Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court took up once again the question of whether its decision in Miller v. Alabama, that LWOP sentences for under-18 murderers must be discretionary and not mandatory, applies retroactively to overturn sentences that were correctly decided on appeal under the law existing at the time. The previous case on this question, Toca v. Louisiana, became moot when Toca's sentence was commuted. The new case is Montgomery v. Louisiana, No. 14-280. This case is a better vehicle than Toca, as the facts are more typical of an LWOP case. Montgomery murdered Deputy Sheriff Charles H. Hurt in 1963, when Montgomery was 17. He could have been executed in the electric chair at the time, but the jury granted him leniency.The question presented as phrased by the petitioner/defendant is, "whether Miller adopts a new substantive rule that applies retroactively on collateral review to people condemned as juveniles to die in…
Miller Retroactivity Returns to SCOTUS
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Utah Reinstates Death by Firing Squad
Utah Governor Gary Herbert has signed a bill into law allowing executions to proceed by firing squad when lethal injection drugs aren't available. From the Governor's website: HB11, Death Penalty Procedure Amendments This bill... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Can I Join the Military with an Expunged Record?
Having a criminal record attached to your name can create serious obstacles when it comes to applying for loans, housing, and employment opportunities, including careers in the United States Armed Forces. However, if you meet certain eligibility requirements, you may be able to seal your record through a legal process known as “expungement.” In this blog entry,…
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KENNEDY SPEAKS OUT AGAINST THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
The Wall Street Journal reported today that in surprising testimony yesterday before a House sub-committee, Justices Kennedy and Breyer spoke out against the state of affairs in the American criminal justice system. Claiming that is was too harsh and that it locks up too many people, for too long.Referring to our justice policy as being one of "total incarceration", Kennedy, usually a member of the court's law and order wing, stated that he believes that this policy is more harmful to public safety, than it is protective. Kennedy stated he believed that other forms of community control would serve the public better. For all the money we spend on prisons, we could provide more probation officers and programs to rehabilitate many offenders. "Total incarceration just isn't working", Kennedy said.Breyer added his two cents by coming out against minimum mandatories as being "a terrible idea." The Republican chair…
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Forfeitures of Property and Cash when Charged or Suspected of a Crime
A recent article in the Detroit Free Press says what I have been wanting to say about forfeitures, “Justifiable Seizures Or Legal Shakedowns by the Police?” The article makes several observations: -Michigan gets a D- as being one of the worst states in the nation property seizures/forfeitures, -Michigan’s forfeiture laws lack enough safeguards, -Michigan forfeiture laws invite abuse. Macomb, Oakland, Wayne and St. Clair Counties all engage in forfeitures of property which is alleged to be connected to the commission of a crime. Forfeiture or seizure of property is a means by which the government can take the property of an individual that is used in the furtherance of committing a crime or is acquired by the proceeds (cash) from a criminal enterprise. Property from an individual may be forfeited pursuant to Michigan’s civil forfeiture laws even if the person is never charged with a crime. The proceeds derived from forfeited property are turned over to…
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Steve Blow's belated epiphany, or, How the press stopped 'nodding along' when police sublimate service to self
After reviewing video of Dallas police shooting a mentally ill man "nonchalantly holding a screwdriver in his hands," Dallas Morning News metro columnist Steve Blow in this column concluded that perhaps he should “quit nodding along and question the maxim" that a cop’s main duty is to “go home to his family” every night. I'm delighted to read Blow acknowledge years of “nodding along” (his readers, meanwhile, were “nodding off”). Everyone who has spent so many years praising the naked emperor's wardrobe on this question should be so forthright. So let’s celebrate his belated epiphany that cops:have willingly taken a job that involves personal risk. It also requires split-second decision making that must go beyond simple self-preservation.If going home safely becomes the overriding priority, that can become another way of saying, “Shoot first and ask questions later.”Despite that…
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Ohio prison officials decide security drones are not (yet) cost effective
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Calling out political hypocrisy in discussion of marijuana reform
