OH High Court Overturns Murderer's Death Sentence: The Ohio Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, overturned the death sentence of a man convicted of brutally beating his neighbor to death in 1998. WCPO reports that in their opinion, the justices mainly cited mitigating factors in the case of murderer Rayshawn Johnson, including his childhood, drug addiction and developmental issues, writing that such factors outweighed any aggravating circumstances against him. The justices added that Johnson's attorneys did not adequately investigate his background and present it to the jury. The case has been sent back to Hamilton County court for re-sentencing. HHS Running Out of Beds for Illegal Youths: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has warned Congress that it is getting close to running out of beds to house the large number of unaccompanied alien children crossing into the U.S. from south of the border. Paul Bedard of the…
News Scan
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Restraining Order Violations in Minnesota
If you find yourself being harassed by an ex-boyfriend, family member or classmate, you can file for a restraining order in Minnesota. Applying for a restraining order in Minnesota is pretty straightforward. First, you need to submit a petition that includes the following: The name of the alleged harassment victim; The name of the respondent; and That the respondent has engaged in harassment. The petition shall be accompanied by an affidavit made under oath stating the specific facts and circumstances from which relief is sought. For example, if your ex continues to call or show up at your workplace, you need to detail those instances in the affidavit and explain what order you’d like to see imposed. The court will then review the filed petition, and should they find cause, they may issue a temporary restraining order (TRO). The TRO may provide any of the following: An order that the respondent must stop a certain action or avoid harassing the petitioner; or An order that…
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For-profit college company pays $95.5 million to settle whistleblowers’ suits
On November 16, the Department of Justice announced that Pittsburgh-based Education Management Corp. – which owns and operates for-profit colleges under the Art Institutes, South University, Argosy University and Brown-Mackie College brands – had agreed to pay over $95 million to settle claims brought in four separate whistleblower suits that the firm violated Department of Education standards for recruiting students. According to DOJ’s press release: The United States has reached a landmark global settlement with Education Management Corp. (EDMC), the second-largest for-profit education company in the country, the Department of Justice announced today. The $95.5 million settlement resolves allegations that EDMC violated federal and state False Claims Act (FCA) provisions by falsely certifying that it was in compliance with Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA) and parallel state statutes. * * * The primary allegation was…
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DOJ intervenes in whistleblower suit alleging fraud in Navy ship “husbanding” contracts
On November 18, the Department of Justice announced that the government had elected to intervene in a False Claims Act suit brought by three former employees of Inchcape Shipping Services Holdings Ltd., alleging that the firm defrauded the Navy on contracts over nearly a decade: The government announced today that it has joined a lawsuit alleging that Inchcape Shipping Services Holdings Limited and certain of its subsidiaries (collectively, Inchcape) violated the False Claims Act by knowingly overbilling the U.S. Navy for ship husbanding services from years 2005 to 2014. Inchcape is a marine services contractor headquartered in the United Kingdom. As a ship husbanding services provider, Inchcape arranged for the provision of goods and services to Navy ships at ports in several regions throughout the world, including southwest Asia, Africa, Panama, North America, South America and Mexico. Inchcape’s services typically included the provision of food and other…
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Luca et al. on Alcohol Prohibition and Violence Against Women
Dara Lee Luca , Emily Greene Owens and Gunjan Sharma (Mathematica Policy Research , Cornell University and World Bank) have posted Can Alcohol Prohibition Reduce Violence Against Women? (American Economic Review, Vol. 105, No. 5, 2015) on SSRN. Here is...
