CA Man Gets Death Penalty: A California man was sentenced to death Friday for the 2012 shooting deaths of four people outside a Northridge boarding home. Debbie L. Sklar of My News LA reports that 34-year-old Ka Pasasouk was convicted in November on four counts of first-degree murder for the Dec. 2, 2012 murders of four people while "fueled by drugs and alcohol." He was allegedly seeking revenge on one of the victims, whom he'd had an altercation with months earlier, and killed the other three victims in an effort to eliminate witnesses. Pasasouk was also convicted on one count each of attempted murder, being a felon in possession of a firearm and assault with a semiautomatic firearm, for confronting other people nearby prior to the shooting. Almost a year before the incident, in Jan. 2012, Pasasouk was released from prison under Realignment.ISIS Attacks Expected to Worsen: The Pentagon's head of military intelligence told a…
News Scan
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Study Reveals Lack of Sleep Can Cause False Confessions
Sleep deprivation may be responsible for many false confessions, according to a report released this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The report says that around 17 percent of custodial interrogations happen between the normal sleeping hours of midnight and 8:00 a.m., and that the majority of false confessions occur during interrogations which last longer than 12 hours, with many lasting longer than 24 hours. A study performed for the report found that sleep-deprived participants were 4.5 times more likely to confess to things they did not do. Initially, 50 percent of the sleep-deprived participants falsely confessed, whilst only 18 percent of their rested counterparts did so. On a second attempt, 68.2 of the sleep-deprived participants confessed, whilst 38.6 percent of the rested ones did so, reports the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian adds that other research has demonstrated that being sleep deprived hinders “our ability to anticipate the…
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Levine & Topalli on Process as Intergenerational Punishment
Kay L. Levine and Volkan Topalli (Emory University School of Law and Georgia State University) have posted Process as Intergenerational Punishment: Are Children Casualties of Parental Court Experiences? on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Ground-breaking work by Malcolm Feeley established...
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EU-US Privacy Shield
Mit Pressemitteilung vom 2. Februar 2016 hat die EU-Kommission die Einigung auf eine Nachfolgerin zur vom EuGH (mit Entscheid C-362/14) für ungültig erklärten Safe Harbor Regelung bekanntgegeben: der EU-US Privacy Shield soll inskünftig den Datentransfer von der EU in die USA auf eine praktikable sowie rechtskonforme Weise ermöglichen. Der nach wie vor wenig bekannte Regelungsinhalt des EU-US Privacy Shields umfasst u.a. folgende Eckpunkte: US-Behörden sollen nur „unter rechtlich ganz klar festgelegten Bedingungen, strenger Aufsicht und in begrenztem Umfang“ auf personenbezogene Daten zugreifen können. Ein Datenzugriff durch US-Behörden aus Gründen der „nationalen Sicherheit“ soll nur ausnahmsweise sowie „unter Einhaltung klarer Beschränkungen, Schutzvorkehrungen und Aufsichtsmechanismen“ möglich sein; er "darf nur erfolgen, soweit er notwendig und verhältnismässig…
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Forfeiture Attorney: Iowa’s Cash Seizure Cops Target Out-of-State Drivers
I’m an attorney, I handle significant forfeiture cases and I know that Iowa’s cash seizure cops do target our-of-state drivers. A few months back I posted an Editorial from the Des Moines Register, “Patrol forfeitures target out-of-state drivers“. I didn’t say much about it at the time so I wanted to revisit the editorial and discuss it for my readers. The editorial was written days 4 days after the Iowa Supreme Court decided In the Matter of Property Seized from Pardee. Pardee, is a case that I litigated in the District Court, Iowa Court of Appeals and ultimately won in the Iowa Supreme Court. Pardee is a cash seizure/forfeiture case involving $33,100.00 in seized cash. An Iowa State Trooper claimed he initially stopped Mr. Pardee and Pardee’s friend for several minor traffic offenses. While. technically true, the Trooper really stopped Mr. Pardee because he wanted to conduct an interdiction investigation to determine whether Pardee had…
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Criminal Laws on HIV Transmission in Ohio
Everyone knows that it is reckless not to inform a partner that you are HIV positive before engaging in consensual sex. But did you know it’s also illegal? In Ohio, exposing a person to HIV without first warning them of potential risks is a crime, if the infected person knows that they have the disease. [...]The post Criminal Laws on HIV Transmission in Ohio appeared first on Columbus Criminal Attorney.
