The night begins. Big Tent Democrat's predictions are here. Is Nate Silver as good at predicting Hollywood as he is elections? Here are his predictions.
Enjoy the show, everyone. [More....]...
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Oscars: 2013 Live Thread
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MO - Missouri adds sex offenders to treatment program
Original ArticleBoy these concentration camps are popping up all over the country.
When are we going to start committing murderers, gang members, drug dealers, DUI offenders, thieves and others who are likely to re-offend? They should be getting the same treatment.
Imagine all the money that could be saved if this treatment was done while the offender was in prison? Civil commitment centers are expensive and it's tax payer money that is being wasted. This is nothing more than prison outside of prison!02/24/2013By CHRIS BLANKFULTON (AP) - The number of people held in Missouri as sexually violent predators is shooting up, leading mental health officials to seek millions of additional dollars for their care.
In the upcoming year alone, Gov. Jay Nixon recommends more than $2.6 million for nearly 60 additional positions within the Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services program at the Southeast Missouri Mental Health Center in Farmington and at the Fulton State Hospital.
It's not the first time officials have sought and received funding for additional staff.
"Pretty much like clockwork we get about 20 people a year," committed to the sex offender program, Mental Health Department Director Keith Schafer said.
A Missouri law that took effect in 1999 permits certain sex offenders to be civilly committed as a "sexually violent predator" after completing their criminal sentences. It requires a mental abnormality and a "more likely than not" probability that the person would commit sexual violence if released.
Security is high, and the facilities are surrounded by razor wire. In 2008, the number of people committed or detained while awaiting a civil commitment decision was 152. That grew to 212 people four years later, which included 34 detained in jails while the civil commitment process was pending.
Officials project that the count will rise to 234 people, with 31 people detained in jails, during the current 2013 fiscal year. In 2015, it is estimated to be 274 people, with 31 people detained in jails.
Missouri's current operating budget includes partial-year funding for a third 25-person unit at the Fulton State Hospital. Nixon's budget proposal for next year would fully fund the expansion ward at Fulton and would provide 10 months of funding to open 25 new beds in Farmington.
"This simply gives the Department of Mental Health the ability to initiate treatment," Schafer said.
Treatment consists of group therapy, classes and individual therapy. It is designed to help patients with accepting responsibility for sexual offenses and their consequences, gaining control of deviant sexual urges and behavior, coping with negative emotions that can create risk for re-offending and developing plans for functional use of leisure time.
The process for deciding who enters the sex offender program starts with prison or mental health officials alerting the attorney general's office and a seven-member multidisciplinary team that someone nearing release could qualify as a "sexually violent predator." The attorney general's office receives an assessment from the multidisciplinary team, and a five-member prosecutor's committee also completes a review.
When it appears someone could be a "sexually violent predator" and the prosecutor's committee agrees by majority vote the person meets the definition, the attorney general can file a petition in court. A trial then is held.
Among those who have been committed, nine transferred back to prison and seven people have died. Two people have been granted conditional release without discharge, which allows the resident to leave the facility for scheduled activities and appointments with an escort and electronic monitoring.
The growth in the sex offender program has become part of mental health officials' pitch for building a new high-security facility at the Fulton State Hospital.
The hospital about 30 miles northeast of the state Capitol admitted its first patients in 1851 and is the oldest public mental health facility west of the Mississippi River. Officials want to replace antiquated space at the hospital with a new $211 million facility that has a better treatment environment and is safer for patients and employees.
Lawmakers and Nixon this year have been working on a proposal to issue several hundred million dollars in bonds for improvements and construction at college campuses, state facilities and state parks. The Mental Health Department hopes the new 300-bed facility will be part of the bonding strategy and could ease the need for a new $70 million facility to house sex offenders. At the current growth rate, the department estimates it would run out of high-security space around 2018.
The new facility would house patients who currently live in the maximum security Biggs Forensic Center and the intermediate security Guhleman Forensic Center. Biggs would be razed, and 91 beds would be opened in Guhleman for the sex offender program.© 2006-2013 | Sex Offender Issues
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FIJI - Considers setting up a sex offenders registry, saying historically sex offender registers have never worked before
Original Article02/25/2013
Fiji is the latest Pacific nation to consider setting up a register of sex offenders.
The country's Minister for Women, Dr Jiko Luveni, says a register would address the 'root cause' of sex related crime against girls and women.- What about men and boys?
The minister says the register would be able to identify offenders, track and educate them and provide important information to the police.
