Former USAO appellate chief turned National Review analyst Andy McCarthy uses the curious Dennis Hastert case to pull back the curtain on what is really going on with "sentencing reform." He notes:Mandatory minimum sentences and strict sentencing guidelines for serious offenses were enacted precisely because judges, often in collusion with prosecutors [Ed. note: and virtually always at the urging of defense counsel], were systematically releasing serious offenders, allowing them to continue preying on society. While the "man-mins" and guidelines helped dramatically reduce crime, the left-leaning legal profession agitated against them. One result is "fact" pleading -- the sort of shenanigans that we see in the Hastert case: a willfully false rendition of the facts in order to sidestep sentencing enhancements required by law.That is what sentencing "reform" has in store for us. The proposals may call for careful judicial…
Andy McCarthy Exposes the Fraud of Sentencing Reform
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Wexler on Integrating Procedural Justice and Therapeutic Jurisprudence
David B. Wexler has posted Guiding Court Conversation Along Pathways Conducive to Rehabilitation: Integrating Procedural Justice and Therapeutic Jurisprudence on SSRN. Here is the abstract: A recent thoughtful criminology paper urges the use of procedural justice (PJ) and therapeutic jurisprudence...
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Q: How Do You Know You've Won the Sentencing Reform Debate?
A: When, in an article in Politico, the other side is quoted giving an answer like this (emphasis added):[W]hile the [percentage of those who re-offend after early release is] small - and a recent study shows they re-offend at the same rate as those who served their full terms, about 45 percent -- it only takes one example for a 30-second campaign ad. [Steve Cook, President of NAAUSA] said they've already found a case in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where a former federal inmate would have been in jail on the day he killed a man in 2011, if not for a sped-up release."When criminals are in custody, they're not victimizing the good and honest citizens in our community," Cook said. "When they're out on the street, they are."Those types of arguments are "so old school," said [Holly] Harris [of the U.S. Justice Action Network]. "It just sounds old and dated and just so out of tune with where we are in…
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Illinois Affirms Defendant’s DUI Conviction Despite Blood-Alcohol Level Below Legal Limit
Jermaine Phillips challenged his DUI conviction, claiming that the evidence failed to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Specifically, he argued that his blood-alcohol level of .059 was below the legal limit, and other circumstantial evidence of his guilt was weak. An Illinois appellate court affirmed Phillips’ conviction, holding that the state presented sufficient evidence that Phillips emitted a strong odor of alcohol, exhibited slurred speech, had bloodshot eyes, and performed poorly on the field-sobriety tests. The court reached this conclusion despite the fact that Illinois law eliminates the presumption of impairment when a defendant’s blood-alcohol level is between .05 and the legal limit of .08, like Phillips’. In 2010, Phillips was charged with three offenses: (1) driving under the influence of alcohol; (2) driving under the combined influence of alcohol, other drugs, or intoxicants; and (3) driving with no registration light. At…
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House Judiciary Chair Goodlate makes case for sentencing reform by attacking sentencing reform
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Prez Obama takes criminal justice reform tour to New Jersey, but Gov Christie not pleased by visit
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"The Retroactivity Roadmap"
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New California legalization effort starts with big mo (money and momentum)
As reported in this local article, headlined "Sean Parker initiative ignites California marijuana legalization," there appears now to be a leading proposal for bringing a marijuana legalization initiative to California voters. Here are the details: Billionaire technology and music industry disruptor Sean Parker upended another sector this afternoon, with the...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/YGG2fqeRY2A" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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Can You Get Custody or Visitation with a Child Who’s Not Yours?
While most custody disputes exclusively involve the child’s parents, other relatives can also become involved. If you’re related by blood or marriage to a child whose parents are getting divorced in Utah, you should know about your rights and responsibilities under state law. When Parental Care isn’t in the Child’s Best Interests If you’re a grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, brother, sister, stepfather, stepmother, stepsister, or stepbrother, this article is for you. (If you’re a grandmother or grandfather, you might also be interested in reading our previous article about child custody for grandparents in Utah.) Parents in Utah have the opportunity, and are even encouraged, to create their own parenting plans. However, this isn’t always possible. If the parents are unable to reach their own agreement, the court will step in to make an outside determination. When determining child custody, judges weigh a variety of factors to make…
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Your Daughter’s Hostile High School Environment
There were two questions looming in the background that needed answers. The first one was how long before the insanity and illegality of Title IX as reflected by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights “dear colleague” letters to colleges would filter down to younger students. The second was whether they would breach the gender divide. We now have an answer. Federal education authorities, staking out their firmest position yet on an increasingly contentious issue, found Monday that an Illinois school district violated anti-discrimination laws when it did not allow a transgender student who identifies as a girl and participates on a girls’ sports team to change and shower in the girls’ locker room without restrictions. It may well be argued that the Township High School District 211 in Palantine, Illinois, should have done something more to accommodate the needs of its transgender student, although it begs the question…
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The Turn to Vulnerability
