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Holiday DWI Stories Illustrate Important Principles of New Jersey DWI Law

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The holiday season, starting with Halloween and continuing through Christmas and other winter holidays, always brings stories of unusual events that go “viral” on the internet, including strange or embarrassing DWI arrests. This unwanted, if usually only temporary, fame is yet another consequence of a DWI arrest that happens regardless of the outcome in court. A DWI attorney’s job is not only to represent his or her clients in court, but to help them minimize the impact of an alleged offense on their lives while the court case is pending. Several news stories from the past year, including one in New Jersey, fell into this category. Our intention in discussing them is not to embarrass or make light of anyone, but rather to illustrate some important points of New Jersey DWI law that people need to know at any time of year. The most recent story occurred in late December 2014, when police in Riverdale, New Jersey claim that they found a man asleep in a…

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Issues Important Decision Regarding Eyewitness Identification

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The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court yesterday delivered an important decision regarding how trial judges should talk to juries about witness identifications of defendants.  The name of the case is Commonwealth v. Gomes. The defendant was convicted of mayhem and breaking and entering into a vehicle following an incident in which he slashed the victim’s face with a box cutter while the victim sat in his car.  The defendant complained on appeal that the trial judge did not properly instruct the jury.  The Supreme Judicial Court rejected the defendant’s argument and affirmed his convictions.  However, the Court said scientific research had made new discoveries regarding witness identifications and drafted a new instruction for judges to read to juries when the defendant argues he has been wrongly identified. The Court said it has long recognized that mistaken eyewitness identification causes more wrongful convictions than all other causes…

Senator Grassley queries DOJ concerning its work with Clemency Project 2014

2015.18: Texas Law Shield and Second Call Defense

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One of my gun-totin’ libertarian friends asked me: What do you think about those legal insurance funds for CHL holders? For example: http://www.texaslawshield.com/ http://www.secondcalldefense.org/ Any good? Worth it? Or no opinion? I have different issues with the two companies. Texas Law Shield is not “insurance,” but rather “a licensed legal services company.” It purports to provide “legal representation by an attorney”—an attorney, not the attorney of your choice—for any contract holder in good standing who has a “use of a firearm:” Any incident where the Legal Service Contract Holder either discharges or displays a firearm for the purpose of using the firearm as a weapon to stop a threat, whether the Legal Service Contract Holder pulls the trigger and discharges the firearm or not. This term does not include taking the firearm to a location that is prohibited by federal, state, or local law, negligent or…

Florida Supreme Court | Recording Cannot Be Used As Evidence

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Two-Party Consent Law The Florida Supreme Court ruled in McDade v. State of Florida, that secretly recorded statements by the victim of a crime cannot be used as evidence against the defendant; this applies even in cases of child sex abuse, or neglect. It was unanimously decided by the justices that the FloridaLegislature would have to change the current law as it stands to allow any such evidence to be allowed as evidence into court. Within the 18-page decision, Justice Charles Canady made it clear that there is no exception to this ruling: “The recordings supported the victim’s testimony that McDade would regularly ask her to have sex with him after school. On both occasions, though he did not use sexually explicit language, he appeared to be asking her to have sex with him. He pressured her by suggesting that if she did not have sex with him he would get physically sick. McDade also indicated he was doing her a favor by not telling her mother that they were…

"In a Safer Age, U.S. Rethinks Its ‘Tough on Crime’ System"

Are Driver’s License Revocations on the Agenda?

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The 2015 North Carolina General Assembly convened earlier today, with new members sliding into place just as the first ice storm of the winter left the area. And while most folks’ attention will (as usual) be focused on the state budget, I’ll be watching over the next few months for legislation related to motor vehicle […]

Heroin and Money Laundering in Texas – Expecting More Charges in 2015

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There’s been a lot of national news coverage in the past few weeks over the business of heroin and how the changing marijuana marketplace in the United States is causing changes in the illegal drug market. Specifically, news is spreading about how heroin and methamphetamine are growing product lines in the criminal drug trades, and how heroin and meth are expected to continue to rise in popularity and sales in 2015. It’s main stream media news now (see Breitbart and the Washington Post as examples) and it’s something we’ve been discussing here as well.   Heroin Makes Money for Lots of People: Supply and Demand From a criminal defense perspective, heroin for many is simply a product that is being sold for a profit. Heroin is considered an alternative good for prescription opioids (like Oxycodone) that were popular with drug customers but have become harder to supply because of law enforcement prosecutions and changing laws targeting pill mills.…