Shamima Ali, the chief executive of the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre, says historically sex offender registers have never worked before.
She told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat she is not totally opposed to such a move, but more discussion around the issue is needed from a human rights perspective.
"I still believe in Fiji there needs to be a lot more discussion and consultation which we seem to be lacking nowadays," Ms Ali said.
"And rather than just talking about bandaid solutions - a quick way to address the situation...looking at where has it worked, if it has worked anywhere. And in from my knowledge, it hasn't worked."© 2006-2013 | Sex Offender Issues
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Guilty Plea Entered in $1M Mortgage Fraud Case
Reginald Dodson Sr., 42, Tracy, California, pleaded guilty to mail fraud in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme.
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Bill would commit sex predators after their prison terms
2-24-2013 Ohio:
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio may be the next state to confine sex offenders beyond their prison sentences.
A bill that would authorize the civil commitment of "sexually violent...
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Texas SB 91—The Discovery Bill
Texas Senate Bill 91 would provide for formal discovery in criminal cases, both from the State to the defense and from the defense to the State. Texas Defender Service, which litigates capital cases, has come out in favor of this excrescence. Their reasoning is that, since there are District Attorneys who require waivers of Brady and other rights before they [...]
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SEQUESTER
The Oscars were last night. Don't ask us who won. In an effort to re-adjust to EST, we were asleep before the curtain rose. Our picks: Lincoln as best pic, Daniel Day Lewis as best actor. Argo over rated. Silver Linings Playbook is our favourite. An underdog sleeper. Just like one of our all time favourites that was a surprise upset Oscar sleeper winner: Marty in 1955 with Ernest Borgnine. If you haven't read Paddy Chayefsky - who won the Oscar for best screenplay for Marty, well, shame on you. In fact, that would make us "mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore" (Chayefsky also wrote the screen play for Network for which he won his third Oscar.)SEQUESTER: What does it mean for you?Less money in the economy just when the economy was recovering. 600,000 women and children cut off from nutritional aid by WIC. 800,000 civilian employees of the pentagon getting furloughs amounting to a 20% cut in their income. Perhaps a third of air traffic controllers furloughed. Long delays at airports. USDA food inspectors furloughed, meaning higher food prices since many food products cannot be shipped for sale until passing inspection and if there are less inspectors, there will be less meat and vegetables available for sale. It's all no good. The Escobar trial rolls on with fits and starts, with the Herald and David Ovalle reporting and tweeting on Friday that a putative plea deal hit the rocks when one of the two defendants wouldn't- or more likely couldn't- complete a plea colloquy. The case is before Judge Firtel. Rumour is that this is his last criminal trial. VOTING RIGHTS ACT: Up for oral argument before the Supreme Court this week, as Alabama and other southern States argue to the Supreme Court that we hardly need the protections of a 1964 law in an age where an African American is President. The SCOTUS Blog has the details of the constitutional challenges (amendments 10, 14, and a rare 15th amendment challenge as well as an Article IV analysis). The Pope steps down this week. What does a retired Pope do? Not really sure, but consider this strange fact: we commonly refer to "THE" Vatican and "THE" Bronx. Not many other places begin with "THE". Just a thought. See You In Court. It's nice to be back. Site Feed
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Hintermänner des BKA-Trojaners in Spanien gefasst
Der sogenannte „BKA-Trojaner“ hatte in den letzten Monaten viele Computer in ganz Europa befallen. Dabei erschien bei den betroffenen Nutzern auf dem Bildschirm eine gefälschte „Sperr-Seite“ einer Ermittlungsbehörde. Diese teilte den Benutzern mit, dass sie etwas Verbotenes getan hätten und sie eine bestimmte „Strafzahlung“ leisten müssten, um den Computer wieder nutzen zu dürfen. Durch . . . → Read More: Hintermänner des BKA-Trojaners in Spanien gefasstÄhnliche Beiträge:mTAN-Betrug: Millionenschäden bei BankkundenBundestrojaner geplant?Phishing: Betrug im NetzBetrug: Ermittlungen gegen vier junge Männer wegen…Organspenden-Betrug: Zweiter Arzt unter Verdacht
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Making Marijuana the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority
Last week, a legislative committee at the General Assembly rejected a bill that would have permitted medicinal use of marijuana. The News and Observer covered the story here, and the bill itself is here. There doesn’t appear to be any chance that the legislature will follow Colorado and Washington and make recreational marijuana legal under [...]
