Today’s post for the Innocence Blog was written by the sister of an Innocence Project client who is still in prison and fighting to prove his innocence. Sometimes life can deal you a hand that's hard to understand. My name is Vickie and I am the sister of a man who was wrongfully convicted of murder. It has been, by far, the hardest thing my family has gone through. To watch my mother who was always so full of life cry …
A Sister Feeling Helpless
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Las Vegas Woman Charged with Sexual Abuse After Twerking, Groping Man at Convenience Store
On Tuesday November 10, a 22-year-old woman was arrested by Washington, D.C. police after allegedly groping and twerking a man at a convenience store on New York Avenue. According to a recent article at the Huffington Post, Ayanna Marie Knight was arrested and charged with third-degree sexual abuse. Another woman who was said to be involved had eluded police at the time of news reports. The incident occurred on October 7; the victim, who asked not to be identified saying the ordeal left him feeling humiliated, asked the cashier at the store for help. According to the man, the cashier replied, “What do you want me to do?” A surveillance video was released of the incident Monday, which shows two women, one in a silver dress and one in a red dress. The woman in the silver dress is seen rubbing her derriere against the groin area of the victim. When he backs away from her, the woman in the red dress appears to touch the inseam area of his pants and makes numerous…
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La incorporación del levantamiento del secreto bancario en los Tratados de Asistencia Judicial Recíproca. La experiencia pionera del Perú
La incorporación del levantamiento del secreto bancario en los Tratados de Asistencia Judicial Recíproca. La experiencia pionera del Perú. (Primera Parte) Alberto Huapaya OlivaresRESUMENEl levantamiento del secreto bancario es un asunto de medular importancia en los delitos económicos, y su represión a nivel internacional es vital.El Perú fue pionero en América en lograr a nivel de Tratado, la inclusión de un artículo que permita el levantamiento del secreto bancario.La importancia histórica radica en que el Tratado de Asistencia Judicial en Materia Penal entre Perú y Suiza, fue el primer mecanismo jurídico amplio que la Confederación Suiza firmó con un Estado latinoamericano en 1998(Swisslatin, Portal suizo de información y servicios.31 de julio de 2005.Recuperado: http://www.swisslatin.ch/solidaridad-0612.htm)A nivel de antecedentes, para el año1996,…
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Divorced for the Holidays: Extended Family
Past blog posts have discussed tips for helping children of two-home families deal with the holiday season and spending holidays away from one of their parents. Today’s post discusses another group of people affected by a two-home family: the extended family. Oftentimes, divorced (or otherwise unmarried) parents hope that all their extended family will be able to attend the holiday get together the years they have their children. Unfortunately, when scheduling with the extended family there can be added confusion, hurt feelings, and headache for divorced parents. Fortunately, there are things you can do to help the holidays run more smoothly and help your kids get to see as many members of their extended family as possible. Here are some tips you might consider when making the holidays work for you, your kids, and your extended family: Give notice and reminders in advance. You may think often about your excitement for having your kids…
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“Drowning baby” con: Grandfather robbed after heroism
A sickening and bizarre con duped a grandfather into wading for, what he thought was a drowning baby. The scam happened near Portsmouth in Hampshire, UK on Wednesday at 10:30 in the morning. Abandoning his coat to jump into the water the thieves made off with £100 and some tobacco.The grandfather, John White, 48, was dog-walking with his wife when a couple ran out of bushes claiming a swan had attacked their child pointing to a nearby lake.Mr White then saw a baby, clothed and with shoes on, floating in the water face down.Taking off his coat, Mr White jumped into the waist-deep water while his wife and dog waited nearby just out of sight.However, when Mr White grabbed the baby’s leg he realised it was a doll.As he tried to get back to the path he was squirted in the face with an unidentified liquid from a plastic bottle, burning his nose and eyes.The thieves dropped the jacket, then fleeing through the Foxes Forest park area they disappeared.Mr White, an angina…
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A Different Kind of Marriage Equality
