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17-Month OPT STEM Extension Rule Invalidated by Judge in U.S. District Court

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On August 12th, 2015, U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle invalidated the rule announced by USCIS in 2008 which allowed automatic 17-month extensions for students seeking Optional Practical Training in certain STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) related positions. The Department of State announced the automatic extension in defense of thousands of students who would have to leave the U.S. upon completion of their educational programs leaving thousands of unfilled jobs in the STEM field.The benefits of the 2008 announcement by DHS allowed three things: 1) Students with certain degrees were allowed automatic extensions in their OPT extending the validity period from 12 to 29 months. The second benefit was that the H-1B "cap gap" was automatically granted. The third benefit was that students on F-1 nonimmigrant status were allowed to apply for OPT up to 60 days after graduation rather than apply before their graduation date.  These…

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United States v. Pedrin, No. 11-10623 (8-17-15)(Fletcher with Christen; dissent by Noonan).  This issue involves government misconduct.  It arises from yet another gov't reverse sting involving a stash house robbery.  The 9th affirmed the conviction, but Noonan has a stinging dissent, lambasting the gov't and arguing that the court should consider entrapment, even though the defense was not presented (!).To the facts: the agent was working with a CI.  The agent had done "hundreds" of these reverse stings, all following a similar pattern.  Here, the CI told the agent that his nephew called to "ask for work." This meant robbing drug houses. The uncle of course immediately alerted the agent, who arranged for a meeting with the nephew and the defendant.  The plans were hatched, and the defendant agreed.  He continued to go forward, only to be warned on the way to the robbery that it was a sting.  He and others…

How to Send Money to an Inmate at the Utah County Jail

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Jails contain stores known as commissaries, which typically sell items like snacks, condiments, writing utensils, hygiene products, and apparel.  However, inmates are not allowed to have their own money while they are being held in custody.  Therefore, you will have to load funds onto your loved one’s commissary account before they can make any purchases.  This article will explain how to send funds to an inmate at the Utah County Jail, which is located in Spanish Fork. How to Load Funds or Make a Direct Purchase The Utah County Jail processes commissary orders through a web service called MyCarePack.  To load an inmate’s commissary account or select items for direct purchase yourself, follow these simple steps: Navigate to MyCarePack.com. Select your state and facility (Utah County Jail) from the drop-down menu on the left hand side of the page, then click the “Enter” button. You’ll be taken to a welcome screen confirming that…

Maine's Confusing Rape Shield Law

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One of the many things that criminal defense attorneys have to worry about all the time is evidence. But it goes much further than just about what looks good, in court: It's also about what even gets into court, in the first place. The evidence that gets presented or withheld can make or break a case. The rules for what kinds of evidence are admissible or inadmissible are impressively complex. There are, quite literally, books written on the subject. One of the most complex and problematic of the rules of evidence is what is known as a “rape shield law.” This law limits the ways that evidence can be presented, if the evidence has something to do with someone's past sexual conduct. All of the states in the U.S. have one of these, including Maine. Our rape shield law is found at Rule 412 in our Rules of Evidence. While the reason behind the law is all well and good – it's to prevent the jury from looking down on a victim of a sexual crime, by not…

Georgia Criminal Defense Lawyer Charged with Drug Distribution

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On Monday, August 17, 35-year-old Macon defense attorney Holly Hogue Edwards was charged with drug distribution. A news article at 11 Alive says that Edwards was arrested after being pulled over on Interstate 75 in Peach County, according to Monroe County investigator Greggory Phillips. Authorities pulled the criminal defense lawyer over to serve an arrest warrant charging her in the case involving distribution of oxycodone.  Edwards is charged with a single count of distribution of oxycodone and methamphetamine, and three counts of distribution of oxycodone. Oxycodone is a prescription narcotic pain medication that is highly abused and addictive. A Monroe County Sheriff’s Office news release stated that Edwards sold drugs to undercover agents. The investigation of Edwards began in May when it was learned that she might be involved in illegal activities including the use and distribution of illegal drugs. The indictment revealed that the incidents Edwards is alleged…

