering a man Monday night is on active Post-Release Community Supervision (PRCS), a form of probation started under Governor Brown's Realignment legislation. Jose Quintero of the Desert Dispatch reports that 22-year-old Andrew Gallegos, a known gang member, stabbed his victim to death Monday evening just after 8:00 p.m. Police have yet to locate Gallegos and are warning citizens not to approach him as he is believed to be armed and dangerous.Rapist Denied Release: An Ohio man scheduled for release from prison this week will remain behind bars after his DNA linked him to five unsolved rapes. Sean Rowe of Fox Columbus reports that 54-year-old Dwayne Wilson, who was already serving a five-year sentence for a separate sexual assault conviction, will now be charged with nine counts of rape and five counts of kidnapping after DNA linked him to assaults…
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"Oscar Pistorius Sentencing Day 2"
From TalkLeft, this critique of the prosecutor: He needs to go back to school. Unrelenting sarcasm and mockery is not a successful cross-examination technique. He comes off as a bully. His questions are designed to express his thoughts and then...
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In Which I Defend, Against Franks and Citron, Your Right to Sext
In the same way that sovereign citizens and jailhouse lawyers take snippets of language from cases and quote them as gospel truth, applicable in all cases, anti-revenge-porn zealots take snippets of language from cases and quote them as gospel truth, applicable in all cases: While Bennett has accurately described categories of speech that the Supreme Court has deemed “unprotected,” there are other types of speech that are lesser-protected. The most established example of lesser-protected speech is commercial speech. The Supreme Court has also recognized that “speech on matters of purely private concern” receives “less stringent” protection from the First Amendment (Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. v. Greenmoss Builders, Inc., 472 U.S. 749, 759-60 (1985)). That sounds quite a bit like the speech Citron is talking about when she says that revenge porn bans should be limited to private communications between people in a trusting relationship. And…
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Supreme Court Denies Review of “Acquitted Conduct” Sentences
A defendant exercises his constitutional right to a jury trial and is proven guilty by a jury of his peers. The jury, confronted with multiple charges against the defendant, weighs the evidence and acquits on all counts, save one for which they find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The judge at sentencing nonetheless sentences the defendant based not just on the one guilty count, but on the acquitted conduct, finding “by a preponderance of the evidence” that although the jury acquitted the defendant of those crimes, he, in fact, committed them and therefore should be sentenced to a much higher sentence as a result (although below the statutory maximum for the offense). This can’t be right. An appeals court must surely reverse. And if not, the Supreme Court will certainly grant certiorari to fix it, right? Wrong. Today, the Supreme Court denied certiorari in a case presenting this very question in United States v. Jones, over the dissent of Justices…
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Matter of Devon R. and Matter of Michael OO..cont
Similarly, while Family Court Act §311.4 (2) authorizes the Family Court to substitute a PINS petition for a juvenile delinquency proceeding "at any time in the proceedings" and Family Court Act §311.4 (2) authorizes the Court to substitute a PINS finding for a juvenile delinquency finding at the conclusion of the dispositional hearing", nothing in that section purports to preclude multiple substitutions of petitions or findings in the course of a single criminal proceeding where subsequent developments make clear that the prior substitution was an improvident exercise of judicial discretion as held in Kloogman v Schall. It should be noted that statutes are to be construed according to the ordinary meaning of their words and where a statute describes the particular situations in which it is to apply and no qualifying exception is added, an irrefutable inference must be drawn that what is omitted or not included was intended to be omitted or excluded …
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Waiting for Lame Duck Period to Name AG
Nedra Pickler has this story for AP, incorrectly headlined Obama waiting for midterm to name Attorney General. As the text of the story makes clear, he is not going to wait for the midpoint of his term, January 20, but instead is only waiting until the election is past.President Barack Obama does not plan to announce his choice for attorney general before the November elections, shielding the nomination from the midterm election politics while setting up a potential year-end showdown with the lame duck Senate.Shielding the nomination from politics? My, doesn't that sound noble? Reality is more like shielding the Democratic candidates in close races from having to answer to the people, which is how our representative democracy is supposed to work.There wouldn't be any need to "shield" if the President were planning to nominate a solid, non-divisive candidate. So this timing tends to indicate that another divisive, partisan nominee who…
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Interrogations of Juveniles
Jan Hoffman of The New York Times reported on the issue of juveniles not understanding their rights when questioned by the police. The studies show that a juvenile is not developmentally ready to make decisions that will impact their life forever. One common misconception is that the parents must be present when their child is questioned by the police so the parents can protect their child. It is simply not the case. In fact , most police detectives go to the child's school to question the child. No parents are present and school administrators are compliant. “Adolescents are more oriented to the present, so they are less likely than adults to be thinking about the future consequences of what they’re saying,” said Laurence Steinberg, a professor of psychology at Temple University who writes about teenagers in the justice system and was not involved in this study. Teenagers, he added, are also less likely than adults to know…
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CALIFORNIA FIGHTS CAMPUS SEX CRIMES WITH NEW “YES MEANS YES” LAW…AND APP
