Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara is urging New York to adopt reforms that would help prevent wrongful convictions based on misidentification. McNamara's interest in the issue stems from the 2008 exoneration of Innocence Project client Steven Barnes. According to the Utica Observer Dispatch, after DNA evidence proved that Barnes was innocent of the murder of Kimberly Simon, McNamara vowed to do whatever he could to fix what had gone wrong to send an innocent man to prison. Last year, McNamara served on a committee for the National Academy of Science that released Identifying the Culprit, a landmark report on misidentification urging states to adopt best practices to prevent misidentifications. McNamara told the Observer Dispatch that one of the problems with misidentifications is that the confidence a witness possesses when identifying a suspect in the court room often doesn't reveal the doubts that the witness might have had when initially…
New York District Attorney Endorses Reforms to Prevent Misidentification
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News Scan
Bill Seeks New Restrictions On DUI Offenders: Oklahoma Senator Patrick Anderson is proposing a bill aimed at preventing DUI offenders from buying or consuming alcohol for a set period of time. Fox News reports that the bill is designed to deter drunk drivers by preventing them from buying alcohol and also punishes others who buy alcohol for them. Those who oppose the bill question the ability of police to enforce the restrictions, citing too many flaws for it to be successful.Record Number of Meth Seizures in 2014: Border Patrol agents on the U.S.-Mexico border report that meth seizures soared to record breaking numbers in 2014. The Associated Press reports that the San Diego, CA field office confiscated 63% of all methamphetamine seized at land, air, and sea entry points nationwide in 2014. The DEA estimates that 90% of all meth in the U.S. comes from Mexico.No Change of Venue in Marathon Bombing Trial: Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy notes…
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2015.7: Justin Keiter
[A]ll trial lawyers who make improper arguments…have no business lamenting the public’s low perception of lawyers. They need only look in the mirror. I wasn’t even very hard on him: I just republished part of a dissenting opinion criticizing a closing argument that Justin Keiter had made, and connected Keiter’s name with it. Keiter took the criticism hard. I was riding on the elevator today when Justin got on with a little smile on his face. He looked around, saw me, stopped smiling, faced front and got off the elevator at the next stop. (Other people on the elevator noticed. They commented.) A year later he can’t even bear to look at me. Judges criticize prosecutors, but almost always without using their names. I won’t guess at Justice Jennings’s motivation for not naming Justin Keiter in the opinion. Apparently there’s no reason the public should know who the lawyer responsible for “egregious misconduct”…
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All about search warrants – Orange County criminal defense attorney
What is a search warrant? A search warrant is an order in writing, commanding a peace officer to search a particular person or place for specific listed items and return them to court. Right off the bat, note that a warrant only allows the police to search. A citizen cannot obtain a search warrant. Although a warrant is typically issued in writing, the police can get a telephonic warrant that is later followed up (following applicable statutes) with a written document and a recording of the proceedings in obtaining the warrant. A search warrant is preferred in court, as a search done pursuant to a warrant is presumed to have been a valid, legal search. Without a warrant, the police (and prosecution) would have to justify any search. They would have to prove consent, exigency or one of the recognized exceptions to the necessity for a search warrant. The police must establish probable cause to search. That means they must demonstrate, based on…
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Medical Marijuana in Las Vegas
Medical Marijuana is Working its Way Through Legislature, but Pot is not a Substitute Nevada is waiting for a medical marijuana dispensary to be opened, but controversy among companies vying to license is growing. These same discrepancies between state and local agencies have occurred in every state that has legalized medical marijuana. There have been seven applicants in Clark County, but now they need to obtain permits from the state, which includes zoning neighborhoods properly. Between the county and the state, litigation takes time. NuLeaf and Desertaire are two companies scheduled for hearings before the end of the month. In the meantime, Nye County sheriffs confiscated 8,500 to 9,000 marijuana plants in a bust just last week. This is an incredible amount that was not for personal possession. NRS 253 contains the legal statutes because on the streets, these plants are worth close to $34 million. This bust was not medical marijuana; this is pot grown for distribution and…
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Attempted Tampering with Physical Evidence ...cont
