SCOTUS grants cert on collection of capital cases from Kansas
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Kerr on The Influence of Immanuel Kant on Evidentiary Approaches in Eighteenth Century Bulgaria
A while ago, I wrote about Adam Liptak's criticism of law reviews, and argued that Liptak's criticism lacked novelty. I also did some research into a quote by Chief Justice Roberts on law reviews. That quote is:Pick up a copy of any law review that you see and the first article is likely to be, you know, the influence of Immanuel Kant on evidentiary approaches in 18th century Bulgaria, or something, which I’m sure was of great interest to the academic that wrote it, but isn’t of much help to the bar.At the time, I pointed out that no article of the sort existed. But that is no longer the case.Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy has this post on one of his new papers. Its title: The Influence of Immanuel Kant on Evidentiary Approaches in Eighteenth Century Bulgaria.Here is the abstract:In 2011, Chief Justice Roberts commented that if you "pick up a copy of any law review that you see," "the first article is likely to be, you know, the…
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Two SCOTUS summary reversals: a notable sex-offender monitoring issue and another AEDPA enforcement
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Breathalyzers to be Installed in All New Cars?
Think of all of the things that could come with a new car when the salesman tells you that it is fully equipped. I bet you’re thinking of satellite radio, heated seats, dashboard navigation, and maybe park assistance. I’m sure you weren’t thinking of a pre-installed breathalyzer, the use of which is required to start the car; a permanent ignition interlock device if you will. I’ve written in the past on Nissan’s high-tech, DUI-preventing smart car which contains several types of sensors that detects, amongst other things, the presence of alcohol on the driver. A highly sensitive alcohol sensor built into the transmission shift knob is able to detect the presence of alcohol in the driver’s palm sweat when they grasp the knob. The transmission will lock, immobilizing the vehicle if the alcohol detected in the sweat meets a pre-designated level. The vehicle will also be equipped with sensors located in the driver’s and passenger’s…
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Jury Convicts Bank Credit Officer of Falsifying Loan Losses
Mortgage Fraud Blog. Ebrahim Shabudin, 66, Moraga, California, was convicted by a jury on seven felony counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, and other corporate fraud offenses stemming from the failure of United Commercial Bank. The defendant was the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Credit Officer at United Commercial Bank (UCB) in 2008 and 2009. Shabudin was the second most senior officer in executive management at UCB after former Chief Executive Officer Thomas Shiu-Kit (Tommy) Wu. On November 6, 2009, UCB was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). With over $10.9 billion in assets, UCB’s failure was the ninth largest failure since 2007 of a bank insured by the FDIC’s Deposit Insurance Fund, according to the FDIC. In 2013, FDIC estimated that total losses for UCB would exceed $1.1 billion. Through 2014, however, with the recovery of the United States economy, FDIC now estimates the loss to the Deposit Insurance Fund to be approximately…
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GPS, Searches, and Civil v. Criminal
The U.S. Supreme Court summarily reversed a decision of a North Carolina court regarding GPS monitoring of sex offenders and the Fourth Amendment. The North Carolina court's error illustrates once again how far too many lawyers in the post-Mapp world have come to view the Fourth Amendment and the exclusionary rule as the same thing. They are not. Not even close. Torrey Grady was convicted of "taking indecent liberties with a child" in 2006. It was not his first sex offense. After he got out, a North Carolina court ordered him to submit to GPS monitoring. North Carolina law subjects him to this monitoring for the rest of his life.Grady objected that the monitoring was an unreasonable search, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's 2012 decision in United States v. Jones for the proposition that GPS monitoring is a search. Instead of holding, "yes, but this is a reasonable search, since you are a recidivist sex…
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Mortgage Fraudster Receives 11 Year Prison Sentence
Mortgage Fraud Blog. Jonathan L. Herbert, 36, Lighthouse Point, Florida, was sentenced to 140 months in federal prison for wire fraud concerning his bogus loan modification programs that duped struggling homeowners into sending their mortgage payments to him. In addition to the 140 month prison sentence, United States District Judge David R. Herndon also ordered Herbert to serve 5 years of supervised release following his release from prison, and ordered Herbert to pay restitution to the victims of his crime. Judge Herndon gave the parties additional time to calculate the exact amount owed in order that all losses would be the subjects of restitution. Herbert conducted his fraud scheme from a strip mall office located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. As part of his guilty plea, Herbert admitted that he usually contacted his victims through unsolicited telephone calls, introducing himself as a “federal loan officer” with the “Federal Debt Commission,”…
