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The Boston Bombing Trial Defense Rests

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The Boston Globe begins its story:After 15 days of victims recounting their injuries, experts testifying about explosives and terrorism, and witnesses detailing the deaths of three people in the Boston Marathon bombings, the defense team of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had its turn to make a case.It was over in six hours.Defense counsel has been understandably circumspect in dealing with the press. Still, in an exclusive to this author, counsel gave a brief statement:In the guilt phase of the trial, there wasn't a lot we could do.  We've been preparing for what we expect will be the penalty phase.What's needed is to humanize the client, to show he's not a monster. That's where we've been aiming.  Still, it's not been without trouble. In the months we've been working with Mr. Tsarnaev, it's become clear that he's a narcissistic brat.  Not only did he never deny planting the bomb, he's proud of it. He's told us that…

Bank Fraud, PayPal and "Loss"

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After a jury in a federal prosecution convicted Lawrence Shaw of “17 counts of bank fraud in violation of” 18 U.S. Code § 1344(1), he appealed.  U.S. v. Shaw, 2015 WL 1379731 (U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit 2015). The Court of Appeals begins its opinion in the case by outlining how the prosecution arose:The charges . . . arose from a scheme Shaw devised to take money from bank accounts belonging to Stanley Hsu, a Taiwanese businessman. Hsu opened a Bank of America account while working in the United States. When he returned to Taiwan, he arranged for the daughter of one of his employees to receive his mail in the States and forward it to him in Taiwan. Shaw was living with the daughter and routinely checked her mail. When Hsu's Bank of America statements began to arrive, Shaw opened them and learned Hsu's account and personal information.Shaw used the information from Hsu's statements to execute the following scheme: he opened an…

Firearms in Student Housing: California Penal Code 626.9 and the Second Amendment

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I visited UCLA last weekend. While I was there, I visited Weyburn Terrace, an apartment complex for UCLA graduate students. UCLA's website describing the housing is here. In a nutshell, Weyburn Terrace consists of apartment-style housing for graduate students only, and it is owned and operated by the school.When I visited, I noticed a new sign on the main entrance of the building that had not been there during my time at UCLA Law. Here is a picture of the sign:The picture is a little blurry, and in case you have trouble making it out, it says:Notice: This property is owned and/or operated by the Regents of the University of California.IT IS UNLAWFUL TO BRING OR POSSESS A FIREARM ON THESE GROUNDS PER CALIFORNIA PENAL CODE SECTION 626.9(H)Violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and subject to incarceration in state prison.California Penal Code section 626.9(h) states:Notwithstanding Section 25605, any person who brings or possesses a loaded firearm upon…

The Flood Begins

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If you like your drug dealing, you can keep your drug dealing.That's the message President Obama sent with the numerous drug clemencies he granted yesterday, as detailed in this article from USA Today. And plenty more are coming:[I]t could represent the crest of a new wave of commutations that could come in Obama's last two years in office. Last year, the Justice Department announced a new clemency initiative to try to encourage more low-level drug offenders to apply to have their sentences reduced. That resulted in a record 6,561 applications in the last fiscal year...It's scarcely news that this Administration is as soft on drugs as it is on deserters  -- that's depressing but not surprising.  What's surprising is this, also from the article:Obama wrote each of the 22 Tuesday, saying they had demonstrated the potential to turn their lives around...."Now it is up to you to make the most of this opportunity. It will not be easy, and you…

Senate panel would decrimnalize truancy, depopulate Texas youth prisons

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Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire last night passed a pair of bills out of committee - decriminalizing truancy and further downsizing of Texas youth prisons - which between them would significantly alter Texas' juvenile justice system for the better. Despite the bill's blessing from Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht and a host of supporters, the debate over decriminalizing truancy was more contentious than the eventual, inevitable 6-0 vote might indicate. Not many people confront Chairman Whitmire as aggressively as some of the folks from local truancy programs who came to oppose the bill, and it's been a while since I've seen the chairman as fully in attack mode as when he confronted a Tarrant County vendor who'd been ginning up opposition.And in truth, I could see why he was mad. There was a great deal of misinformation in the opposition testimony by folks who thought the bill would take away any leverage from…