This recent commentary about marijuana reform from The National Memo, which is headlined "Half A Heart On Marijuana Better Than No Heart At All," makes a powerful point about what some politicians say about modern marijuana reform in light of their own admitted history with this drug. Here are excerpts...<img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/W5NthaMUhYA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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Mankato Pair Butt Dial Police During Robbery
A pair of would-be robbers tipped police off to their activities last Thursday when one of them accidentally butt dialed the cops mid-heist. According to the police report, a 911 dispatcher in Blue Earth County received a call from a cell phone at 3:42 a.m last Thursday. The dispatcher heard two voices on the call, but she was unable to get either person to respond. The dispatcher continued to listen to the pair, and based on the nature of the conversation, she believed the men might be committing a robbery. “She heard enough that made her suspicious,” said Captain Rich Murry. The dispatched ran a trace on the phone and uncovered the pair were located near the 3500 block of 3rd avenue, near the Mankato city limits. Officers were dispatched to the scene, where they found two men hiding inside a Blue Earth gun range. Authorities also stopped a woman who was waiting in a vehicle outside the range. After piecing the puzzle together, authorities said the two men broke…
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Kassensysteme: Grenzenlose Manipulation
In der Bargeldbranche – insbesondere der Gastronomie – floriert die Steuerhinterziehung. Das ist keineswegs neu, sondern lange bekannt. Allerdings werden Techniken und Hilfsmittel immer ausgefeilter. Derzeit verstärkt im Fokus: Manipulierte Kassensysteme (Registrierkassen), die oft schon herstellerseitig so programmiert sind, dass bestimmte Umsätze durch den Anwender einfach wieder gelöscht werden können. Ein Dreh am Schlüssel genügt zur Manipulation der Registrierkasse Foto: Kai Süselbeck / pixelio.de Beliebige Manipulationsmöglichkeiten ab Werk Die auf dem Markt verfügbare Software ermöglicht eine Vielzahl von Manipulationen: So genügt beispielsweise ein kurzer Dreh am Schlüssel der Kasse, damit die danach verbuchten Umsätze nicht gespeichert werden. Andere Methoden verändern Anzahl und/oder Höhe aller getätigten Umsätze und ermöglichen Stornoumsätze oder die…
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Internet Payment Blockades: SOPA and PIPA in Disguise? Or Worse?
Annemarie Bridy, Internet Payment Blockades, Fla. L. Rev (forthcoming), available at SSRN. Stacey Dogan The law of intermediary liability in intellectual property reflects a constant struggle for balance. On the one hand, rights owners frustrated by the game of whack-a-mole have good reason to look for more efficient ways to stanch the flow of infringement. While this concern is not a new one, the global reach and decentralization of the Internet have exacerbated it. On the flipside, consumers, technology developers, and others fret about the impact of broad liability: it can impede speech, limit competition, and impose a drag on economic sectors with only a peripheral relationship to infringement. As the Supreme Court put it thirty years ago in the seminal Sony case, the law must seek a “balance between a [rights] holder’s legitimate demand for effective – not merely symbolic – protection of the statutory monopoly, and the rights of others freely to…
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But The Other Guy
At Above the Law, fellow curmudgeon Mark Herrmann confuses new lawyers with a foreign and hated concept: responsibility. I recently heard an in-house lawyer bemoaning her fate. But she didn’t have to be in-house; lawyers at firms experience exactly the same thing. “I was told to accomplish a certain thing. Only one person could make it happen — a very senior executive had to make a phone call to strike a deal. So I sent an email to the senior executive asking him to make the call. He didn’t. Three weeks later, people were blaming me. How can that be? I’m just a low-level in-house lawyer. I can’t force Mr. Big to act. How can people possibly blame me for this?” Sorry, Charlie — it’s your fault. With minor variations, this scenario plays out with pathetic regularity. For the corporate types, it may be an executive. For the criminal law types, it may be a client, family member, witness perhaps, or even the prosecutor. One…
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GoDaddy, the Teamsters Union and Defamation
This post examines a recent opinion from the U.S. Court ofAppeals for the Second Circuit: Ricci v. Teamsters Union Local 456, 2015 WL 1214476 (2015). The court began its opinion by explaining that[p]laintiffs Peter and Barbara Ricci (“the Riccis”) bring this action pro se against GoDaddy.com, LLC (`GoDaddy’) and the Teamsters Union Local 456 (the `Union’ or the `Teamsters’), alleging that false statements about the Riccis in a Union newsletter were republished on a website hosted on GoDaddy's servers. As relevant here, plaintiffs sue GoDaddy for defamation; they sue the Teamsters for retaliation in violation of sections 7 and 8 of the National Labor Relations Act (`NLRA’), 29 U.S. Code §§157, 158(b)(1)(A), and for breach of the NLRA's implied duty of fair representation. Ricci v. Teamsters Union Local 456, supra. Next, the court notes that thiscase arises out of a dispute between Peter Ricci and…