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Chism Murder Trial Raises Unsettling Questions Regarding Competency to Stand Trial
The ongoing trial of Philip Chism, which resumed yesterday following the Thanksgiving holiday, presents an unusual and disturbing set of issues in view of the terrible nature of the defendant’s actions, his extreme youth, and his apparently very serious mental illness. First, the events at issue are undeniably horrifying; Chism admittedly raped and killed his teacher, who was by all accounts a wonderful person and whose death was a tremendous loss. (Beyond that, I won’t recount the details here, but they have been set forth at length in the press.) Second, Chism, who was 14 years old when he killed his teacher, is being tried as an adult, which he undeniably is not and was not at the time of the crime; as Northeastern University law professor Daniel Medwed has written, treating children as adults is problematic regardless of how horrifying their actions are. And finally, Chism, who is now 16 years old, has exhibited signs of significant…
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University of Florida pays nearly $20 million to settle cost mischarging allegations
On November 20, the Department of Justice announced that the University of Florida had agreed to settle civil allegations that it had mischarged the government for overhead costs on federal health grants, and will pay nearly $20 million. According to DOJ’s press release: The University of Florida (UF) has agreed to pay the United States $19.875 million to settle allegations that the university improperly charged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for salary and administrative costs on hundreds of federal grants, the Department of Justice announced today. The grants in question were administered from the UF campuses in Gainesville and Jacksonville, Florida. * * * The University of Florida receives millions of dollars in grant funding from HHS on hundreds of grants each year. The settlement announced today resolves the alleged misuse of grant funds awarded by HHS to UF between 2005 and December 2010. The United States…
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Radley Balko Op-Ed: Politicians Deciding Fate of Compensation is a Mistake
On Monday, Radley Balko published an opinion piece in the Washington Post in which he explains why it’s a bad idea for political figures to be the decision makers in whether or not exonerees receive compensation from the state. To illustrate his point, Balko highlights the story of Lawrence McKinney from Tennessee—a state in which wrongfully convicted individuals must be declared exonerated by the governor in order to receive compensation—and the ongoing hurdles that McKinney has faced in getting the past two governors to declare his innocence, despite the fact that he was the court cleared him of his wrongful conviction in 2009 based on DNA evidence. McKinney spent more than 30 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. According to Balko, putting elected politicians in charge of approving compensation “brings a new set of political complications to a process already rife with hurdles and challenges.” Balko writes: A…
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Hospital Executive Receives 100-Day Sentence for Vehicular Homicide
Stroger Hospital executive Robert Vais was sentenced to 100 days in prison for fatally striking a young chef who was biking home from work on December 7, 2013. Vais was driving home drunk from a Christmas party. During an emotional sentencing hearing last month, Vais tearfully apologized for the death of 28-year-old Hector Avalos. Avalos’ mother, Ingrid Cossio, cried on the witness stand, explaining to the full courtroom how she wanted to die after her son’s death. “[Vais] needs to face the consequences,” she said. “He didn’t just kill my son. He killed me too.” Vais, now 56, had no prior arrests or even traffic tickets at the time of the 2013 incident. His sentence could have ranged from probation to 14 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated DUI in September and was sentenced in the November hearing. On the night of the incident, Avalos was riding his bike west on Ogden Avenue to his downtown Chicago home after…
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Anderson on Rape as Coerced Sex
Scott Allen Anderson (University of British Columbia (UBC) - Department of Philosophy) has posted Conceptualizing Rape as Coerced Sex on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Philosophers, feminists, and legal theorists have long criticized the current definition of rape as it...
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Need a ride? Call Uber. It’s officially regulated.
Uber was the talk of the table during our Thanksgiving meal. One of my cousins drives for Uber in her spare time. So does her boyfriend. They compete for who can earn the most extra spending money. I’ve used Uber myself several times. I’ve rated all my drivers a 5. And I’ve never worried about whether taking Uber was safe. But for those who do (my mother and aunt), legislation enacted by the General Assembly last session may provide some assurance. First, what is Uber? Uber is a transportation network company headquartered in San Francisco that provides a taxi-like service for users of its mobile application. A network of independent contractors in cities around the country provide Uber services in their personal cars. To use Uber services, a rider registers with the company, providing her name, email address, mobile number, and credit card information. After registering, a rider opens the mobile application on her phone, which defaults to her…
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How the Insurance Industry Tries to Lower Your Settlement Amount
The path a claim takes to result in a great recovery for an injury victim varies widely from case to case. One thing for sure is that it is always best to at least make a good faith attempt to …The post How the Insurance Industry Tries to Lower Your Settlement Amount appeared first on Colorado Springs Accident Attorney | Quality Legal.
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Equitable Tolling
The current argument session of the U.S. Supreme Court is pretty thin on criminal law. There is one federal case involving some narrow issues, Musacchio v. United States, No. 14-1095, argued Monday.Supreme Court decisions in civil cases may affect criminal and habeas cases, though. That is particularly true of habeas, which is technically a civil case. Yesterday the high court heard argument in a case involving equitable tolling of statutes of limitation, and the main precedent being discussed was Holland v. Florida, 560 U.S. 631 (2010), a capital habeas case (and one of my losses).Habeas practitioners may want to keep an eye out for the decision in Menominee Tribe of Wis. v. United States, No. 14-510. Perhaps it will shed some light on "extraordinary circumstances." SCOTUSblog's case page is here. Ronald Mann has this report on the oral argument and thinks it looks grim for the tribe (and, therefore, good for the government).