Elizabeth R. Carter, The Illusion of Equality: The Failure of the Community Property Reform to Achieve Management Equality, 48 Ind. L. Rev. 853 (2015). Cyra Choudhury If you are married to a miser who controls the family finances and refuses to give you money outside household expenses, what can you do about it other than get a divorce? What are the consequences of unequal power over property in marriage? In her article The Illusion of Equality: The Failure of the Community Property Reform to Achieve Management Equality, Elizabeth Carter reminds family law scholars and practitioners of the importance of these questions raised so memorably in the 1953 case of McGuire v. McGuire.1 There, Lydia McGuire sued her husband for maintenance and discovered that there was no legal remedy for her situation. In other words, the law could not compel spouses to be equitable about the family finances and property or give redress to past inequalities in an extant marriage. In the decision…
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The Threatened Sense of Safety
Very bad things are happening on college campuses across the nation. Not the systemic racism of which so many complain. Not the never-ending stream of rapes allegations. Not the dethroning of college presidents or apologies of college administrators whose crime is failing to adhere to the orthodoxy of the Academy. These may all be bad things, to the extent they’re true (and I have no doubt that there is truth in there; we may have come a long way in battling racism, but racism remains). But these aren’t the bad things of which I write. The bad things are the dumbing down of thought, of rights, of words. And they make it impossible to fix the other bad things as we’ve lost the ability to distinguish, and in some instances care, between real harms and empty whining. I was asked yesterday how it’s possible I can be as concerned as I am about the killing of black men by police, yet so callous about the racism and sexual assault claims on college…
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Analyzing Expenditures to Determine Income in Family Law Cases
It is sometimes difficult to determine the income of individuals who will be paying child support or spousal support. This can often be the case when dealing with self-employed individuals. If the reports of income made by the spouse or parent don’t seem to make sense, it may be necessary to look at his or her lifestyle to determine income. In this situation, we look at the expenditures made by the person and calculate the level of income necessary to fund those expenditures. Tracy Coenen explains the process in this video.
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I Will Miss The Kids
As I transition out of doing court-appointed juvenile cases, I realize how much I will miss the kids. * * * * * “Darrell” was my typical client. Like all of my clients, he was my favorite. When... Read More
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Is The Washington State Experiment Committing Suicide?
It was a remarkably bold move when Washington State embraced the concept of Limited License Legal Technicians, or 3LTs as I’ve called them. There has been no shortage of truly bad, really unworkable, ideas to address the Access to Justice problem, but this was an idea that seemed to have merit. No, there was no assurance that this was “the answer,” but at least it was a sound effort. And so, it’s imploding. Last month, nearly the entire Practice of Law Board resigned along with several former or prospective Board members who had been nominated and were awaiting appointment or reappointment to the Board. We are a group of dedicated volunteers with decades of experience serving on a wide variety of professional and community boards and organizations. We have a deep commitment to and long track record of increasing access to justice. The Board’s mission is laudable and we could have accomplished much to help increase the availability of legal services…
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Friday Open Thread
I'm glad the weekend is almost here, but I have a lot of work to do so it will be tonight before I stop in again. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Florida Highway Patrol looking for drivers who were racing, accused of setting off chain of accidents that killed elderly man
Police are looking for two drivers accused of racing each other down Interstate 95, causing one wreck that touched off several more – including one that killed an elderly man and critically injured his wife. The series of accidents allegedly began when two cars were weaving in and out of traffic, which caused a small Honda to go off the road and hit a guardrail, according to a report in the Florida Times-Union. Ten minutes later, a pickup truck slowing down for the stopped traffic was rear-ended by another pickup truck, though there were only minor injuries, the newspaper reported. Shortly thereafter, the elderly driver was slowing down behind a tractor trailer when another driver slammed into his SUV, causing the SUV to spin and smash into the back of the tractor-trailer, the newspaper reported. The drivers would not have to be directly involved in the one fatal crash to be charged with a crime in this St. Johns County Traffic Case, but the state would have to…
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Did the U.S. Strike Kill Mohammed Emwazi?
