New York charges heroin possession at different levels based on the weight of the drugs involved, so penalties can range from a Class A Misdemeanor for quantities under one-eighth of an ounce, carrying a potential penalty of one year in jail, to a Class A Felony for possession of more than eight ounces, carrying a potential sentence of up to 20 years in jail. When charged with heroin possession in New York, your attorney may have options that can keep you out of jail or even keep you from having a criminal record. First offenders facing a misdemeanor possession charge are the most likely candidates for alternative sentencing options. Whatever your circumstances, you should plan to work with experienced New York City heroin possession attorneys to give you the best chance at a favorable outcome. Call our team at (212) 577-6677 today for a consultation with an experienced criminal defense attorney.
What Are The Penalties For Possession Of Heroin In New York?
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Monday Night Open Thread
I'm just catching up on today's news. The Supreme Court will decide whether police can seize hotel registries of guests without a warrant. The 9th Circuit ruled the California law allowing warrantless access to the data violated the 4th... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Is a DUI in Florida a Misdemeanor or a Felony?
Although the vast majority of DUI cases are charged as a misdemeanor, the answer to that question ultimately depends on a host of factors. Below is a quick summary of the statutory maximum penalties allowed under Florida law for different types of DUI charges. First DUI – a misdemeanor with a maximum of 6 months […]
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Former Convicted Felony Gets 16 Years in Federal Prison in a Maine Federal Gun Charge Case
Former convicted felon, Jerome Hudson, pled guilty to possession of ammunition by a convicted felon earlier this year. The mandatory minimum penalty under federal law is 15 years. Mr. Hudson's mandatory minimum sentence was driven by the Federal Armed Career Criminal Act. Mr. Hudson, who at the time was living in Lewiston, Maine, had a lengthy history that included assaults, armed assaults, drug possession cases and robbery. It seems that he lucked out and narrowly missed being sentenced under the Federal Career Offender Act, which would have required a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years to life. Mr. Hudson confronted the father of his girlfriend's children at a school bus stop where he then pulled out a 9mm pistol and fired at least three shots. Miraculously, no one was hit by the shots. While the shots were clearly meant for the boyfriend, anyone of those bullets could have struck and injured or even killed one of the children…
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Koch Industries give "major grant" to NACDL to help with indigent defense
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Earth to Academia Re: Jones Certiorari Denial
The defense bar is hopping mad about the denial of cert in the Jones case. There, the Court declined to hear a challenge to the use of acquitted conduct in fashioning the sentence. Kent discussed it here, and I did here.There has been a good deal of fussing about it, as you might expect. There have also been guesses galore about why the Court denied review. The most remarkable I have seen is this one by University of Illinois law Professor Margareth Etienne (quoted in the National Journal):Etienne speculated that some justices may have felt the facts of the Jones case were "too good" to be a vehicle for making a broad pronouncement on the issue. She explained that Jones involved a judge ignoring an actual acquittal by a jury, whereas a more common scenario is a judge basing an enhanced sentence on conduct that may or may not have been charged or was not part of a plea agreement. Ruling on a case involving an actual acquittal might leave the…
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"Skewed Justice: Citizens United, Television Advertising and State Supreme Court Justices’ Decisions in Criminal Cases"
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The People argue that the Police had a basis to stop the Escalade...cont
The People argue that the Police had a basis to stop the Escalade which fled from the Police. The People also argue that there was probable cause to arrest and search each of the defendants. The People further argue that the statements made by the defendants were voluntarily given. The Officer testified that he received a radio assignment regarding the robbery at the Jewelers store in Manhasset. The radio assignment indicated that the suspects were male blacks who fled the scene in a black Cadillac Escalade. He then observed a black Cadillac Escalade, traveling westbound on Northern Boulevard, with two (2) male black occupants. Criminal Defense counsel's argument that his observations did not provide him with a reasonable basis to stop the black Cadillac Escalade is simply absurd. It is clear that the Officer observed a vehicle fitting the exact description of the alleged getaway vehicle in the immediate vicinity of the robbery. Whether he observed, at that point, two (2)…
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United States v. Hernandez, No. 13-50632 (per curiam with Pregerson, Tallman, and Bea). In honor of Descamps, we should have a pledge of allegiance to precedent finding overbroad categorical approaches, where there is one statute, indivisible. In this case, the 9th vacates a sentence that added an aggravated felony enhancement in a § 1326 case for a California felon in possession. The 9th followed recent precedent in so ruling. In United States v. Aguilera-Rios, No. 12-50597 2014 WL 4800292 (9th Cir. 9-29-14), the court held in the immigration context that the California felon-in-possession statute was not a categorical fit for the federal felon in possession statute because the state statute did not have an antique-firearms exception. This overbroad approach also applies in the sentencing context, and so the aggravated-felony adjustment is not triggered.Congrats to Jim Locklin, Deputy Federal Defender in the Calif. Central FPD (Los Angeles).The decision is…
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"What will Oscar Pistorius face in prison?"
From CNN.com: Oscar Pistorius began a new life behind bars Tuesday after he was sentenced to a maximum five years' imprisonment for culpable homicide in the death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Under South African law, the country's most famous disabled...