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Blood Crime
<font style="FONT-SIZE: 12px" face="arial">So you're in Maricopa County, driving along, just fine, and the cops pull you over. Busted. Via <a href=
"http://reason.com/blog/2013/02/23/court-rules-arizona-can-prosecute-sober">Reason</a>:</font>
<blockquote><font style="FONT-SIZE: 12px" face="arial">An Arizona appeals court has <a href="http://azcourts.gov/Portals/0/OpinionFiles/Div1/2013/1%20CA-SA%2012-0211.pdf">ruled</a> that motorists
don’t actually have to be under the influence to be prosecuted for driving under the influence.<br>
<br></font>
<p><font style="FONT-SIZE: 12px" face="arial">Via the <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/news/marijuana/ci_22582743/ariz-court-ruling-upholds-dui-test-marijuana">Associated Press</a>:</font></p>
<blockquote>
<p>An appeals court has issued a ruling that upholds the right of authorities to prosecute pot smokers ...</p></blockquote></blockquote>
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Case Update
As I mentioned on Friday, in four days last week SCOTUS
almost doubled its output of the last four months. We talked about the two 4th Amendment
decisions, Florida v.
Harris (drug-sniffing dog) and Bailey v. US
(detention for search warrant) last Thursday and Friday,
and concluded that the pro-government decision (Harris) could've been worse, and the pro-defendant decision (Bailey) could've been better. At least, I did; your mileage may vary. Of the seven other decisions handed down,
four were criminal: Evans v. Michigan dealt with the Double Jeopardy Clause, Johnson v. Williams was another go at
the deference to state decisions in federal habeas claims, Henderson v. US concerned the question of "plain error," and in Chaidez v. US, the Court held that Padilla v. Kentucky, which required that
attorneys inform their clients of the deportation risks of guilty pleas, does
not apply retroactively. I'll have a
fuller description of those cases on Thursday, by which time I will presumably
have read them and have some better idea of what I'm talking about. This week, the Court holds oral argument in Maryland v. King, concerning whether the
state can require arrestees to submit to DNA testing for purposes of keeping the
resulting profile in the national database, so we might discuss that, too.
The Ohio Supreme Court didn't hand down any decisions, but
it did grant review in a bunch of new cases, including five criminal ones. Among the issues presented are whether the
soliciting statute is overbroad, which we'll discuss below, and whether capital
defendants have the right to effective assistance of the mitigation
expert. And there's one on HB 86. The new law raised the threshold for theft
offenses from $500 to $1,000, and there's no question that a defendant who
steals, say, $600 before the effective date of the new statute, but is sentenced
after it, is entitled to be sentenced as for a misdemeanor. But is he also entitled to have the offense classified
as a misdemeanor? The districts are
split on the issue, with the 8th holding he's not and the 2nd and 9th holding
that he is. The court will sort it out.
In the courts of appeals...
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How do I get my Ignition Interlock Device Removed?
In Virginia, as of July 1, 2012, if you are found guilty of any level of DWI, your restricted license is contingent upon you having an ignition interlock device installed in any vehicle that you drive. In other words, you can hopefully get a restricted license (at least for a first offense DUI), however you [...]
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Embracing Queer Childrearing
Clifford Rosky, Fear of the Queer Child, 61 Buff. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2013), available at SSRN.Darren RosenblumFor the nascent lesbian and gay rights movement (before “queer” was repurposed), children and young adults were the most taboo of rights topics. Gay rights meant sexual liberation, as popularized in films like “Cruising” and songs like the Village People’s “YMCA.” Apart from Harvey Fierstein’s gay mama role in “Torch Song Trilogy,” queer parents were invisible. Widespread allegations of “recruiting” young people led advocates [...]