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Drug Dogs and Checkpoints
I’ve had several questions about the role of drug dogs at motor vehicle checkpoints. The details are below, but a quick summary of the law is as follows: (1) Officers can’t lawfully run drug dogs around every vehicle stopped at a checkpoint (2) Officers can lawfully run drug dogs around cars that are pulled out […]
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Former Head Teller Sentenced for Fraudulent Loan Scheme
Mortgage Fraud Blog. Teresa Wieringo Humphries, 60, Madison Heights, Virginia, the former head teller of the Lynrocten Credit Union, Lynchburg, Virginia, was sentenced on federal embezzlement charges for her role in a scheme whereby she, and the manager of the credit union, carried out a scheme to embezzle and steal funds from the credit union’s deposits through the unauthorized and fraudulent origination of loans in the names of credit union members. The defendant previously waived her right to be indicted and pled guilty a one-count Information charging her with embezzlement from a Federal Credit Union. Humphries was sentenced to 40 months of federal incarceration. According to evidence presented at previous hearings by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel Bubar, Humphries had been the head teller at the Lynrocten Credit Union since the mid-1980s. Beginning in 2000, and continuing until the credit union’s liquidation, Humphries, and Linda Sue Newcomb, the…
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Another Attempt to Have a Victim's Suit Thrown Out Fails
We continue to make small gains in the ability of victims of crime to have their voices heard in cases affecting the criminal justice system. On March 12, I noted that the California Court of Appeal had rejected the attempt of the California Department of Corrections to throw out the suit of two victims' families to force it to adopt a lethal injection protocol.Meanwhile, back in federal court, the fight continues over the attempt to squelch the federal "fast track" on capital habeas cases, the never-implemented major reform of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. Since USDoJ is not interested in fighting this as vigorously or expeditiously as is needed, I moved to intervene on behalf of Marc Klaas, the father of a murdered little girl. Unsurprisingly, the other side's favorite district judge rejected the intervention motion, so I filed an appeal from that order plus a protective appeal from the injunction on the…
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Mandiberg & Harris on Addiction and Recidivism
Susan F. Mandiberg and Richard Harris (Lewis & Clark Law School and Independent) have posted Alcohol- and Drug-Free Housing: A Key Strategy in Breaking the Cycle of Addiction and Recidivism (McGeorge Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:...
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Shen on Sentencing Enhancement for Mental Injuries
Francis X. Shen (University of Minnesota Law School) has posted Sentencing Enhancement and the Crime Victim's Brain (46 Loyola University Chicago Law Journal 405 (2014)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Criminal offenders who inflict serious bodily injury to another...
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Madison County woman fires gun to 'send message' to sex offender
3-30-15 Georgia: Authorities arrested on Saturday a 61-year-old Madison County woman after she allegedly fired two gun shots as a way of sending “a message” to a convicted sex offender she didn’t want on her property. Eddie L. Manley of Paoli Road, Carlton, was charged with aggravated assault, making a terroristic threat and pointing a pistol at another. The shooting occurred outside Manley’s
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What Is Illegal Assembly Or Possession Of Chemicals For Manufacture Of Drugs (O.R.C. 2925.041) In Cleveland?
Cleveland Defense Attorney For Illegal Assembly Or Possession Of Chemicals For Manufacture Of Drugs Charge When methamphetamine became widely available, many states responded by cracking down on the possession of chemicals used in the manufacture of meth. In Ohio, that statute is ORC 2925.041, Illegal Possession of Chemicals. While meth is still a main target, Cleveland prosecutors can file the charge for any Schedule I or II controlled substance. Penalties vary according to a number of factors for illegal assembly or possession of chemicals for manufacture of drugs, but these are felony charges that carry a presumption for a prison term in most cases. An aggressive defense attorney can make a major impact on your case, because prosecutors have to prove that you had intent to manufacture a controlled substance when you were caught with chemicals. The attorneys at Patituce & Associates know the law from both sides, because we’re former prosecutors. We can provide…
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What Is Funding, Aggravated Funding Of Drug Or Marijuana Trafficking (O.R.C. 2925.05) In Cleveland?
