School is back in session across North Carolina, but many high school students and their parents may be disappointed that driver’s education is not. Driver’s education has long been a staple of the high school experience in this state. I vividly recall my afternoon class in the Northwood High School auditorium with driving instructor Ed […]
Class is in Session–But Not Driver’s Ed
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An Amorphous Mass of Ill Legality
It might seem, since so many of my posts start by referring to Scott Greenfield’s blog posts, that I’m an acolyte, or that his stuff is all I ever read. Not true. But he’s posting up to two or three posts per day, on any given day, and on the east coast (so he’s posted them usually before I get to my computer), so at least one is going to get me thinking. So it is with a post he wrote July 19. Actually, I’ve been thinking about something for awhile, and trying to figure out how to communicate what I’m thinking. In pondering Scott’s post about FedEx and the feds, what happened there began to adhere to what I was already thinking, and the title of my post popped into my head. This is usually a signal to me that I’m at least almost ready to write. We shall see. Scott’s post reports about, and comments on, a move by the federal government to force FedEx to act as an arm of federal law enforcement — or at least a…
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District Attorneys Keep Doing Bad Things: More Texas Prosecutorial Misconduct Stories
The problem of prosecutors doing bad things like hiding evidence and introducing unreliable (or false) testimony isn’t getting better. Recently, the Daily Beast published an expose on prosecutorial misconduct in the United States, labeling the problem a national epidemic. You can read their take on things in the article written by Jay Michaelson and published as “ It’s Not Just Bad Cops: Prosecutors Run Wild.” There’s also the big news of a recent brief filed by former members of the Justice Department in a federal securities fraud case that’s come before the United States Supreme Court: past DOJ big wigs have filed allegations of prosecutorial misconduct as part of the public record; read about this case in the New York Times coverage (which includes a link to the brief itself). Finally, there’s a recent study published by the Associated Press regarding prosecutorial misconduct. Their findings: even though prosecutors hide…
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New Minimum Joint Physical Custody Law in Utah
Utah has Moved to More Liberal Parent Time This year the Utah Legislature has moved toward a more liberal minimum parent time. This is a huge victory for noncustodial parents. What is the change? Previously in Utah, the minimum joint physical custody statutory parent time gave the noncustodial parent 111 nights. The Utah State Legislature has increased that amount from 111 to 145 overnights. The minimum joint physical custody law in Utah just got better for noncustodial parents. Typically the father is the noncustodial parent in Utah divorce cases, so this change in the law will affect fathers most. Utah has been traditionally been known as a state not terribly friendly to fathers in divorce actions but over the last 35 years Utah has made some real headway toward more equal rights. The perception remains, however, not because there is any inherent bias in Utah divorce courts but because of the culture of Utah. Specifically, Utah has a lot of stay at home mothers. This is…
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Separation of Church and State, Then and Now
There was a point in our history when it was accepted that there is, and ought to be, a pretty clearly defined separation between church and state. The Framers thought one Church of England was enough. Almost all of them were Christian, but did not want religion, theirs or anyone else's, thrust upon others.Liberals were avid fans of this view of things -- until they found out that the opposite view could advance their agenda.My, how times do change.