Personal Injury Case Study – A $6 Million Verdict

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Summary In 2009, Jeff Bayne was severely injured on the job because of his employer’s intentional conduct. Because there was substantial certainty that the employer’s conduct would lead to Jeff’s injuries, the case was allowed to proceed under a very narrow exception in the law. Bayne suffered debilitating injuries which caused him to not only lose his ability to work but lose normal, everyday function. The attorneys at Laird Hammons Laird successfully helped Bayne win the case and the verdict was in excess of $6 million. The Plaintiff’s Story It was May 1, 2009. An Oklahoma construction company was assigned the task of laying asphalt on a main road, but they were running behind schedule and needed to complete this stretch to save money and time. Jeff Bayne was on duty as a screed operator. He had been employed there for the past 20 years. His job was to manage the thickness of the road as it came out of the asphalt paver. There were several power lines…

Finally, a bit more (though inadequate and unfair) discussion of sentencing finality issues

How long do I have to have SR-22 Insurance?

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SR-22 (high risk) Insurance is required for three (3) years on a DUI, Physical Control or Reckless Driving conviction. It is also required for three (3) years on the Administrative suspension. (if your license is suspended or revoked on the...

MacDonald & Nicosia on School Location and Crime

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John MacDonald and Nancy Nicosia (University of Pennsylvania and RAND Corporation) have posted Do Schools Cause Crime in Neighborhoods? Quasi-Experimental Evidence from the Growth of Charter Schools in Philadelphia on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This paper examines the impact...

Lots and lots of good summer reads about US criminal justice problems

St Louis Criminal Defense: Why Do You Keep Your Fees So Low To Defend Felony Charges?

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ONLY $750 FOR LOW LEVEL FELONY CHARGES We keep our fees reasonably low so that more people may have access to an experienced St Louis criminal defense lawyer. Most criminal defense firms charge very high fees in order to retain their services. As a result, many people never get the chance to have someone fight on their side. In the St Louis criminal defense world, there are those who can dish out thousands and thousands of dollars to hire an expensive lawyer (this is of course a relatively small group of people), and then there are those individuals who qualify for the Public Defender’s Office. This second group of people is also relatively small, because the city and county have specific qualifying criteria (namely, whether or not you fall above or below a certain income level). That means that the vast majority of those who have been charged criminally in St Louis do not get an attorney to represent them (because they can’t afford it, or they can’t qualify…

News Scan

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CA Lawmen Protest Parole of Cop Killer:  Unions representing Los Angeles police and California prosecutors have joined   the widow of a slain LAPD detective in an attempt to block the parole a man who indirectly helped murder him 30 years ago.  Dana Bartholomew of the LA Daily News reports that on August 4, two members of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) recommended the parole of 52-year-old Voltaire Williams, who is serving a sentence of 25 years to life for conspiracy to commit murder in the death of 42-year-old LAPD Detective Thomas C. Williams (no relation) in 1985. Williams, 26-years-old in 1985, was hired by a man named Daniel S. Jenkins to kill the policeman for $2,000, but didn't go through with it.  Jenkins ended up doing the deed himself, gunning down the officer in front of his six-year-old son.  Critics of Williams' parole believe that the state is trying to "empty out overcrowded…

BOP Submits Changes to RDAP Policy for Public Comment

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Through the Federal Register, the BOP has announced proposed “revisions to the Residential Drug Abuse Treatment Program (RDAP) regulations in four areas to allow greater inmate participation in the program and positively impact recidivism rates. Specifically, the Bureau proposes to (1) remove the regulatory requirement for RDAP written testing because it is more appropriate to assess an inmate’s progress through clinical evaluation of behavior change (the written test is no longer used in practice); (2) remove existing regulatory provisions which automatically expel inmates who have committed certain acts (e.g., abuse of drugs or alcohol, violence, attempted escape); (3) limit the time frame for review of prior offenses for early release eligibility purposes to ten years before the date of federal imprisonment; and (4) lessen restrictions relating to early release eligibility.” An .HTML version of the proposed changes can be found here. Public…

The Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFST’s): Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN)