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The Dead Sea Scrolls, Satire and Identity Theft
After a jury convicted him of identity theft in the second degree (2 counts), criminal impersonation in the second degree (14 counts), forgery inthe third degree (10 counts), aggravated harassment in the second degree (3 counts), and unauthorized use of a computer, all in violation of New York law, and after the trial judge sentenced him to “an aggregate sentence of six months”, Raphael Golb appealed. People v. Golb, 102 A.D.3d 601, __ N.Y.S.2d __, 2013 WL 322575 (New York Supreme Court – Appellate Division 2013). (The opinion notes that the judge also vacated the “identity theft conviction under the first count of the indictment” and therefore dismissed that charge. People v. Golb, supra.) To understand the charges, and the opinion this post examines, it is helpful to understand a little about what was going on in the case. It involves Norman Golb, Raphael Golb’s father, who is a professor at the University of Chicago and who, according to Wikipedia, has been a key proponent of the viewpoint that the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Qumran were not the product of the Essenes, but rather of many different Jewish sects and communities of ancient Israel, which he presents in his book Who Wrote The Dead Sea Scrolls?: The Search For The Secret Of Qumran. In the 1990s, Golb was an advocate for the freeing of the Scrolls for academic pursuit. And according to this article in the New York Times, Professor Golb’s views attracted limited support from other scholars, and none from any major academics in the United States. From his home in Chicago, where he has been teaching and publishing, he attributed this cold shoulder to non-scholarly factors. `The personal animus, I regret to say, has nothing to do with scholarship. It has to do with their anger that I came up with a new and more cogent view of the origin of the scrolls.’ According to the same article, [b]etween 2006 and 2009, [Raphael Golb] created more than 80 online aliases to advance his father’s views about the Dead Sea Scrolls against what he saw as a concerted effort to exclude them. Along the way, according to a jury . . . , he crossed from engaging in academic debate to committing a crime. Or, as the New York Supreme Court’s Appellate Division noted, Raphael Golb is the son of an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls. [He] set up email accounts in which he pretended to be other scholars who disagreed with [his] father's opinion on the origin of the Scrolls. Among other things, [Raphael Golb] sent emails in which one of his father's rivals purportedly admitted to acts of plagiarism. People v. Golb, supra. According to the New York Times article, Golb’s “aliases begot other aliases, known on the Internet as sock puppets: 20, 40, 60, 80.” The same article also notes that the “sock puppets debated with other posters, each time linking to other sock puppets to support their arguments, creating the impression of an army of engaged scholars espousing Norman Golb’s ideas.” And that brings us back to the opinion. Golb’s “principal defense was that these emails were only intended to be satiric hoaxes or pranks.” People v. Golb, supra. The court, though, was not persuaded: [A]s it has been observed in the context of trademark law, `[a] parody must convey two simultaneous -- and contradictory -- messages: that it is the original, but also that it is not the original and is instead a parody’ (Cliffs Notes, Inc. v. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 886 F.2d 490, 494 [U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2d Circuit 1989]). Here, the evidence clearly established that [Golb] never intended any kind of parody. Instead, he only intended to convey the first message to the readers of the emails, that is, that the purported authors were the actual authors. It was equally clear that [Golb] intended that the recipients' reliance on this deception would cause harm to the purported authors and benefits to [him] or his father. The court's charge, [i.e., the judge’s instructions to the jury,] which incorporated many of [Golb’s] requests, fully protected his constitutional rights, and the court was not required to grant [his] requests for additional instructions. The court carefully informed the jury that academic discussion, parody, satire and the use of pseudonyms were protected by the 1st Amendment. People v. Golb, supra.(For more on parody and the 1st Amendment, check out the article you can find here.) As to the trial judge’s instructions to the jury, the opinion explains that the court also ensured that the jury understood the terms `fraud’ and `defraud’ by expanding their definition and advised the jury that `without the intent to deceive or defraud as to the source of the speech with the intent to reap a benefit from that deceit, there is no crime.’ The court was under no obligation to limit the definitions of `injure’ or `defraud’ -- terms used in the forgery and criminal impersonation statutes -- to tangible harms such as financial harm. . . . The court also properly employed the statutory definition of `benefit’ as `any gain or advantage’ to defendant or to another person (New York Penal Law § 10.00[17]). People v. Golb, supra. The Supreme Court – Appellate Division also did not buy Golb’s argument that it is constitutionally impermissible to include an intent to influence a constitutionally-protected academic debate within the concept of fraud, injury or benefit, that allowing injury to reputation to satisfy the injury element would effectively revive the long-abandoned offense of criminal libel, and that, in any event, the alleged truth of the content of the emails should have been permitted as a defense. However, the evidence established that [Golb] intended harm that fell within the plain meaning of the term `injure,’ and that was not protected by the 1st Amendment, including damage to the careers and livelihoods of the scholars he impersonated. [Golb] also intended to create specific