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Boston Globe Says Hold Prosecutors Accountable for Errors
A recent Boston Globe editorial called for prosecutors to be held accountable for miscarriages of justice that occur at their hands and specifically called out a former Berkshire County prosecutor who may have withheld exculpatory evidence in a child rape case nearly 30 years ago. Bernard Baran Jr., an openly gay teenager, was convicted of multiple counts of child rape and spent 21 years behind bars for crimes he didn't commit. In the face of homophobia and hysteria, Baran was convicted in 1985 despite a lack of evidence linking him to the crimes. In the years following, an examination of trial records suggests that the prosecuting attorney, Daniel Ford, withheld evidence from Baran's defense attorney. Baran was ultimately freed from prison in 2006. In the wake of his death last month, his defense lawyer, Harvey Silvergate, submitted a letter to the editor to the Globe calling for Ford to be removed from his job as a superior court judge, a position he's held…
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SCOTUS Reviews Felony Gun Ownership Laws
If you are convicted of felony, either a state or federal felony charge, you lose certain rights going forward including the right to own firearms. The felony gun ownership laws in Utah are very harsh. The question then arises, what happens to your firearms in the event you are convicted of a felony. Can you sell them? Trade the firearms? Transfer the firearms to a family member? Currently the law in Utah, along with most other states, and the federal law state a felon simply cannot be in possession of a gun. The law doesn’t necessarily require felons turn over their weapons upon the filing of felony charges against them. Nor does the law expressly prohibit a felon from selling a gun rather than handing them over to law enforcement. Nonetheless, local prosecutors and the U.S. Attorney’s Office have routinely routinely requested courts order felons turn over their weapons as a part of their probation or pre trial release. Additionally, individuals charged with a…
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The 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution
The 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees that Citizens shall be free of unreasonable searches and seizures, of individual liberty and privacy, and the right to be left alone. The landmark Court of Appeals decision in a case, firmly established that “Before the police may stop a person pursuant to the common-law right to inquire there must exist at that moment a founded suspicion that criminal activity is present,” and “the police may not justify a stop by a subsequently acquired suspicion resulting from the stop.” It has been long held that the stop of an automobile constitutes a limited seizure of its occupants for federal and state constitutional purposes. The Court of Appeals has specifically held that in order for a Police Officer to legally stop a vehicle, the Officer needs to have either observed a violation of the Vehicle and Traffic Law, or reasonably suspects that the occupants had been, were then, or were about to be…
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Decided to try making some You Tube videos for the site. Here is the first one titled, “What happens following a DUI arrest in Seattle.” Basically I provide a general overview of what an individual can expect after they get arrested in Seattle, including the two separate legal actions they will face.
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Sarre & Prenzler on The Australian Criminal Justice System
Rick Sarre and Tim Prenzler (University of South Australia - School of Law and Griffith University - School of Criminology and Criminal Justice) have posted The Criminal Justice System (in H Hayes and T Prenzler. An Introduction to Crime and...
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Motion to dismiss the indictment based on denial of the defendant's right to testify before the grand jury; revisited
The October 17th News Picks email update to New York State Defender Association members (a great organization and valuable source for criminal law developments, $75/year for attorneys, $15/year for students, a bargain at twice the price) included a summary of People v Chappelle, 2014 WL 5285479 [3rd Dept 10/16/14], an important case from the Third Department.Mr. Chappelle was arraigned without counsel. The next day, the prosecution’s notice of the right to testify before the grand jury was served on Mr. Chappelle personally, in jail, as he was still without counsel and, in fact, did not have any contact with counsel until after he was indicted. More than 5 days after arraignment on the indictment, defense counsel moved to dismiss the indictment based on the violation of defendant’s right to testify before the grand jury. The trial court denied the motion as untimely (see, CPL § 190.50[5][c]). The defendant then pled guilty and waived his right…
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Circuits Split on When to Impute Employees’ Knowledge to Corporation for Section 10(b) Claims
One of the most significant challenges facing plaintiffs in pleading a violation of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is sufficiently alleging that the defendant company possessed scienter, or an “intent to deceive.” Because a corporation can only act through its employees, the challenge is to determine which employees’ alleged state of mind should be imputed to the company. On October 10, 2014, the Sixth Circuit considered that question in In re Omnicare Sec. Litig., No. 13-5597, 2014 WL 5066826 (6th Cir. Oct. 10, 2014). Omnicare involved a Section 10(b) shareholder class action against Omnicare, Inc., a pharmaceutical manufacturer, alleging that Omnicare’s financial statements and other public disclosures contained misstatements regarding the company’s compliance with Medicare and Medicaid regulations. In particular, plaintiffs alleged that although Omnicare’s internal audit group discovered that certain…
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Leighton on A Model Prison
Paul Leighton (Eastern Michigan University - Dept of Sociology, Anthropology & Criminology) has posted 'A Model Prison for the Next 50 Years': The High-Tech, Public-Private Shimane Asahi Rehabilitation Center (Justice Policy Journal 11(1), Spring 2014) on SSRN. Here is the...
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BLINK 182
Ben Bradlee, the charming yet gruff editor of theWashington Post, who found his paper alone reporting arguably the biggest domestic story in US politics, died today at 93. Bradlee's support of his reporters was legendary. He turned the Washington Post from a sleepy third place newspaper, into the premier journalistic enterprise of its time. Our favorite story: The twice divorced Bradlee started dating a post reporter who had been sending him anonymous love notes. When he finally learned the name of the reporter and they started dating and the relationship became public, he was asked if would get married for a third time. "When they elect a Polish Pope" was a flippant reply. A year later the improbable happened, and four days after Pope John Paul II was elected, he was married four days later. COURT COSTS WILL NOT BE RAISEDFACDL issued a call-to-arms for Tuesday's Miami Commission meeting, and the commission blinked. The proposed hike in court…
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Teachers Are Victims of False Allegations
Students Make False Allegations of Sexual Abuse Against Teachers Teachers are often the focus of false allegations made by students. Whether the student is reacting to […]
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