Maneesha Deckha, Vulnerability, Equality, and Animals, 1 Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 27, 47–70 (2015). Kim Brooks There’s a growing body of work that explores the contours of nonhuman animals and law. Just to illustrate, see previous Jotwell posts in Jurisprudence (here and here) and in Legal History. Maneesha Deckha’s article, “Vulnerability, Equality, and Animals”, brings that body of literature squarely into engagement with equality theory. I read everything Professor Deckha writes: not because I am always on board with where her analysis takes her, but because I’m always left asking questions I hadn’t thought through before. This piece is yet one more illustration of her ability to connect unexpected dots; to press on boundaries that had not been explicitly articulated before; and to draw the reader in. Continue reading "The Turn to Vulnerability"
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For Whom This Post Tolls
For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, a CPA turned marketer, Vin Messina, has taken a shine to the criminal blawgosphere. He sends me emails asking questions or making observations about how I run this blawg or about criminal law issues. He twits about criminal defense lawyers. He even wrote a post trying to use the Gary Ostrow posts as a lesson for marketing. I mostly ignore Vin. He can be a bit much, and the relationship is more than a bit one-sided. I get nothing out of it, except the loss of time I’ll never get back. He uses “lol” a lot. Apparently, I amuse him. He’s a nice enough guy, but he often doesn’t “get” the posts here. When he emails me a question, I sometimes respond that he’s “dense.” He replies that he’s not dense, but simply lacks the background necessary to appreciate why something (puppycide, most recently) is a problem. He informs me that I ought to explain it better…
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Sign of the sentencing reform times: Louisiana Gov candidates spar over prison reform plans
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"The Bumpiness of Criminal Law"
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New Revenge Porn Crime
The General Assembly recently enacted a new “revenge porn” statute. S.L. 2015-250. The law actually gives the offense a tamer name: Disclosure of Private Images. The statute takes effect December 1, 2015, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date. Here’s what you need to know about the new crime. Statute G.S. 14-190.5A Elements A person guilty of this offense: (1) knowingly (2) discloses an image of another person (3) with the intent to (a) coerce, harass, intimidate, demean, humiliate, or cause financial loss to the depicted person, or (b) cause others to coerce, harass, intimidate, demean, humiliate, or cause financial loss to the depicted person, and (4) the depicted person is identifiable from the disclosed image or from information offered in connection with it, (5) the depicted person’s intimate parts are exposed or the depicted person is engaged in sexual conduct in the disclosed image, (6) the person…
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Jury rejects first-degree murder charge, convicts Jacksonville man on lesser count of manslaughter
A jury did not agree with the state’s assertion that a man who shot his sister’s ex-boyfriend as part of an ongoing dispute was guilty of first-degree murder. Instead, the jury convicted the man last month on a lesser charge of manslaughter, according to a report in the Florida Times-Union. The difference is significant for the 22-year-old defendant. Had he been convicted of first-degree murder, he faced a mandatory life sentence. Now, he faces a maximum term of 25 years in state prison when he is sentenced next month. The man who was killed and two of his friends drove to the defendant’s house to fight him after the men had a disagreement earlier in the day, the newspaper reported. The defendant walked out of his house and fired warning shots into the ground to scare the men off, the newspaper reported. When the men drove off, the defendant fired into the car, claiming self-defense, the newspaper reported. The jury did not fully buy the self-defense…
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Mississippi Statute of Limitations and Your Personal Injury Lawsuit
If you have become the victim of a personal injury case, you need to know that your legal rights to compensation will not be available to you indefinitely. There are certain laws that dictate how long you have to assert your rights, and if you fail to act within that specified period of time, you lose your ability to seek any sort of civil or criminal recourse. This is known as a statute of limitation, and it varies by state. From the opposite perspective, if you are on the receiving end of a potential lawsuit, you want to know that the constant worry of negative expectations isn't going to be hanging over your head forever. That's the point of a statute of limitations: it forces both parties to either act or move on with their lives. In Mississippi, the statute of limitations for medical malpractice cases is, at most, two years. If the case directly involves a county or state (governmental) hospital, it may be even shorter. The statute of limitations for most…
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American Pot: will Ohioans make this the day marijuana prohibition died?
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Straw Buyer and Down Payment Fraud Guilty Plea
Antonio Pimenta, 47, Neshanic Station, New Jersey, admitted his role in a scheme that used straw buyers and phony loan documents to fraudulently obtain a $400,500 loan on a property in Irvington, New Jersey. According to documents filed and statements made in court: Pimenta owned and managed Kelmar Construction Co. Kelmar built multiple properties in Irvington, […]
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Drugged Driving on the Rise in Minnesota
The Minnesota State Patrol is adding extra training sessions to help officers understand the signs of drugged driving as the state has seen a sharp increase in the number of drugged driving arrests. The statistics don’t lie. Back in 1990, the Minnesota State Patrol documented five drugged driving arrests. In 2014, nearly five people were arrested for drugged driving every day, and that’s almost certainly a low estimate. Don Marose of the Minnesota State Patrol said research into the roughly 30,000 annual DWI arrests revealed that roughly 40 percent of those arrests probably also involved drugs or illegal medications. “Where we are with drug-impaired driving is probably where we were 100 years ago with alcohol-impaired driving,” Marose said. “We’re really on our first couple of steps here.” Drugged Driving in Minnesota Some in law enforcement believe that drugged driving has been on the rise because police have gotten better at…
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