In Florida, a police officer can stop a vehicle if the vehicle's window tinting is too dark. The Florida statute provides that the side windows on a vehicle must have a light transmittance of at least 28% in the visible light range. This can be measured by certain devices after the initial stop is made. Of course, the initial issue is whether a police officer is permitted to stop a vehicle based on his/her opinion that the window tinting is too dark and illegal. A person cannot usually make that determination for certain based on looking at it from another vehicle. A police officer is allowed to stop a vehicle if he/she has probable cause to believe a crime is being committed or a traffic law is being violated. In a recent case near Jacksonville, Florida, a police officer stopped a vehicle during the day because he could not see the driver through the side window due to the window tinting. He stopped the driver and found marijuana and cocaine inside. The driver was…
Florida Police Officer Was Justified in Stopping Vehicle Where Window Tint Was Too Dark to See Driver
↧
↧
"DC legalizes marijuana despite threats from Congress"
Jurist has this story: The District of Columbia (DC) [official website] on Thursday disregarded pressures from Congress and went forward with legalizing possession of marijuana after a voter-approved initiative. Notwithstanding warnings of repercussions by leaders in Congress, DC Mayor Muriel...
↧
Drugged Driving: Marijuana DUI
No Alcohol? How Can an Officer Show Impairment by Drugs Although most people think of alcohol when they think about a DUI (or DWI) charge, North Carolina drivers can be charged with DUI in a variety of other situations that do not involve alcohol. One of the most common scenarios involving driving under the influence of illegal drugs is a marijuana related DWI. Imagine the following scenario: a driver has just been pulled over after leaving a party where he was smoking marijuana. He hadn’t been drinking. What should he expect? In North Carolina, officers go through various trainings to detect an individual’s impairment by drugs or alcohol. The basic training concentrates primarily on investigating alcohol related DWI and Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFSTs). Virtually every patrol officer receives this training. The officers are trained to detect only the presence of some…
↧
Would We Be Safer if Fewer Were Jailed?
The NYT Room for Debate page has a collection of six short articles under the heading above. The subhead is, "Can the use of jails be reformed to reduce the number of inmates without increasing society's risks?" The question presented was specifically on county jails, not state prisons. There is quite a stink in the Big Apple over conditions at Riker's.Before clicking on the link, care to guess how many of the six answer the main question "no"? Or who wrote it? (Oops, that singular pronoun in the second question sorta gave away the first.)
↧
Do Crazy People "Get Away With Murder"?
by Craig Platt We all know the way it works. Some nut job goes out and whacks some innocent person for no apparent reason. Sure enough. Out come the legal guns to blast out defenses like Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity or Diminished Capacity. Next thing you know they walk out the door free people. Not really. Not in real life. In reality mental illness is a very difficult concept to explain to jurors. Most people have trouble understanding how it is that crazy people can get away with murder. Literally. But, like everything else in criminal law, it's complicated. Take the case of Lacy Spears, a young mother accused of killing her son by feeding him toxic amounts of salt (of all things) through a feeding tube. She allegedly did this while he was hospitalized for a chronic illness that it seems Ms. Spears induced. The details about exactly what she did are unclear. What is clear is that there is something wrong with Ms. Spears. I say that not only because it looks…
↧
↧
CPLR 5015(a)(3) and (4)
The defendants, his brother, and his father were the principal shareholders of the corporate defendant. For several years prior to 1974 the corporation owned a restaurant in Staten Island, together with the real property upon which it was located. During this time, the brother had been the president and chief operating officer of the restaurant, while his brother defendant and his father apparently had not been actively involved in the business. Sometime in January 1974 the president of the plaintiff real estate broker, approached the brother to discuss a possible sale of the restaurant and the real property upon which it was situated, as well as a private residence immediately adjacent thereto which was owned by him, his wife, and his father. Within a few weeks, a contract of sale was prepared and executed under which the restaurant, the property upon which it was located and the adjacent private residence were to be sold to a buyer produced by the plaintiff. Thereafter, on…
↧
JUDGE MARY BARZEE NOMINATED TO FEDERAL COURT
THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:BREAKING NEWS ..............JUDGE MARY BARZEE FLORES HAS BEEN NOMINATED TO THE FEDERAL BENCHNumerous news agencies are reporting that President Barack Obama has nominated Barzee Flores to an open seat in the Southern District of Florida. (This is the open seat from when Robin Rosenbaum was elevated from the District Court bench to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit).Judge Barzee started her career as an associate with the law firm of Sonnett, Sale & Kuehne and she worked there for two years before becoming an Assistant Federal Public Defender from 1990 - 2003. She then ran unopposed for Circuit Court Judge in 2002 and won a seat on the Circuit bench in Miami-Dade County and served there from 2003 - 2011. (She won reelection in 2008 without opposition). While on the bench, she served in both the Criminal Division and the General Jurisdiction Division as well as having the honor to sit by designation on…
↧
Reasonable expectation of privacy? Recording public conversations in Florida
Criminal Defense Attorneys in Jacksonville, FL Florida Statute 934.03 makes it is a misdemeanor to record someone without their consent unless the conversation occurs in-person in a situation where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy, for example, in public. However, in Florida criminal law cases, the issue of recordings made without all parties’ consent comes up more frequently as an evidence issue than as a standalone crime being prosecuted. The question is usually this: can the recording be admitted as evidence? The Florida Supreme Court recently evaluated this very question in McDade v. State. The defendant Richard McDade was charged with multiple counts of child sexual assault for alleged sexual abuse of his stepdaughter from the time she was ten years old until the charges were brought when she was sixteen. The prosecution introduced two recordings of public conversations between McDade and his stepdaughter that were made in McDade’s bedroom without…
↧
Foolish Crimes Serve as Warnings
As our Palm Beach and Broward County criminal defense lawyers know, a couple of ostensibly incomprehensible crimes committed recently in South Florida serve as reminders that the actions we take have consequences. These offenses, which we will discuss in this post, demonstrate what not to do. While one details a crime perhaps carried-out with no malicious intent, and another indicates a severe lack of control, both should be regarded as warnings that the law often pays little mind to the reasons for which a crime might have been committed.