Here, the allegations in the accusatory instrument state that the criminal defendant "threw down" the cigar to the ground. This allegation alone does not lend to the reasonable conclusion that defendant intended to conceal, alter, or destroy the cigar. Indeed, it is quite reasonable that the defendant merely intended to abandon the cigar or was through smoking it. Actions that frequently result in inference of intent to conceal, alter, or destroy include swallowing, while throwing is often found insufficient. The act of throwing to the ground extends beyond the enumerated conduct that evinces tampering under the statute. Here, the defendant's alleged conduct, throwing down the cigar after turning to run as the informant approached him, is inconclusive at best. First, because the People have failed to sufficiently allege facts indicating that the defendant reasonably contemplated, or did contemplate, a forthcoming official proceeding, defendant's act of…
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2015.10: A Fox in the Civil-Liberty Henhouse
When I argued Ex Parte Lo at the Court of Criminal Appeals, I used section 33.021(c), the “actual solicitation” portion of Texas’s Online Solicitation of a Minor statute as an example of a constitutional limitation on speech. I hadn’t given section 33.021(c) a lot of close attention, but it talked about “soliciting” a “minor” for sex, and soliciting a minor for sex is generally recognized as unprotected speech. Looking at it more closely, it’s obvious that the “solicitation” described by section 33.021(c) is not necessarily solicitation (because a defendant cannot raise his lack of intent to meet as a defense) and the “minor” described by section 33.021(c) is not necessarily a minor (because it can be an adult who represents himself to be a minor, but whom the defendant knows not to be a minor). Non-solicitation of a minor is constitutionally protected speech, as is solicitation of a non-minor.…
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2015.11 Also, in Mary Anne Franks’s Perfect World
This could land you in prison in #AZ via @berkitron https://t.co/BICDqe4XUa — ACLU National (@ACLU) September 23, 2014 That’s a tweet from the American Civil Liberties Union. The link within it is to a blog post written by Lee Rowland (@berkitron), Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project. Sharing that image would be “disclos[ing] an image of another, identifiable person, whose intimate parts are exposed … when the actor knows or should have known that the depicted person has not consented to such disclosure.” Disclosing an image of another identifiable person whose intimate parts are exposed when you should have known that the person has not consented to the disclosure would violate the model revenge-porn statute proposed by Mary Anne Franks. So in Franks’s perfect world, as in Arizona, sharing that image would be a crime unless it were done “in the public interest.” But while Rowland decries the Arizona…
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Mike Cernovich: Based Lawyer of GamerGate (Response)
"This, sadly, was not always the dichotomy — his blog, going back to 2004 as a law student, paints the picture of a far tamer, more reasonable man, interested in cases of authority figures abusing their stations, and where justice was denied to the weak." - Manfred Von Karma How does someone go from a rather nice guy to, well, the man I have become. I'm actually a really nice guy in person, but let's assume, as the author of a recent expose on me does, that I am "perfectly sociopathic." What happened? The key to understanding me is reading this article and following what has been done to liberals, feminists, and other nice people who post under the hashtag #GamerGate. 1. The author of the article did not email me for comment. Before writing several thousand words on someone, why not send him or her an email for comment? But that's not how journalism is done these days. Rather than have an open dialogue where people try…
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Former Virginia Gov McDonnell gets (way-below-guideline) sentence of two years in prison
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DuPage County Woman Charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance
A Villa Nova woman was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance after accepting delivery of almost 700 Xanax pills. The arrest was made through the combined efforts of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Postal Service and the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office. DuPage Possession of a Controlled Substance Drug crimes require an aggressive defense, and that defense must begin immediately. In any criminal case, there are certain procedures law enforcement must follow in order to ensure that each defendant is afford a fair trial. One of the most important is the fundamental right against unlawful searches and seizures, and law enforcement’s motivation and justification for initiating a search is the most important aspect of any drug crimes defense. In this case, there are a number of concerns regarding the arrest and subsequent search of the defendant’s residence. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol intercepted a package addressed to…
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Rasheed: Divided Fifth Circuit Panel Finds Counsel Ineffective Under Padilla But No Harm
Now that the Supreme Court has decided that Padilla cannot be applied retroactively, the lower courts are, as expected, trying to figure out what set of circumstances merits relief under Padilla — that is, when does a foreign national have a claim for ineffective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment because his attorney did not give him the correct or any advice on the immigration consequences of pleading guilty to a criminal offense? The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently took up this issue in the case of United States v. Kayode, and, in a 2-1 decision, ruled against the petitioner, a federal prisoner who brought the appeal without the help of an attorney. The majority concluded that while the petitioner might have, in fact, received ineffective assistance of counsel — the petitioner told the court among other things that his attorneys failed to tell him he would be subject to deportation once he pleaded guilty to the charges brought…