Hey, remember when “No” meant “No”? Well, unfortunately, people are still committing sex crimes. So, California is going a step further with its enforcement of such crimes. The state’s new rule will be that “Yes means yes”. By statute, in fact. Such an approach is not really new. I have handled a number of cases where such allegations have arisen on college campuses. Generally, the burden is shifted to the accused to prove that a given complainant gave an unequivocal “Yes” and, virtually, kept repeating that word in order for the sexual contact not to be a sexual assault. Now, California has defined just when “yes means yes” and it is aimed at college campuses. The state Senate, which unanimously approved the legislation, believes that the new law will change how campus officials investigate sexual assault allegations. Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill shortly after receiving it. Rather than using…
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Vegas man gets probation in pawn-shop robbery
Yesterday Victor Park was sentenced in Las Vegas to three years of probation for shooting 21-year-old Thomas Cola to death in 2006. Video surveillance video shows Cola entering Park's pawn shop, where Cola then stole a Cartier watch. Park shot at Cola as he ran away, killing him. Cola had a substantial criminal record, and on the night of his shooting, he was reportedly high on cocaine and employed fake identification in order to get Park to show him the watch. Park had been robbed years earlier, during which he sustained a bullet in his head. Cola was not armed the night of this robbery. Park was initially charged with murder for killing Cola. In June Park submitted an Alford Plea to voluntary manslaughter, which means he admitted no guilt but acknowledged the prosecution could prove murder. The judge had the discretion to impose up to 6 years in prison. For more on this story, go to:…
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Assigning Judges to Cases
In most courts below the level of the Supreme Court (state or federal), most cases are heard by something less than all the judges of the court. How do judges get assigned to cases? Can assignments be manipulated? Are they?Presently, there is a big controversy in the Ninth Circuit regarding assignments to the same-sex marriage cases. Josh Blackman has this post at his eponymous blog. It seems Judges Reinhardt and Berzon get assigned to these panels at rates far beyond what can plausibly be explained by chance. CJLF takes no position on the underlying issue in these cases, but the fairness of judicial assignments is something that does concern us.In civil litigation affecting the criminal justice system, we have seen manipulations of the "related case" rules to funnel the prisoner rights cases and the cases blocking implementation of an important reform of capital habeas corpus to the most prisoner-friendly judges. The…
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California Woman Exonerated of Murder
A woman who spent 17 years behind bars for the murder of a homeless man in California was exonerated Friday by a Los Angeles County judge. California Innocence Project client Susan Mellen, now 59, was convicted of planning the murder of her former boyfriend, Richard Daly, over items he allegedly stole from her mother's house. NBCLA-Southern California reported that Judge Mark Arnold ordered Millen's immediate release and dismissed the case. She walked out of the courtroom a free woman by 6 p.m. that evening and celebrated with her three children. "This is the greatest miracle ever," Mellen said, according to NBCLA-Southern California. "I'm just so excited; I don't know what to say. I'm overwhelmed. It's just so amazing, this is huge." Mellen maintained her innocence since the very beginning and told police repeatedly that she had nothing to do with Daly's murder. Despite witnesses' testimony in support of her alibi for…
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“I Make Over Six Figures A Year. What Am I Doing Here?”
Guest Post by Tyler Wolff* These are the first words that went through my head when the jury found me guilty of my second DUI. The first one was a dangerous mistake: I was young, underage, drinking with a fake ID, and hadn’t consumed much alcohol in my life up to that point. Really, growing up, I didn’t drink much. Working in a new city with new faces and friends, I liked the competitiveness of the “drinking” scene. All you have to do to become the bigger man is to drink more shots than the next guy? Sure, done. No problem. On it. However, I wasn’t aware that my judgment would become impaired to the point that I would think it a good idea to drive even in spite of having a hard time putting one foot in front of the other. I don’t remember the accident. In fact, I don’t remember getting into my car, much less starting it and doubtlessly weaving down the street. All I…
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I'll take $20 on Pump No. 2 and an Arrest for Solicitation of Prostitution in Washington, DC
In a continuing effort to make sure there is a balance between violent crime arrests and "quality of life" arrests in Washington, DC, the police have decided to step-up efforts to arrest people for the crime of Solicitation of Prostitution. In the past, police have targeted taxi drivers and would actually hail a cab so they could arrest the driver, even though he was legally required to stop for the potential passenger. Let's now look a recent undercover operation by the DC police. A customer pulls up to a gas station in NE DC to fill up his car. While he is standing at the pump, a female undercover officer approaches him and asks if he wants a date.
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Texas Voter ID
As predicted in this post, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has followed the Supreme Court's pattern and stayed an injunction against Voter ID. The pattern is that the high court disallows late changes, whichever way they go.Early voting in Texas begins on Monday, October 20. On Saturday, October 11--just nine days before early voting begins and just 24 days before Election Day--the district court entered a final order striking down Texas's voter identification laws. By this order, the district court enjoined the implementation of Texas Senate Bill 14 ("SB 14") of the 2011 Regular Session, which requires that voters present certain photographic identification at the polls. The district court also ordered that the State of Texas ("State") instead implement the laws that were in force before SB 14's enactment in May of 2011. Based primarily on the extremely fast-approaching election date, we STAY the district court's judgment…
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