Wednesday Open Thread

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The Judge has rejected Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's request for a trial delay based on the Paris attacks. "My detailed review of juror questionnaires in preparation for voir dire has so far confirmed, rather then undermined, my judgment that a fair and... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Darr on Corroboration in Sex Offense Cases in Mandate Palestine

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Orna Alyagon Darr (The Carmel Academic Center - Faculty of Law) has posted Relocated Doctrine: The Travel of the English Doctrine of Corroboration in Sex Offense Cases to Mandate Palestine (Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, Vol. 26, No....

Hillary 2016?

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In November 2008, this was posted at TalkLeft: Ezra Klein thinks: "Presuming that Hillary Clinton will remain one of, if not the, central actors in Democratic life from the year 2000 to the year 2016 displays a certain poverty of imagination... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

2015.19: Get It?

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Murray Newman is a witness in Ex Parte Temple. The writ hearing has been going on sporadically for several weeks. One of the issues is whether Kelly Siegler concealed exculpatory information from the defense. Newman testified early, and Siegler has been on the witness stand for at least four days (orthogonally: here and here are the transcripts of Siegler’s first two days of testimony). So when Newman wrote this post, around his doctor and a cancer scare, I commented: I was wondering when you were going to write about Siegler and the temple case. Thank you. Murray’s commenters don’t get it. I believe that my commenters come from a different tranche of the bell curve. Prove me right.   Copyright © 2013 Houston criminal-defense lawyer Mark Bennett. This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. The use of this feed on other websites breaches copyright. If this content is not in your news reader, the page you are viewing infringes the copyright.…

Bundesrat verzichtet auf Vorkaufsrecht für Gemeinden

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Der Bundesrat hatte im Januar 2014 das Departement für Wirtschaft, Bildung und Forschung (WBF) bzw. das Bundesamt für Wohnungswesen (BWO) beauftragt, gemeinsam mit dem Eidgenössischen Justiz- und Polizeidepartement (EJPD) ein Vorkaufsrecht der Gemeinden zugunsten des preisgünstigen oder gemeinnützigen Wohnungsbaus zu prüfen. Der Bundesrat hat nun entschieden, vorerst auf die Einführung eines Vorkaufsrechts der Gemeinden zu Gunsten des gemeinnützigen Wohnungsbaus zu verzichten. Durch den angespannten Wohnungsmarkt wurde ein Dialog zwischen Bund, Kantonen und Städten ausgelöst, der prüfen sollte, ob und auf welcher Ebene in der Wohnungspolitik ein zusätzlicher Handlungsbedarf bestehe. Eine der diskutierten Fragen betraf die Erleichterung des Zugangs für Gemeinden an Grundstücken, denn der fehlende Zugang zu geeignetem Bauland wurde als ein massgebliches Hemmnis für die Weiterentwicklung des…

New York Times Editorial Urges Compensation for Wrongly Convicted

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The New York Times published an editorial Wednesday on the importance of monetary compensation for wrongful convictions and calling for states to provide exonerees the same critical re-entry services that parolees get upon release, like job training and substance-abuse treatment. The article comes on the heels of recent news that New York City will pay a total of $17 million in settlements to three brothers who were exonerated in May. The convictions of Robert Hill, Alvena Jennette and Darryl Austin were among the 130 handled by homicide detective Louis Scarcella which are now being reevaluated by Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson's Conviction Integrity Unit. The trio spent a combined total of 60 years incarcerated for murders they didn't commit. Darryl Austin died in prison in 2000. The editorial notes that 20 states still do not have laws entitling wrongfully convicted individuals to compensation. In states with compensation laws, the process is often long…