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Registered Sex Offender Arrested on Child Porn Charges in Gainesville
A registered sex offender in Gainesville has been charged with possession of child pornography after police allege he had many illegal images on his cellphone. According to an arrest report, an investigation is also underway into whether he had sex with a child. The 23-year-old man was charged with possessing photographs of sexual performances by children, a Gainesville Police Department report states. The photographs allegedly show a child who appears to be prepubescent having sex with a man. Other alleged photos of a sexual nature involving children were also found. The arrest report claims that the man admitted to downloading and viewing the other images of a sexual nature. Police were apparently alerted to the man through calls to authorities regarding his downloading images and having urges for sex with a boy, according to a dispatch log. During a police interview, the man allegedly confessed that he had sex with an unidentified 9-year-old, the report states. That case is…
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DALLAS COURT OF APPEALS EXCUSES STATE VIOLATION OF WITNESS PRESENCE RULE WHEN TESTIMONY USED ONLY IN REBUTTAL
A situation that I am often asked about was illustrated in a case decided in May at the Texas Fifth Court of Appeals at Dallas in a capital murder case where the conviction was in a Dallas County District Court. There is a basic rule of evidence, known simply as “The Rule,” which requires witnesses to be excluded from the courtroom so that they do not try to make their testimony conform to other testimony that they have heard. The Rule also applies to prevent witnesses from talking with each other outside of court during a trial in order to prevent them from attempting to “get their stories straight.” The reason that I often explain The Rule to prospective clients is because I normally ask family members to explain what happened at trial. They often say “I do not know…they would not let me be in the courtroom….can they do that?” If either side invoked The Rule, the answer is yes. Fortunately, there are other ways to develop a…
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Vladeck on Petty Offenses and Article III
Stephen I. Vladeck (American University - Washington College of Law) has posted Petty Offenses and Article III (19 Green Bag 2d, 2016, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Federal law allows magistrate judges — jurists who are neither appointed...
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Undisclosed Evidence May be a Turning Point in Ivan Henry’s Wrongful Conviction Lawsuit
Ivan Henry, a man who was wrongfully convicted of a string of sexual assaults in 1982, is thought to be the first wrongfully convicted person in Vancouver to be forced to sue the province for compensation, according to an article in the Vancouver Sun. Last Friday, on the eve of his trial seeking compensation, Henry inadvertently learned that the woman who first identified him in a photo lineup had “strong emotional ties” to the lead detective, William Harkema. Henry’s lawyer, Marilyn Sandford, explained the integral role the woman had in Henry’s conviction: “This was the first identification against our client that the authorities deemed had any weight and led to his arrest and things went from there. (The woman) was a key witness . . . a key complainant.” According to the Vancouver Sun, this previously undisclosed information was revealed in a 1983 letter to Harkema from the woman, which Sandford described in court: “She says among…
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News Scan
News Journalists Killed on Live TV: Two Virginia TV news journalists for WDBJ7, a reporter and a cameraman, were shot and killed on live television Wednesday morning, allegedly by a disgruntled employee. Fox News reports that following the shooting of 24-year-old Alison Parker, 27-year-old Adam Ward, and an interviewee, who survived a gunshot wound to her back, Virginia State Police homed in on 41-year-old Vester Lee Flanagan, a former employee of WDBJ7 who went by the name Bryce Williams, while he was driving on the freeway. The suspect refused to stop, ran his vehicle off the road and crashed, and then fatally shot himself. Flanagan, who was fired from the station several years ago, made several posts on social media following the attack, including a first-person video he took during the murder and remarks about Parker's "racist comments" and his anger over Ward reporting him to the HR department. He was reportedly angered by the…
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DUI for Military Members
It’s not uncommon to see local servicemen and servicewomen on leave out at the bars. And it’s no wonder with California being the home of 32 military bases. Serviceman of servicewoman should be aware that their DUI, if they are arrested for one, may be treated differently than a civilian’s DUI. Additionally, they may face additional consequences from their commands. Military bases are considered federal land. As such, crimes committed on military bases are subject to federal laws, not state laws. The Code of Federal Regulations states that a person can be convicted of a DUI under federal law if they are 1.) Unable to safely operate a vehicle because they are under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or a combination of alcohol and drugs, 2.) They have a BAC is .10 grams or more of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood, or .01 gram or more of alcohol per 210 liters of breath, or 3.) The person could be charged under the state law if the state law is more…
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New research report examines impact of "Realignment" on crime in California in 2014
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Indictments will be long: State sent unsecured "classified" e-mails during Bush Administration
A point I have tried to make a number of times on the "Eghazi: It's Classified!" "scandal" is that the originators of the "classified" e-mails were career State Department officials. Thus, I noted that the current US Ambassador to Bahrain William... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Notable talk of crimnal justice reform at GOPAC State Legislative Leaders Summit
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Asset Forfeiture Laws
The following article appeared on the website fourthamendment.com on May 12, 2015: Joseph Rivers was hoping to hit it big. According to the Albuquerque Journal, the aspiring businessman from just outside of Detroit had pulled together $16,000 in seed money… The post Asset Forfeiture Laws appeared first on Chapman Criminal Defense Firm.