↧
↧
McBride on Tort and Criminal Law in an Age of Austerity
Nicholas McBride (University of Cambridge - Faculty of Law) has posted Tort Law and Criminal Law in an Age of Austerity (Matthew Dyson (ed), Unravelling Tort and Crime (Cambridge University Press, 2014)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In this...
↧
"Argentine Judge Rejects Criminal Case Against President"
From The New York Times: BUENOS AIRES — An Argentine judge on Thursday dismissed the criminal allegations against President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner that had been brought by Alberto Nisman, a prosecutor who had accused her of conspiring to shield...
↧
Field Sobriety Tests in Washington: What is HGN?
Horizontal Nystagmus is one of three common field sobriety tests currently administered by law enforcement officers across Washington State. Nystagmus is an involuntary rapid movement of the eyeball, which may he horizontal, vertical, or rotatory. An inability of the eyes to maintain visual fixation as they are turned from side to side (in other words, jerking or bouncing) is known as horizontal gaze nystagmus, or HGN. Some investigators believe alcohol intoxication increases the frequency and amplitude of HGN and causes HGN to occur at a smaller angle of deviation from the forward direction. In administering the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, an officer will look for the three following clues in each eye: (1) lack of smooth pursuit, (2) distinct nystagmus at maximum deviation, and (3) onset of nystagmus prior to 45 degrees. The test is performed in the same manner, regardless of whether the officer is testing for alcohol impairment or drug impairment. The test merely requires…
↧
Receive Grits for Breakfast posts via email
As happens at the beginning of every Texas legislative session, this blog has enjoyed an uptick in readership in recent weeks. For those of you new to the scene, particularly folks with a professional interest in the topics covered on this blog, you can sign up to have the previous day's headlines delivered every morning in your email inbox, along with nearly 1,800 other lucky souls. I don't share the list and you can unsubscribe any time you like, so: Enter Your Email to Git Yer Daily Grits!Preview | Powered by FeedBlitzEnjoy. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming ...
↧
↧
Mailath et al. on When and How Punishment Must Fit the Crime
George J. Mailath , Volker Nocke and Lucy White (University of Pennsylvania - Department of Economics , University of Mannheim - Department of Economics and Harvard Business School - Finance Unit) have posted When and How the Punishment Must Fit...
↧
"Supreme Court review of cell-site cases?"
Orin Kerr has this post at The Volokh Conspiracy, previewing oral argument from a case earlier this week: [T]he en banc Eleventh Circuit will hear oral argument in United States v. Davis, the case I blogged about here and hereon...
↧
Withdrawal of Guilty Pleas in Florida
When you are charged with a crime, you can plead guilty, not guilty, or no contest. Entering a plea of not guilty means that your case will go to trial, while a guilty or no contest plea means that you will receive a sentence without going through the trial process. If you have entered a plea of guilty or no contest, you may regret that decision. Fortunately, it is possible to withdraw a guilty or no contest plea, which can be done either before or after sentencing. Before Sentencing It is much easier to withdraw a guilty plea before sentencing, as the standard is lower for the court to permit withdrawal. A guilty or no contest plea: May be withdrawn at the court’s discretion, and Must be withdrawn upon showing good cause. For “good cause,” a defendant must show that the plea was not voluntarily and intelligently entered. Merely changing one’s mind…
↧
Read Our White Collar Magazine on Flipboard. Seriously.
“I can’t wait to read Sharman’s new magazine on Flipboard.” This weekend, flip through White Collar magazine (by Jack Sharman) http://flip.it/rkxEc and follow it for white-collar news and notes. Flipboard If you don’t use Flipboard, it is very handy as a personalized news aggregator.
↧
↧
Bruce Jenner Faces Possible Criminal And Civil Liability In Fatal Car Accident
Ex Olympic decathlon star and TV personality Bruce Jenner, 65, was involved in a serious car crash on February 7, 2015 on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, CA. In the accident, 69 year old widow Kim Howe was killed, and five others were injured. The accident occurred when Jenner, who was driving a Cadillac Escalade at approximately 46 miles per hour while towing an ATV vehicle, rear ended a Lexus slowing for a traffic light operated by Ms. Howe, which caused her vehicle to cross over into the opposing lanes of travel, where it was struck by a Hummer. Part of the accident was captured on video from a California MTA bus’ rear camera. Although reports are that Jenner will not be prosecuted for vehicular manslaughter, his troubles are far from over in this tragic accident. He may have been distracted by cell phone usage, and worse, the evidence shows that Jenner was following too closely, leaving him almost no time to brake to avoid the horrible…
↧
Page Pate comments on attempt to extradite Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom
The post Page Pate comments on attempt to extradite Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom appeared first on .
↧
Page Pate discusses potential extradition treaty with China
The post Page Pate discusses potential extradition treaty with China appeared first on .
↧
More Pages to Explore .....
