Last month right before the holiday break Texas State Representative Joe Moody filed a new bill in the Texas House, HB 507, that looks to have a pretty big chance of success in changing Texas marijuana laws. HB 507, if it becomes state law, will make possession of less than one ounce of marijuana in the State of Texas to be a civil offense carrying a fine of $100.00. If Passed, HB 507 Makes Small Amount of Marijuana a Civil Offense, Not a Crime This law would decriminalize possession of less than one ounce of pot in Texas. It would no longer be a crime to have less than 1 ounce of pot in your possession. You would not be arrested for marijuana possession if a police officer found a small amount of grass in your purse or a joint in your pocket. Instead, you would be issued something akin to a traffic ticket and you would face a small fine. It would be effective on September 1, 2015. This is a big, big deal for the State of Texas. Historically, Texas has been fierce…
Legal Marijuana in Texas: Will HB507 Legalize Small Amounts of Pot Statewide? It Just May Happen.
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Lawsuits for Assault
It is possible to sue someone for assaulting you. However, most of the time, this type of case is not possible because the assailant does not own enough assets to make the lawsuit financially feasible. You see, even if you …The post Lawsuits for Assault appeared first on Personal Injury Attorney CO | Colorado Springs Lawyers.
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Article – Nonbinding Bondage
BDSM contracts … sigh, I never got to study these in law school. Apparently, these non-legally binding agreements are used to layout the terms of a BDSM sexual relationship between two or more individuals. Since I still not have read or watched 50 Shades of Grey and apparently do not get out enough to know about these contracts independently, I was not aware of these types of contracts until I read the article “Nonbinding Bondage” in the Harvard Law Review. To my credit I have watched the trailer to 50 Shades of Grey and analyzed it in a previous blog post through the lens of obscenity in movies, if that counts for anything. These contracts are not legally enforceable because contracting for sex is generally against public policy. A special problem with BDSM is determining where consent exists because otherwise it could be rape.1 See State v. Van, 688 NW 2d 600, 613-14 (Neb. 2004) (noting it can be difficult to differentiate where consent…
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Sealy-Harrington on Advance Consent
Joshua Sealy-Harrington (University of Calgary) has posted Tied Hands? A Doctrinal and Policy Argument for the Validity of Advance Consent (Canadian Criminal Law Review/Revue canadienne de droit pénal, Vol. 18, 2014) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In R. v....
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Be careful what you Tweet for...
A 17 year old in Tarrant County was arrested for tweeting a picture of picture of an airsoft rifle aimed at a marked Fort Worth police vehicle and "Should I do it? They Don't Care For a Black Male Anyways." Police justified their arrest, despite the rifle being an airsoft, under the Texas terroristic threat law, penal code 22.07 which states: (a) A person commits an offense if he threatens to commit any offense involving violence to any person or property with intent to: (1) cause a reaction of any type to his threat by an official or volunteer agency organized to deal with emergencies; (2) place any person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury; (3) prevent or interrupt the occupation or use of a building, room, place of assembly, place to which the public has access, place of employment or occupation, aircraft, automobile, or other form of conveyance, or other public place; (4) cause impairment or interruption of public communications, public…
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The Difference Between Driving While License Revoked and Driving While License Suspended in Michigan
As a driver's license restoration and DUI lawyer, a lot of my clients are people whose licenses are suspended or revoked. In the real world, it turns out that a lot of people use the terms "suspended" and "revoked" incorrectly and often interchangeably. About the biggest mistake is the use of the term "suspended" for a license that has actually been revoked. This mistake is even made by the police when they write someone up for a driving offense. The reason this is not always (but sometimes can be) a big deal is that driving while license suspended and driving while license revoked violate the very same rule of law. Even so, the implications beyond the courtroom and potential criminal penalties are hugely different. This article will examine those differences. A long time ago, I used to be a stickler about the terminology of drinking and driving offenses. I would rush to point out the Michigan has no crime named "DUI,"…
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Appellate Panel Allows Trial Court to Delay Ruling on Prior Crimes Evidence until after Defendant Testifies
On December 24, 2014, the Appellate Division allowed — for the first time in New Jersey — a trial judge to wait to decide on the prosecutor’s request to admit evidence of another crime until after the defendant testified. Ultimately, the defendant decided not to testify since she did not know if evidence of another alleged crime would be admitted. http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/opinions/a4061-12.pdf The defendant, Maytee Cordero, and another person were inside the Apple Store at Menlo Park Mall in 2011. The other person, Chris Perez, removed various items and placed them into two large shopping bags. According to the Apple Loss Prevention officers, the defendant and Perez then left the store without paying and the Apple employees erased any video of the incident. The codefendant Perez, who had several prior shoplifting convictions, pleaded guilty and received a three-year prison sentence. Prior to the trial, the defendant’s…
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Mud/Rock Slide SH97
The Idaho State Police is on scene of a mud/rock slide on SH97 near milepost 92, Beauty Bay. The roadway is complete blocked at this time. The road will be closed for an undetermined period of time, due to the significance of the slide.