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Not So Strong After All
Today's New York Times reports on a new study questioning the results of many headline-grabbing psychological studies. The authors report that more than half of the studies they examined could not be replicated to the same effect as the original studies. As the article mentions: The new analysis, called the Reproducibility Project and posted Thursday by Science, found no evidence of fraud or that any original study was definitively false. Rather, it concluded that the evidence for most published findings was not nearly as strong as originally claimed."Less than half -- even lower than I thought," said Dr. John Ioannidis, a director of Stanford University's Meta-Research Innovation Center, who once estimated that about half of published results across medicine were inflated or wrong. Dr. Ioannidis said the problem was hardly confined to psychology and could be worse in other fields, including cell biology, economics, neuroscience, clinical…
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Listing Sexual Offenses on University Transcripts Raises Constitutional Questions
When convicted of a sexual assault crime, it should come as no surprise that one of the possible penalties could include being listed as a sexual offender on a public registry. To end up on such a list, a defendant likely had to plead guilty to or be convicted of an offense. States Starting to Require Transcripts be Noted But many states are now requiring that universities that have dismissed or expelled students for sexual assault list those students as expelled for a "code of conduct violation" (or other more detailed notations) on their transcripts. Recently, New York state passed such a law, right after Virginia. Maryland recently tried to enact a similar statute that failed and never became law. The rationale for rejecting it echoes the reason why many people oppose such a law: Doing so creates a kind of sexual offender registry, and doing that would require academic proceedings to contain full-blown constitutional protections the same way the legal system does.…
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"Pioneer Pot States Have Collected More Than $200 Million In Marijuana Taxes"
The title of this post is the headline of this notable new Huffington Post article. Here is how it gets started: The first two states to legalize recreational marijuana have collectively raked in at least $200 million in marijuana tax revenue, according to the latest tax data -- and they're...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/N6xADegbJpQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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One vehicle crash on SH-51 near Riddle, in Owyhee County
IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE District 3 Patrol 700 S. Stratford Dr., Meridian 83642 (208) 846-7550 Fax (208) 846-7520 For Immediate Release: 8/27/2015 2:25 p.m. Please direct questions to the District Office On Wednesday, August 26, 2015, at approximately 9:02 a.m., the Idaho State Police investigated a single-vehicle, injury crash northbound SH-51 at milepost 27.3 in Owyhee County. Cy Garner, 40, of Meridian, was northbound on SH-51 near Riddle in a 2004 Honda Accord. The Accord went off the right shoulder of the road on a curve, overcorrected, went off the left shoulder and rolled. The vehicle came to rest off the left side of the roadway. Garner was transported to the St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise by air ambulance. Garner was wearing his seatbelt. The road was blocked for approximately…
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The School Year Begins: A Look at Crime at Texas’ Colleges & Universities
With the school year quickly approaching and students about to hit the books, there’s no more interesting time to look into crime rates at Texas colleges and universities. The following considers crime rates at 20 schools in Texas (data provided by the U.S. Department of Education). Increase in Crime on Texas’ Campuses There was an increase in crime on campuses in Texas between the years of 2011 and 2013. Specifically, non-property crimes, like armed robbery, sexual assault, and manslaughter have increased by 10 percent nationwide. Sex crimes continue to be the most prevalent types of crime on college campuses. Number of Reported Sex Crimes at Colleges Around Texas More than any other crime type, sex crimes, like sexual assault and rape, are the most prevalent type on college campuses in Texas. The following lists the reported numbers of sex offenses at colleges in Texas in the year 2013: • Texas A&M University: 15 • University of Texas at Austin: 29…
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