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Susan Hartman, of the Law Offices of Susan L. Hartman, recently attended The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and The International Association of Chiefs of Police (ICAP) approved DWI Detection and Standardized Field Sobriety Testing Practitioner Course, as presented by Mr. Robert La Pier. This is the very course law enforcement is trained in for DUI investigations, giving them the tools to determine if a person should be arrested for drunk driving. During the training, which lasted three full days, Susan was tested through written exams and practical demonstrations. In the end, she passed the course and earned the certificate of completion. According to NHTSA, there are only three standardized field sobriety tests (SFST’s): 1.) The horizontal gaze nystagmus; 2.) The walk and turn; and 3.) The one leg stand. These are the only tests that have been validated by NHTSA and should be used by law enforcement in evaluating each potential DUI. It should be…

Driver of Semi Truck Kills Six People in Horrific Crash

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A driver of a semi truck who caused a crash that killed six people has been charged with six counts of vehicular homicide. The crash happened in Chattanooga, Tennessee on June 25. The driver was Benjamin Brewer, 39, of London, …The post Driver of Semi Truck Kills Six People in Horrific Crash appeared first on Colorado Springs Accident Attorney | Quality Legal.

Who Will Be The Next BOP Director?

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Earlier this Summer, Charles E. Samuels, Jr. issued a memorandum concerning his intention to retire from the Bureau of Prisons by year’s end, following 27 years of service — 3.5 of which were as Director. The announcement has led to conjecture and commentary regarding who should next helm the agency. In late July, a group of law professors wrote Attorney General Lynch encouraging “a national search focusing on identifying an experienced innovator who has a demonstrated commitment to reform—decarceration, improved conditions of confinement, education and rehabilitation, racial justice, and gender equity. The goal of the search should be a new director who can not only bring about substantial changes at the BOP but also lead American corrections more generally.” In a follow-up piece in the Washington Post, three of the professors expanded on their thinking: The decision matters a lot. The BOP’s director runs one of the critical…

Family Protest Death of Unarmed Man Restrained by Deputies in Dallas

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Over the past year we have become used to images of protestors holding signs with slogans like “unarmed,” and “I can’t breathe,” after deaths of inmates at the hands of law enforcement officers across America. But the latest images of a protest were closer to home in Dallas. The protest was organized by the family of Joseph Hutcheson, who died after ... Read More The post Family Protest Death of Unarmed Man Restrained by Deputies in Dallas appeared first on .

Oregon Innocence Project Co-Founder Calls for Eyewitness Identification Reform in the State

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In an op-ed in the Portland Tribune on Friday, Oregon Innocence Project Co-Founder Aliza Kaplan challenged police departments in the state to update their eyewitness identification protocol to avoid convicting the innocent. Kaplan wrote that problematic eyewitness identification practices can lead to wrongful convictions, such as that of Samuel Lawson, who was released last year after spending nine years in prison for a murder he did not commit. Kaplan encouraged police departments in the state to adopt the eyewitness identification practices recommended by the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP), which include double-blind lineups, informing the witness that the perpetrator may not be in the line-up and the verbatim documentation of the witness’s confidence in the identification at the time it was made. “The OACP model policy is practicable to implement, and the Oregon Innocence Project stands ready to work with its partners in law enforcement…

"FDA warns Ohio not to illegally import execution drugs"

Bite Mark Evidence Isn’t Reliable But It’s Still Used Against Defendants in Texas

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Lots of criminal defense attorneys have their fingers crossed here in Texas, hoping that sooner rather than later everyone is going to acknowledge and understand that bite mark evidence isn’t worthy of respect much less use in a criminal case where someone’s freedom is in jeopardy. For many years, defense lawyers have recognized that evidence of bite marks simply isn’t reliable. It’s not just bite mark evidence that isn’t reliable — there are other kinds of forensic evidence that we have to argue against in case after case because it’s not worthy of consideration by the fact-finder. For details here, read our earlier posts that include: FBI Scandal: Forensic FBI Experts Give False and Flawed DNA Evidence To Get Convictions  THE CRUEL REALITY OF CRIMINAL EVIDENCE: IT’S JUST NOT THAT RELIABLE Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Do Not Trust Prosecutor’s Crime Lab Forensic Evidence, When Will Public Become Aware that Crime Lab…
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