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Get rid of specialty license plate program regardless of court case outcome
The state of Texas won't approve a specialty license plate emblazoned with the Confederate battle flag and has taken its case all the way to the US Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments this week. As a proud son of the South who grew up with that flag hanging on my bedroom wall, Grits hopes the state loses ... but maybe not for the same reasons as the Sons of Confederate Veterans.To be sure, seeing the word "Texas" emblazoned above the stars and bars on official license plates would be ugly and dispiriting. But more to the point, I'm sick to death of the specialty license plate program, a purely symbolic diversion which seemingly takes up more legislative attention than quite a few real-world problems like, for example, the 1.4 million godforsaken drivers who've lost their licenses thanks to the Driver Responsibility surcharge. It drives me crazy when legislators waste precious time on this sort of fluff then never get around to the things that…
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Mandatory Appearances In The Kettering Municipal Court
Some people who are charged with an OVI in the Kettering Municipal Court think that they can skip their first appearance. This is not the case. Many traffic and some criminal citations are payable in the Clerk’s Office and do not require a court appearance in front of the judge. These are called “waiverable” citations. You can choose to appear before the judge on your court date for these citations. Or, you can choose to waive your right to a hearing in court, plead guilty and pay your costs and fines for these citations in the Clerk’s Office. Waiverable citations must be taken care of on or before your court date. Your court date is listed near the bottom of your citation. Other offenses are considered “non-waiverable” – meaning that you must appear before a Judge. Some of the most commonly-cited “non-waiverable” offenses include: Indictable felony offenses. Operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of…
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Goodmark on VAWA and Restorative Justice
Leigh Goodmark (University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law) has posted Stalled at 20: VAWA, the Criminal Justice System, and the Possibilities of Restorative Justice on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Since its passage in 1994, the Violence...
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The Fear of Fear Isn’t Justification
David Kassick probably isn’t the kind of guy most would want to hang out with. He had addiction issues, and enough paranoia, maybe, that when Hummelstown police officer Lisa Mearkle turned on the turret lights, he took off rather than stop. For an expired inspection sticker. No, Kassick exercised some pretty poor judgment. Yet, it wasn’t bad enough for him to die. Authorities said Mearkle had attempted to pull over Kassick for expired inspection and emissions stickers before he sped away. She caught up to Kassick near his sister’s home where he had been living for a short time. He got out and ran before Mearkle incapacitated him with a stun gun, held in her left hand. He was on the ground when she shot him twice in the back with the gun in her right hand, police said. Given that Kassick was at his sister’s home when he was stopped, one might question the pressing need to tase him, as opposed to calling back-up and having a nice chat…
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You be the judge: what federal sentence for modern sheriff playing Robin Hood?
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Your Mom and the Courts Agree: Naked Online Pix are Not OK
Since the 1990s and the rise of the Internet and social media, each one of us has become increasingly aware of the risks and dangers of unwanted posts and how fast a “discreet” image can go viral. The development and evolution of the Internet has brought with it a host of novel legal issues, from […] The post Your Mom and the Courts Agree: Naked Online Pix are Not OK appeared first on Crime In The Suites.
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NHTSA: Drugged Drivers no more likely to crash than Drunk Drivers
NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION — A new federal study shows that drivers who have used pot are just as likely to get into a crash as sober drivers. The study was performed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in Virginia and compared more than 3,000 drivers in the area who were involved in an accident with over 6,000 control drivers who were not in an accident. The NHTSA’s study found that after adjusting for demographic factors, as well as alcohol use, marijuana users were not at a higher risk of crashing than sober drivers. The study also found that drivers were at a much higher risk of crashing after consuming alcohol than marijuana. The crash risk study is the first large-scale study of its kind in the United States that includes drugs other than alcohol. The research team responded to crashes in Virginia over a 20-month period, seven days a week 24-hours a day. After a driver involved in a crash was added to the data the…
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