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BOSTON POLICE OFFICERS ARE CLEARED IN DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S REPORT INSTEAD OF CHARGED WITH HOMICIDE
You have seen the headlines. You have heard the newscasts. Sometimes it almost seems like there is a war going on between regular civilians and local police departments. Sometimes, it is law enforcement who ends up the victim of a homicide. Other times, it is the civilian. Is there a way to stem this tide? More importantly to this particular blog, is there any way to protect you from its result? It is not simply in Massachusetts. It takes place all over the country. The Boston Globe recently had a story from New Florence, Philidelphia. The news discussed a man who was suspected of fatally shooting a police officer who had been responding to a domestic dispute. Apparently, there had been some kind of “shoot out” as the suspected shooter was, himself, wounded by a gunshot. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, the Globe explained the news about a Chelsea police officer who had been investigated for the question of deadly force. According to the Globe’s…
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Allen on Hearsay Reform
Ronald J. Allen (Northwestern University Law School) has posted The Hearsay Rule as a Rule of Admission Revisited (Fordham Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: A number of years ago, I prophesized the death of hearsay, a...
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Lawmakers weighing sex offender bills urged to consider supports, stigmas
12-2-15 Massachusetts: A host of bills dealing with sex offender registration encountered pushback Tuesday from advocates and offenders who urged lawmakers to consider whether the measures were meant to prevent recidivism or to serve as additional punishments. BOSTON - A host of bills dealing with sex offender registration encountered pushback Tuesday from advocates and offenders who urged
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WHY THE JURY NEVER HEARS THE UNEMBELLISHED TRUTH IN CRIMINAL TRIALS IN TAMPA BAY FLORIDA
Why is it that criminal trials are often the least likely place one can expect to find unembellished truth? Walk into any courtroom and you'll hear the judge harangue defense lawyers, prosecutors and witnesses with long lists of which bits of evidence, facts and circumstances are proper to present. Much of this happens outside the hearing of those lost-looking jurors, though as the trial progresses they become all too aware of what is obvious to everyone else in the courtroom - they're not really hearing all the evidence.Pinellas County Jury searches for TruthClearly it's laudable that any good judge aims to give the defendant a fair trial, while other judges seem to not so much want a fair trial for the defendant a fair playing field where the prosecution always wins. Either way a judge will cloak most evidentiary decisions with language that's based on keeping out possible prejudicial information that might inflame those innocent jurors. The…
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Sex offender residency restrictions passed, but with family exception
12-2-15 Minnesota: BIRCHWOOD — Sex offenders now can't live alone next to a city park. They can, however, move in with family. At an emergency meeting Nov. 24, the Birchwood City Council adopted an ordinance banning sex offenders from living near a park or day care. But the ordinance includes multiple exemptions, including for offenders who reside with relatives. News that a Level 3 sex
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The Republican Party's Frankenstein
“If you’re a xenophobic, race-baiting, religious bigot, you’re going to have a hard time being president of the United States, and you’re going to do irreparable damage to the party.” -- Lindsay Graham, New York Times, 12/2/15Graham was referring, of course, to Donald J. Trump, but if you throw in misogynistic and homophobic, he just described all of the Republican's top-tier candidates, as well as a wide swath of their party's base. I can't recall when I've enjoyed a New York Times article as much as the one in this morning's paper: Wary of Donald Trump, G.O.P. Leaders Are Caught in a Standoff. It describes the Republican establishment's panic over the possibility that Trump could actually win the party's nomination and their fear of the consequences if they try to take him down.What is particularly amusing is that these stalwarts of the Grand Old Party…
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Update: Minnesota Supreme Court Accepts Review Of Minnesota DWI Test Refusal Law
We've got more developments to report regarding whether or not Minnesota's DWI Test refusal law is constitutional. In a not-so-surprising turn of events, the Minnesota Supreme Court just granted review of the Trahan case, and set a briefing schedule for the parties. You can follow the boring progress of the case here. If you don't recall, Trahan was the case where the Minnesota Court of Appeals concluded that our DWI test refusal law is unconstitutional. To be more specific, the test refusal law is unconstitutional when law enforcement try to get a blood sample - Trahan deals strictly with blood tests, while the previously-issued Bernard case decided that you can charge someone with refusal if they refuse a breath test. Now, the Minnesota Supreme Court will decide if the refusal law can withstand constitutional scrutiny when blood tests are at stake. We'll just add in conclusion that the unintentional timing of this is interesting - just…
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