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SEC Target Challenges “Wholesale Transfer” of Constitutional Right to Jury Trial “to the Government Itself”
The attack on the SEC’s right to seek civil penalties from individuals through administrative proceedings spread to Milwaukee last week. In the Eastern District of Wisconsin, former Assisted Living Concepts, Inc. CEO Laurie Bebo sought declaratory and injunctive relief to stop an administrative enforcement case against her. In its administrative action, the SEC alleges Bebo intentionally misled investors through purported misstatements in ALC’s financial statements and disclosure documents. As we have reported (see here and here) and as our sister blog - the SDNY Blog - has discussed, several individuals have recently brought similar challenges to the SEC's use of administrative proceedings in the Southern District of New York. The challenge to the SEC's choice of forum has arisen because Section 929P(a) of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act now allows the SEC to obtain penalties against unregistered individuals in administrative proceedings. Prior to Dodd-Frank,…
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“PHASE ONE” OF BOSTON’S FEDERAL COURT MULTI-MURDER TRIAL CONTINUES: WHAT IS THIS JURY SELECTION ALL ABOUT?
“Phase One” of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, hereinafter, the “Defendant” ‘s jury trial for, among other things, multiple murder continues in Boston’s Federal District Court. The Defendant is accused of carrying out bombings with his now-deceased brother near the finish line of the race on April 15, 2013. Three people were killed in the bombing. More than 260 others were injured. Also, the Defendant stands charged with the killing of an MIT police officer days after the bombings. His brother died in connection with that killing. Our representatives desire to have the Defendant join with his brother. While some might have expected the matter to be tried in state court, it is being brought to trial in federal court. The reason is fairly simple. Massachusetts’ state criminal justice system does not have a death penalty. The federal criminal justice system does. Since the government has announced that it is seeking the death penalty…
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Mud/Rock Slide SH97** Update**
The Idaho State Police is on scene of a mud/rock slide on SH97 near milepost 92, Beauty Bay. The roadway is complete blocked at this time. The road will be closed for an undetermined period of time, due to the significance of the slide. **Information from the Idaho Transportation Department is the road will be closed between 4-6 hours. This time frame is dependent on the stability of the mountain side after the clean up is completed. ***
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Bye, Bye Boxer
With all the grim stuff we have to talk about here, I am pleased to announce some very good news. California Senator Barbara Boxer will not be running for reelection in 2016. With an open seat instead of challenging an incumbent, the race will be more competitive. If next year sees a Republican winning the White House, as the usual cycle indicates, maybe some coattails can help flip this seat.Kevin Freking has this story for AP. It's mostly the usual fluff you would expect, but there is this:Boxer had a way of riling conservatives. She can be abrupt with those who question or disagree with her, and some of the exchanges she has had with witnesses at committee hearings over the years cemented her reputation as a firebrand. In 2009, she brusquely requested that a brigadier general in the Army Corps of Engineers call her senator instead of ma'am. The confrontation served as fundraising fodder for her election opponents the following year,…
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From Paris to Peshawar: Answer with Human Rights
Yesterday, gunmen attacked the Paris office of the newspaper Charlie Hebdo. In Peshawar last month, at least 142 people—including 132 children—were killed by Taliban militants at a military-run school. These are just two of scores of attacks by armed individuals and groups that have occurred over the last year. There is no question that these attacks must be unequivocally condemned not just as tragedies, but as human rights abuses. In Paris, Amnesty International France called yesterday’s attack “an atrocity that sought to kill journalists, suppress freedom of expression and sow fear.” Yet in the wake of attacks, all too often governments respond by sidelining human rights: treating attacks as cause to abandon human rights principles as irrelevant; and citing national security as they deny basic human rights protections. In Pakistan, for instance, the government has restarted executions for terrorism-related offenses, abandoning a six-year…
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Workshop on Conducting Empirical Legal Scholarship
The 15th annual workshop on Conducting Empirical Legal Scholarship, co-taught by Lee Epstein and Andrew D. Martin, will run from June 15-June 17 at Washington University in St. Louis. The workshop is for law school faculty, lawyers, political science faculty,...