Vanity Fair Profile on Judy Clarke

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Are you an attorney looking for inspiration? Are you a client who disagrees with your criminal defense lawyer’s tactics even though you see she’s working hard on your case? Run, don’t walk to pick up a copy of Vanity Fair, or read online Mark Bowden’s piece on death penalty defense lawyer Judy Clarke. It was just the motivation I needed for the middle of a tough week doing this job. The post Vanity Fair Profile on Judy Clarke appeared first on Georgia Criminal Appellate Law Blog.

Rolling Stones to Tour U.S. This Summer

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If you're in one of these 15 cities, you can see the Rolling Stones in concert this summer. Tickets for all U.S. shows go on sale Monday April 13. If, like me, you aren't in one of those cities, you know what they say: [More...] The... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Breen & Mills on Juvenile Sentencing Discretion after Miller

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Jennifer Breen and John Mills (Cornell University - Law School and Saint Louis University School of Law) have posted Mandating Discretion: Juvenile Sentencing Schemes after Miller v. Alabama (American Criminal Law Review, Vol. 52, No. 2, 2015) on SSRN. Here...

Ring the bell for property threshold adjustments

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Sometimes, an unrung bell resonates the loudest.Such was the case last night when the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee heard state Sen. Konni Burton's SB 393, which would adjust for inflation the main theft categories delineating punishment ranges in Texas, updating the code for the first time since 1993. Your correspondent was there to (briefly) testify in favor of the bill on behalf of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, but the legislation didn't need much help.Remarkably, particularly given the contentious hearing early over changes to truancy statutes, there was no opposition to this bill - none, zilch, zero. No cops, no prosecutors, no probation officials, nobody. Just crickets chirping. Even the police unions stayed off. Despite the state's "tough on crime" reputation, not one citizen out of 25 million plus thought to come to the capitol to oppose this bill. Who'da thought?Shannon Edmonds from the state prosecutors association…

"For principle to be served, 22 worthy, long-term narcotics prisoners granted release needs to become 2,200 or more."

Menendez

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Here is the Indictment in United States v. Robert Menendez and Salomon Melgen. Here is the Washington Post story. (wisenberg)

5 Factors That Can Affect Your Blood Alcohol Content (BAC)

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Blood alcohol content, more commonly known as BAC, is the measure of the amount of alcohol present in a person’s blood, based on the volume of consumed alcohol over a given period of time. All across the world, BAC is recognized as a standard tool for determining a legal limit for drunk driving. Unknown to many is that there are numerous variables that affect a person’s BAC and not simply the amount of alcohol in his or her body. Gender Gender is one of the factors that can affect an … [Read more...] The post 5 Factors That Can Affect Your Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) appeared first on Minneapolis DWI Lawyer Douglas T. Kans.

News Roundup

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Friday is a University holiday, so we’re rounding the news up one day early this week. Despite the short week, there is plenty of criminal law news to report. Senator Robert Menendez (D. N.J.) was indicted Wednesday on federal bribery charges arising from his relationship with Salomon Melgen, a Florida opthamologist. The indictment is long—and […]

Addressing the Health Care/Public Health Dichotomy through Justice

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Lindsay F. Wiley, Health Law as Social Justice, 24 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 47 (2014), available at SSRN. Nicole Huberfeld A longstanding and confounding divide exists between treatment of the individual and care for the collective. While the former is deemed health care, the latter is called public health, and American medicine has long maintained this dichotomy (a story that Paul Starr told decisively in The Social Transformation of American Medicine). This divide exists not only in the medical establishment but also in the law pertaining to it. While the field called health law tends toward being subject matter inclusive, it paradoxically has excluded public health law as a separate discipline. In part, this dichotomy may result from public health’s focus on the whole community rather than individual relationships, rights, and treatments. But also, this divide is strengthened by the historic primacy of private law rather than public law in health care, a…