Cleveland Defense Lawyer For Funding, Aggravated Funding Of Drug Or Marijuana Trafficking Charge Under ORC 2925.05, it is a crime in Cleveland to provide money or other items of value to a person with the purpose that the recipient will use the money or items of value to obtain any controlled substance for the purposes of drug manufacture, cultivation, or sale. The Aggravated Drug Funding charge is applied when the substance in question is a Schedule I or II drug, and is first degree felony. Drug Funding for Schedule III, IV, or V drugs is a second degree felony. When the drug in question is marijuana, the charge is Funding of Marihuana Trafficking, a third degree felony. Aside from often lengthy prison sentences, conviction results in significant fines, a suspended driver’s license, and for licensed professionals in the state, mandatory notification of the licensing board or agency. These are charges that can destroy your career and steal your freedom. The attorneys…
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Into Litigation’s Black Hole: A Cosmic Solution
Hon. Eduardo C. Robreno, The Federal Asbestos Product Liability Multidistrict Litigation (MDL-875): Black Hole or New Paradigm?, 23 Widener L.J. 97 (2013). Linda Mullenix How many federal courts scholars can identify what is meant by the litigation “black hole?” If you know the answer to this question, chances are you teach mass tort litigation or worked on asbestos litigation thirty years ago. And if you want to know what became of that black hole, Judge Eduardo C. Robreno of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania offers some answers. Asbestos litigation was a seminal mass tort litigation and its procedural history provides an interesting parable about dispute resolution modalities. The flood of asbestos litigation began in the late 1970s and for approximately twenty years the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation resisted creation of an asbestos MDL. After the Judicial Conference issued a report on the nationwide asbestos litigation crisis, the Panel…
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New SCOTUS Case Will Have Big Impact on Some Georgia Sex Offenders
Jonathan McIntosh Flickr CC In a per curium opinion (pdf), the United States Supreme Court has held that the placement of a tracking device on a person is a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, even if the person is compelled for life to wear the device as part of a sentence. As summarized by Robinson Meyer in The Atlantic Monthly, “[i]f the government puts a GPS tracker on you, your car, or any of your personal effects, it counts as a search—and is therefore protected by the Fourth Amendment.” This opinion could spell changes for Georgia’s regime of tracking persons in Georgia who have been designated as Sexually Dangerous Predators. In Grady v. North Carolina, the Petitioner challenged a court order requiring him to wear a GPS tracking device for life as a violations of his right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. The North Carolina courts rejected his claim, reasoning that the placement t of a tracking device was not a…
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FROM JAILER TO JAIL
The story of former NYC police commissioner Bernie Kerik reads like a Shakespeare tragedy. An ultimate insider, vetted and nominated for a cabinet post in the Bush administration, Kerik ended up in a federal prison for three years. Kerik's insight's into prison should be listened to by everyone, especially those in the criminal justice system. Especially his thoughts on prison and a minimum security prison: "The deprivation is far more profound than anyone could imagine….talk about a country club…go to the 4 Seasons in NYC and lock yourself in the bathroom for a year, and you basically die before your eyes and the whole world goes on without you, you tell me how luxurious it is?"And this: "Every american should learn about the criminal justice system because anyone of you could become a target and you have no conception of what that means." Other highlights: Rudy Guliani never even called his wife…
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Ohio girl, 10, dies in house fire hours before her accused rapist is due at trial
3-31-15 Ohio: Hours before a Green Township, Ohio, man was due to go on trial for rape, his alleged victim -- a 10-year-old girl -- died Monday in an early morning house fire on Youngstown's south side. Neighbors reported hearing an explosion at about 3 a.m. before seeing the fire, which killed the girl and her two grandparents, Cleveland.com reported. Authorities did not immediately determine
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Supreme Court: Employers Cannot Exclude Pregnant Women from Broad Accommodation Policies
Eight years ago, Peggy Young lost her medical coverage after she was forced to take an extended leave of absence from her job at UPS, because UPS would not accommodate her pregnancy-related weight-lifting restriction (her doctor limited her to lifting no more than 10-20 pounds during pregnancy). Although UPS accommodated other employees with restrictions stemming from a wide range of sources—including a disability; an on-the-job injury; or loss of a commercial driver’s license due to a drunk driving charge—the company placed pregnancy in the narrower field of conditions for which they were not willing to make accommodations. Young sued, asserting that UPS violated the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (“PDA”) by treating her differently than other similarly situated employees because of her pregnancy. Her case was heard by the Supreme Court in December 2014; we discussed the case, its factual background, and its possible outcomes, here. This week, the…
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