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Are Texas youth prisons now small enough to drown in a bath tub?
Grover Norquist famously suggested he wanted government downsized to the point where it could be drowned in the bath tub. Remarkably, that may end up being exactly what happens at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. At the Houston Chronicle, Mike Ward reported (Jan. 7) from the Texas Public Policy Foundation legislative conference this week that, "After years of reforms in Texas' juvenile justice system, officials now appear headed toward the next big step: further downsizing the system of state-run lockups or even junking it altogether." The suggestion is to double down on the trend since 2007 of punishing and/or rehabilitating more juvenile felons at the local level. Notably, juvenile crime dropped precipitously during this period while the juvenile incarceration rate plummeted, calling into question any direct link between incarcerating juveniles and reducing the crime rate:Even as Texas was reforming its juvenile justice system in recent years, the…
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Amendment 782 to the United States Sentencing Guidelines (Reduced Sentences for many Federal Drug Offenses) What it May Mean for You
Congress has approved an amendment to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines that drastically decreases the punishment for those convicted of many drug offenses. Importantly, Congress made these changes retroactive, meaning that most people presently serving a federal sentence who qualify can petition the Court to have their sentence reduced to the new guideline level. If you or a loved one is serving a federal sentence for a drug crime, contact our office today to schedule a case evaluation. One of our lawyers will discuss the case with you, and then evaluate the facts to determine eligibility for a sentence reduction. If eligible, we can handle the procedure for you from start to finish.
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Nice Win for Nick Lee
Our Senior Associate Nicholas Lee had a nice win for our client today. HLG was representing a Colorado citizen that was arrested for DUI in Woodward, OK. After we obtained the patrol video of the stop as well as the other discovery, Nick sent the video to the prosecutor asking for outright dismissal as we didn't think there was probable cause to arrest our client for a DUI. The prosecutor didn't agree and basically told us to take the deal or go to trial. Preparing for trial, Nick asked for a evidentiary hearing on the stop so we could argue for the case to be dismissed for lack of probable cause for arrest. Today, Nick shows up ready and armed with the video and case law for the motion hearings. After further discussions and review, the prosecutor dismissed the DUI against our client. Congrats to Nick and our client.This case involved the use of a portable breath testing device and Field Sobriety Tests of which Nick has…
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Brookings highlights "Eight Big Things to Watch" concerning marijuana policy in 2015
Via e-mail, I was alerted to this Brookings FixGov blog post by Brookings Fellow John Hudak titled "Marijuana Policy in 2015: Eight Big Things to Watch." The e-mail provided this helpful summary of various points made in the longer posting: 1) Oregon, Alaska Plan & Prepare for Legal Marijuana: How...<img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/l9lmVvkgSNA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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Great wins today for Hunsucker Legal Group
The Hunsucker Legal Group had a great day today. Nicholas Lee had a fantastic win with a complete dismissal of a DUI charge against our client. Client was arrested after driving out of the jurisdiction of the police officer. State argued "fresh pursuit doctrine" applied to misdemeanors. We argued it only applies to felonies and the Judge agreed with us. This is a case where we had already won... the client's license back at the DPS level. This means that the client did not have to pay any court fees or any license related fees. Douglas Baxter was able to get a bond reduction today in a case where the bond was set at a half million dollars. Doug was successful in getting reduced to $75,000 which should allow client to make bond. Our Driver's License Attorney,Brian Morton, only had one HLG hearing today at the Department of Public Safety. After Brian's cross examination, it was clear that they were lacking a necessary witness so the case was set…
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News Scan
Repeat Felon Accused of Murder: Police in Northern California say the man accused of carjacking a woman and shooting her dead earlier this week is 41-year-old convicted felon Anderson Swift. Peter Hecht and Marissa Lang of the Sacarmento Bee report that Swift approached two women as they left a restaurant Tuesday evening and demanded they hand over their car keys, the women attempted to flee and run back to the restaurant, but Swift fired off several rounds leaving one of them dead. Swift is currently being held in county jail on charges of murder, carjacking, and being a felon in possession of a handgun. Cop Killer Granted Stay of Execution: A Pennsylvania man convicted of killing a police officer nearly two decades ago has been granted a stay of execution just hours before he was scheduled to be put to death. Kelly Bayliss of NBC Philadelphia reports that 45-year-old Christopher Roney was sentenced to death in 1996 after authorities say he…
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