How To Properly Evaluate A Plea Offer

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We have all seen this scenario: An attorney triumphantly bounds out of a prosecutor's office and announced that he or she just got the best plea offer ever!  But is it? When evaluating a plea offer keep in mind the "Cleanest Pig In The Pen Fallacy."   As attorneys, often justify our actions, our plea deals and our advice based on what we have seen other attorneys do and experience. Often, this knowledge is invaluable and can save clients from making horrible misjudgments of their situation.  We base our decisions on the context, providing our clients with a risk assessment based on our (limited?) experience with the court, the facts, the prosecutor and the judge. Being a competitive lot, attorneys feel good when we perceive our result better than the "average" attorney. Thus we are happy being the "cleanest pig in the pen." As a client, you should not care who the cleanest pig is.  You should take into account your specific…

The Exclusionary Rule of Search and Seizure: An Overview

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The prohibition against unlawful search and seizure is fundamental to our country’s justice system. Both the U.S. and the Florida Constitutions guarantee freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures by law enforcement officers. Sometimes, however, police officers and other officials violate this rule, and sometimes that leads to the discovery of evidence that would not otherwise have been found. The Rule To discourage police officers from violating the prohibition against searches and seizures and to protect that right for citizens, courts have instituted the exclusionary rule. It means that if evidence is collected through a law enforcement officer’s unconstitutional conduct, such as an illegal search or seizure, the evidence must be suppressed. This means that the evidence cannot be used against the defendant in court for most purposes. The rule does not apply in civil cases or in grand jury proceedings. Importantly, it does apply in a…

A BROKEN SYSTEM

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A Louisiana Prosecutor who put an innocent man on death row says the system is broken. The Huffington Post has the full story here. The Prosecutor, Marty Stroud had some interesting things to say: Now, Stroud is sharing his story, both as a cautionary tale and as a call to action for ending the death penalty. Stroud appeared on MSNBC Wednesday night with a warning to prosecutors:"They should take heed in the fact that if something does go wrong, as it did in this case, it will be with them until the day they leave this earth."Prosecutors should want justice, not convictions," Stroud said. "We still deal in the politics of blood.""I don’t know where for the life of me we get off preaching to other countries about their criminal justice systems," Stroud said. "We need to look inward. We’re with the likes of the Yemen and North Korea and Iran.""We can’t trust the government to fix…

Men from Jacksonville, St. Johns County arrested in Volusia County child sex sting

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A man from Jacksonville and another from St. Johns County were arrested last week, caught by undercover detectives who say they men were on their way to a sexual encounter with a child they believed to be under the age of 14.  But the person they were accused of chatting with online and arranging to meet was not a child, but instead law enforcement working on behalf of police to help arrest adults looking for sex with children, according to a report in the Florida Times-Union. In all, 22 men were arrested in the sting, including the two with ties to Northeast Florida, the newspaper reported. The men are charged with travelling to meet a minor to engage in a sex act; using a computer to seduce, solicit, lure or entice a child; and unlawful use of a two-way communications device. Traveling to meet a minor is the most serious of the three charges and is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in state prison. The other two charges are both third-degree felonies,…

You be the judge: what state sentence for unstable 1% whose reckless driving killed young family?

Another study shows a nexus between mental illness and crime

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It is always important to remember that most people with mental illness are not involved in crime nor are they prone to violence.  In fact, treatment for mental illness is fairly ubiquitous in our society.  The next time you are at a family gathering or among your colleagues there is a fair chance that someone in your presence has been struggled with depression, addiction or some of form of mental illness.  But we still hear claims that there is no relationship between mental illness and crime or violence.  We hear this despite numerous studies, including several population-based studies, that have shown time and time again that there is indeed a relationship between mental disorder and crime.  The latest issue of Psychiatric Services provides the latest evidence: Objective:Bipolar disorder is a severe and prevalent psychiatric disease. Poor outcomes include a high frequency of criminal acts, imprisonments, and repeat offenses. This critical review…
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