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//blawgsearch75.rssing.com/chan-6519914/article9313-live.html
[Ed. note -- Keith Hilzendeger, AFPD writing for Jon M. Sands. The FPD in Arizona represents the petitioner in this capital habeas appeal.]Mann v. Ryan, No. 09-99017 (9th Cir. Dec. 29, 2014) (Thomas, CJ, with Reinhardt and Kozinski, who dissented) --- The Ninth Circuit partly reversed the denial of habeas relief and remanded for a new sentencing hearing in a capital case out of Arizona, finding that trial counsel was ineffective in failing to present mitigating evidence at the penalty phase.The victims in this capital murder case came to the petitioner's house to buy some drugs. But the petitioner swindled them, and when the victims discovered the ruse he and his live-in girlfriend shot them to death. They enlisted a friend to help them bury the bodies and clean the crime scene; the friend and the girlfriend were given immunity in exchange for their testimony against the petitioner. The guilt phase of the trial went quickly; defense counsel called no witnesses and…
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Notable discussions of children as mass incarceration’s "collateral damage"
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TAKING THE PLEA IN CRIMINAL COURT IN ILLINOIS
In my practice, making a plea agreement is a last resort, not a first option. When a client comes to me, I first review all the evidence against him or her for any possible defense. Was the arrest based on probable cause? Was the search proper? Can the state prove all the elements of the crime? But sometimes, the state’s case is very strong, and the client is best served by making a plea agreement. Depending on the jurisdiction or the courtroom, I will negotiate a plea with either the state’s attorney or village prosecutor. In some cases, the judge will hold something called a 402 conference. In a 402 conference, the prosecutor and defense attorney meet in the judge’s chambers to discuss the case. At that time, I will present any evidence in your favor as to why you deserve a more lenient sentence. The judge will then make a recommendation regarding the charges and sentencing. If the prosecutor’s offer or the judge’s recommendation is…
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Assessing Virginia Roberts' Credibility
Alan Dershowitz says Virginia Roberts, aka Jane Doe #3 and 102 in the Jeffrey Epstein civil suits) is a "serial liar." (For background, see here). Yesterday, Roberts told the Daily Mail she is writing her memoirs and will name all the powerful... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Even Governors Go To Jail
Photo Credit: Steve Helber, AP This afternoon, the long-running saga of Robert McDonnell came to what may be the end (not counting appeals) when the former Virginia Governor was sentenced to serve two years in prison after a jury convicted him of bribery while in office. As with many cases, this one has lessons to […] The post Even Governors Go To Jail appeared first on Crime In The Suites.
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Untaxed Cigarette Sting Leads to 21 Arrests
Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore, New York State Taxation and Finance Acting Commissioner Jamie Woodward and Yonkers Police Commissioner Edmund Hartnett announced that a yearlong investigation utilizing a multi-agency, multi-jurisdiction undercover operation carried out by the New York State Office of Tax Enforcement, Yonkers Police Department, New York City Police Department and Westchester County District Attorney’s office in which sales and purchases of more than nine million unstamped cigarettes resulted in a twenty one million dollar New York State cigarette excise tax stamp fraud and 21 individuals being arrested. Also uncovered in the course of the investigation, an individual was arrested in the possession of five suspected homemade explosive devices, fourteen rifles, a pump action shotgun and thousands of rounds of ammunition. On multiple occasions the defendants spent over sixteen million dollars purchasing the unstamped cigarettes from…
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McDonnell Gets Two Years
Jennisfer Steinhauer, NYTimes, Bob McDonnell, Ex-Governor of Virginia, Sentenced to 2 Years for Corruption (esp)
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Back Story: Mike Piazza Is Again Snubbed By Baseball Hall Of Fame Voters
Mike Piazza, a 12-time All Star and a true superstar, is not in the Hall of Fame because of a case of back acne. Seriously. Sluggers during the Steroid Era are presumptively suspect of using "performance enhancing drugs" and it takes little more for voters to disqualify them from Hall of Fame consideration. (Read my rant against those sanctimonious voters who have taken it upon themselves to be the conscience of the National Pastime here.) In Piazza's case it was back acne. After Tom Seaver, Mike Piazza was the greatest player the Mets ever had. Before his Met days, he was already a 5-time All Star with the Dodgers. He was traded by the Dodgers to the Marlins and played for them for about a week before the Mets got him in May of 1998. It was one of the few times in Mets history that ownership did something that was both big and smart --…
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