benefits for his father's career. The fact that the underlying dispute between [Golb] and his father's rivals was a constitutionally-protected debate does not provide any 1st Amendment protection for acts that were otherwise unlawful. People v. Golb, supra. And the court explained that Golb was not prosecuted for the content of any of the emails, but only for giving the false impression that his victims were the actual authors of the emails. The 1st Amendment protects the right to criticize another person, but it does not permit anyone to give an intentionally false impression that the source of the message is that other person. . . . People v. Golb, supra. Finally, the Supreme Court – Appellate Division rejected Golb’s claims that the statutes under which he was convicted were unconstitutionally vague or overbroad. None of these statutes was vague or overbroad on its face or as applied (see People v. Shack, 86 N.Y.2d 529, 538 [1995]; Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U.S. 601, 611–616 [1973)]). The People were required to prove that [Golb] had the specific fraudulent intent to deceive email recipients about his identity, and to obtain benefits or cause injuries as a result of the recipients' reliance on that deception. The statutes criminalized the act of impersonation and its unlawful intent, not the content of speech falsely imputed to the victims. People v. Golb, supra. (As Wikipedia explains, the void for vagueness doctrine is based on two principles: the desire to ensure that criminal statutes are not “too vague for the average citizen to understand”; and that they do not give law enforcement officers too much discretion in deciding who will and who will not be arrested and prosecuted.) The court therefore affirmed Golb’s conviction and sentence. People v. Golb, supra. As the New York Times article published on February 16 noted, Golb, who had been a lawyer, was disbarred as the result of his felony convictions and, when the article went to press, was “waiting to begin serving” his six-month sentence. If you would like to read the arguments for and against his conviction, I suggest you check out this article; it has the best coverage of the issues I have seen.
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Texting ban pushed despite veto last session
Tomorrow, the Texas House Transportation Committee will consider several bills banning or limiting use of cell phones for talking or texting. Ironically, though you wouldn't know it from the MSM coverage, "Texting bans haven't reduced crashes at all. In a perverse twist, crashes increased in 3 of the 4 states we studied after bans were enacted," according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Shannon Edmonds at TDCAA said Friday that, of the four related bills on the agenda, "HB 63 is the one to watch; it will be amended in committee and probably voted out first." Governor Perry, regular readers know, vetoed similar legislation in 2011.
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GA: SW for documentary evidence in drug case permits seizure of camera and its pictures
A search warrant for documentary evidence of drug dealing and possession includes seizure of a camera and the pictures it may contain. State v. Rogers, 2013 Ga. App. LEXIS 90 (February 21, 2013).
Defendant was in prison on another murder conviction, and seizure of a letter from his cell that was a suicide no mentioning this murder case was not subject to the Fourth Amendment or the plain view doctrine. Bolin v. State, 2013 Fla. LEXIS 271 (February 21, 2013).*
An order for installation of a GPS device in Pennsylvania requires probable cause, and the officers had it here. The proceedings complied with the state wiretap act, and nothing here was inconsistent with Jones. Commonwealth v. Burgos, 2013 PA Super 26, 2013 Pa. Super. LEXIS 74 (February 20, 2013).*
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IN: School resource officers LEOs or not? If not, can't be assaulting an officer
Should resisting a school resource officer be a crime? What about the Fourth Amendment implications of what a school resource officer does under T.L.O.? Tough questions that the legislature is invited to answer. K.W. v. State, 2013 Ind. LEXIS 147 (February 22, 2013)*:
[...] Read more!
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MI: 911 call about open door to house supported emergency entry that found drugs
A report to the police of a residence door swinging in the wind made the officer suspect a burglary, and he rang the doorbell and knocked before entering. Marijuana was found. The fact the door was not damaged when the officer arrived was not determinative. People v. Lemons, 2013 Mich. App. LEXIS 363 (February 21, 2013).
There is no suggestion in Randolph that the defendant be asked for consent before he is removed from the premises. (quoting United States v. Travis, 311 Fed. Appx 305, 310 (11th Cir. 2009)). United States v. Swilley, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24132 (N.D. Ga. February 1, 2013).*
High crime area, nervousness, and object in pocket that could have been a gun were all factors in reasonable suspicion for a patdown. United States v. Felton, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22944 (E.D. Wis. February 20, 2013).*
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"Marijuana dealers get slammed by taxes"
The title of this post is the headline of this new piece over at CNN Money. Here is how it begins: Thanks to a decades-old law targeting drug runners, entrepreneurs in the nascent medical marijuana industry face a unique burden:...
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California unable to keep up with sex offender who disable GPS tracking devices
The Los Angeles Times has this new article highlighting yet another dysfunction in California's operation of its criminal justice system. The full headline provides an effective summary of the lengthy piece: "Paroled sex offenders disarming tracking devices: Thousands of high-risk...
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