The U.S. says it is 90% sure that Jihadi John died in an airstrike in Raqqa. I don't believe he was an ISIS leader. He seemed more of a recruit" who after basic military training, was sent to watch prisoners. Then he became the iconic symbol... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Jail suicides, traffic stop data, on deck at TX House hearing next week
The Texas House County Affairs Committee is having another Sandra-Bland related hearing next week will also address errors in DPS racial profiling data. Here's the agenda. In particular:The Committee will meet to discuss how Texas Department of Public Safety codes race during traffic stops, problems with their current method, and ways to correct coding moving forward. Additionally, Texas Commission on Jail Standards will present the new inmate intake screening form to the Committee and discuss recent jail suicides. The Dallas News previewed the jail suicide part. And Grits' own Jennifer Laurin wrote this about the traffic data. Too much has been made about this new Jail Standards Commission form, IMO. That's a fine, bureaucratic change but it's not the end-all-be-all of jail-suicide prevention; it barely scratches the surface. (Grits' new contributing writer Michele Deitch offered these more probative suggestions to the Senate…
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The "Simpsons" Game, "Donuts" and Larceny
This post examines a recent opinion from the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals: U.S. v. Stevens, 2015 WL 6935915. The court begins by explaining that a military judge sitting as a specialcourt-martial convicted [Stevens], pursuant to his pleas, of two specifications of attempted larceny and 12 specifications of larceny or wrongful appropriation in violation of Articles 80 and 121, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. §§ 880 and 921. The military judge sentenced the appellant to 30 days' confinement, reduction to pay grade E–1, and a bad-conduct discharge (BCD). The convening authority (CA) approved the sentence as adjudged but, pursuant to a pretrial agreement, suspended all confinement.U.S. v. Stevens, supra.Stevens raised “two assignments of error” in his appeal, one of which was that “his pleas of guilty” to two aspects of “Charge 1” were…
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"Alternative Courts and Drug Treatment: Finding a Rehabilitative Solution for Addicts in a Retributive System"
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False Claims Act Penalties to Increase
The False Claims Act 31 U.S.C. 3729 imposes treble damages and civil penalties for submitting false or fraudulent claims to the government. The FCA statute states that the defendant is subject to a penalty of between $5,000 and $10,000 for each false claim submitted. This amount is, according to the FCA adjusted pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, which increased the civil penalties to $5,500 and $11,000. Earlier this month, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 was passed which will again raise federal civil penalties, and penalties under the False Claims Act. Although the penalties may increase into the $15,000 range, few False Claims Act cases are settled which include a designated portion of the settlement amount to penalties. Most False Claims Act cases that do settle and the majority do not go to trial, will settle for around double damages. Only after a trial is a defendant likely to be subject to the increase…
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Man Wanted in May Shooting Death in Flint Located in Oklahoma Following Crime Stoppers Tip
On Tuesday November 3, Dominick Wright was arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma following a tip Crime Stoppers in Flint received which led them to Wright, a man wanted for allegedly shooting and killing Jermaine Moore in May of this year. The Crime Stoppers agency was offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information that would lead to Wright’s arrest, and while numerous tips were received, director Julie Lopez said one in particular led them to find the fugitive more than 900 miles away. The shooting took place at just after 8:30 in the evening on May 27, as people gathered to mourn a man at a nearby park who had passed away after suffering a heart attack. Authorities believe Wright shot 35-year-old Jermaine Moore when the two became involved in a dispute over a parking spot. At the time of the shooting, there had been a rash of shootings in the Flint area. Lopez was pleased that a Crime Stopper tip made it possible for police to track Wright, and said she wished more people…
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Georgia Courts Suppress Blood Tests Where Driver Was Too Drunk To Consent
After the Georgia Supreme Court ruled this past May that mere compliance with the statutory implied consent law did not, per se, amount to actual and voluntary consent to a blood test, Georgia defense lawyers have been successful in getting evidence thrown out in their clients’ DUI cases under the theory that they were – ironically – too drunk to consent. In Williams v. State, the defendant appealed his conviction for DUI and failure to maintain lane. The trial court denied his motion to suppress the results of the blood test on the basis that it was obtained without a warrant in contravention of his Fourth Amendment rights. The Georgia Supreme Court vacated the state court judgments and remanded to reconsider the defendant’s suppression motion. After Williams was arrested in September 2012, the officer read Williams the statutory implied consent notice and requested that Williams submit to blood and urine tests. The officer told Williams that he could…
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Green Beret Facing Charges for Beating Molester
During the last Afghan civil war, the warlords that ruled their territory later became U.S. allies in our fight against the Taliban in Iraq. Now, an American Green Beret, Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland, who refused to ignore the child molestations he witnessed overseas, is fighting for his career. Mr. Martland beat an Afghan militiaman who kidnapped a 12-year-old boy and chained him to his bed as a sex slave whilst stationed in Afghanistan. He was formally reprimanded for assaulting an Afghan police officer, and he is not the only one (Sgt. Dan Quinn was punished for freeing a child back in September). Soldiers who are sent overseas are often instructed to ignore the corruption and violence committed upon the local populace. While this sad story occurred overseas, it is a stark reminder that Americans face criminal charges or legal consequences every day for defending themselves or others in need from danger. Self Defense as a Legal Defense It is important to note that…
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