35 Charged in #BlackLivesMatter Protest at Mall of America

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A total of 35 people have been charged in connection with their participation in the Black Lives Matter protest at the Mall of America on December 20, one of the busiest shopping days of the year. 10 organizers face a range of charges, while 25 others face charges stemming from their arrests on the day of the protest, Bloomington Police Chief Rick Hart said in a release. Some of the charges filed include: Unlawful assembly Public nuisance Trespassing Disorderly conduct “To ensure the safety and experience of its guests, Mall of America has had a long-standing policy in place that does not allow protests or demonstrations on their site. This policy has been consistently enforced. The Black Lives Matter group was informed that it did not have permission to gather and demonstrate in Mall of America. An alternative location was provided, and rally organizers declined to re-locate the demonstration.” The demonstration, spurred by the high profile deaths of citizens…

Opinion permitting prevailing habeas petitioner to argue theories rejected on appeal without filing cross-appeal

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Justice Scalia delivered the opinion for the Court in Jennings v. Stephens. Justice Thomas filed a dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Kennedy and Alito.

After the examination, the patient was put to bed

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In an application for insurance, the applicant agreed that ‘any untrue or fraudulent statement by me, or any concealment of facts by me, shall forfeit and cancel all rights' under the contract. To the question whether he had ‘received any wound, hurt, or serious bodily injury,’ he answered: ‘No.’ In an action on the policy, it appeared that about a year prior to the application he had, while fencing, received a blow upon his throat by a foil; that in a few seconds thereafter he raised a little blood; that the force of the blow produced an abrasion, wound, or hurt on the inside of the windpipe, and that shortly thereafter he was confined to his bed for the greater part of three days, and during that time was attended by a physician; and that no evil consequences resulted from the injury. Held, that a finding that the injury was ‘serious,’ or that it was a ‘hurt’ or ‘wound,’ within the meaning of the contract,…

Commission Proposes Limited, Though Significant, Amendments to Fraud Guidelines

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As we previously noted, the U.S. Sentencing Commission has been considering changes to the Sentencing Guidelines for economic crimes. This deliberation over Section 2B1.1 stems, in part, from criticism from practitioners, judges, and scholars suggesting that “the fraud [G]uideline[s] may be fundamentally broken.” Indeed, as my colleague Lathrop Nelson noted just last week, the Section’s focus on monetary loss and the use of numerous enhancements (which are often not an appropriate measure of culpability) have resulted in ever-increasing sentences for first-time offenders. It was these concerns that led the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section Task Force on the Reform of Federal Sentencing for Economic Crimes to propose a fundamental rewrite of the Section in Fall 2014. The proposed modifications would reduce the impact of loss on the ultimate sentence, enhance or subtract levels based upon the defendant’s level of culpability and the impact…

After indictment, Morrissey again fighting for his political life

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1-14-2015 Virginia: Joseph D. Morrissey, the Virginia state lawmaker accused of having sex with a minor, stood before television cameras last week and recited from a key piece of prosecutors’ evidence: a text message allegedly sent by a 17-year-old in which she announced their tryst. Morrissey’s rendition included the emphatic reading of a profanity from the message, prompting one station to

CAUSE IT'S ALL ABOUT THAT BASS, NO TREBLE .....

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THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:BREAKING NEWS on JUDGE DAVID YOUNG (read below) .....A SCENE FROM A COURTROOM INSIDE THE MJB, CIRCA 1990*** ......JUDGE LNU: Clerk, call the next case.CLERK: State v. James WilliamsDEFENSE ATTORNEY: Good morning, your honor.  The Captain, appearing on behalf of Mr. Williams.JUDGE: Mr. Captain, good to see you.  Can you please approach the bench.CAPTAIN: Of course, your honor.JUDGE: Mr. Captain, you know I am running for re-election, don't you?CAPTAIN: Yes, your honor.JUDGE: Please take this envelope, (slipping the Captain an envelope); I noticed that you had not given to my campaign yet.CAPTAIN: No problem, your honor.  Of course I will be donating to your re-election campaign.***This actually happened to me while appearing in Circuit Criminal many years ago.  The Judge, who has since passed away, was a well liked judge and was thought by most, on both sides of the isle, to be a very fair judge.  But, to be clear,…
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