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Clifford Durand and Violence Against Women Allowed on Twitter
Clifford Durand is a student at St. John's University who recently threatened to "smash" a "bitch" in his class because she had a Donald Trump sticker on her computer. (You can find an archive of the Tweet here.) None of the people who speak out about "harassment" against women will have anything to say about Clifford Durand's Tweet, which now has over 14,000 RTs. It's OK to "smash a bitch" when she holds ideas you disagree with. Jack Dorsey and the rest of the Twitter team will not stop this act of violence. They play favorites and do not truly care about the welfare of women or any of their users. You won't hear anything from Jezebel. No one cares. It's OK to threaten a woman if she supports someone running for President whom you don't like. How do we know the man who takes pictures of women before talking about "smashing" them is Clifford Durand? Friends on Twitter referred to him as…
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News Scan
CA High Court Upholds Death Sentence: The California Supreme Court upheld the death penalty of a Stockton quadruple murderer. Bob Egelko of the SF Chronicle reports that Louis James People, 53, killed four people over the course of two months in 1997 using a stolen gun in each of the shootings. This past Thursday, the High Court rejected People's arguments that at the time of the murders, his reasoning and self-control were impaired due to methamphetamine use. The justices also rejected his claim that his trial was unfair and his confession was unlawfully coerced during an interrogation session. Justice Goodwin Liu determined that during the interrogation, People's was given numerous breaks, food and drink, and was repeatedly offered the chance to speak with a lawyer, which he declined. The ruling was 7-0.TX Cop-Killer Found Incompetent to Stand Trial: The man accused of shooting a Houston sheriff's deputy to death last year has been…
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Top 5 Most Dangerous Roads in Mississippi
A 2010 Reader's Digest article revealed the worst, deadliest and the best roads in America. All fifty states were ranked, according to safest roads, most dangerous roads, most scenic roads and most "sensible" roads. In this particular article the top ten states for deadly speeding and DUIs were also listed. The state of Mississippi ranked number six among the top ten states with the deadliest roads. Mississippi also ranked 6th for the deadliest roads for impaired drivers, and 2nd for roads driven at excessive speeds. Deadly Roads for Pedestrians When talking about dangerous roads, pedestrians and bicyclists must also be factored into the equation. Between the years 2003 and 2012, 527 pedestrians were killed in Mississippi. Generally speaking, arterial roads which move auto traffic quickly with minimal delays have become the main streets of communities, typically being surrounded by office complexes, shopping centers and apartments. In Mississippi, 18.1 percent…
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False confessions roundup
Here are several recent items on the topic of false confessions which merit Grits readers' attention:Study finds that sleep deprivation leads to false confessionsWhy people make false confessionsA look at false confessions The dangerous psychology of how false confessions rewrite witnesses memoriesTaser's effect on cognition may undermine police questioning
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Framingham Man Arrested on Gun Charges
According to an article in the MetroWest Daily News, a man was recently charged with possession of a firearm found in a Framingham apartment. The article states that this past Tuesday, the police were called to the home for assistance with a “disturbed” person. When the police arrived, they were met by the defendant and his girlfriend, who both reported that the girlfriend’s mother was there and that she was “crazy.” The mother was transported to MetroWest Medical Center for a psychological evaluation. As she was being taken for medical treatment, she reportedly yelled to her daughter “you know there’s a gun in the apartment and you know it’s loaded.” Following the mother’s statement, the police spoke with the girlfriend. She told the police that there was no gun in the apartment. The defendant, who does not reside in the apartment (although he has previously listed the apartment as his address in the past) told the…
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"These nuns will get you high — as heaven"
The title of this post is the headline of this notable new New York Daily News article, which discussses the interesting work of the Sisters of the Valley in Merced, California, and the impact that new state laws on medical marijuana could have. Here are the basic details: Holy smokes...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/G3lT6gtmDFA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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Rape or Sexual Assault: Accusations or Gossip vs. Innocence and Texas Criminal Defense These Days
Rape and sexual assault are serious issues. These crimes deserve serious consideration and discourse. However, sexual assault charges and claims of rape are also two very hot topics in the news as well as social media in 2016. And today, it’s possible for someone merely to imply that one of these crimes has been committed with both the victim and the alleged perpetrator having their personal (and often professional) reputations permanently changed as a result. Welcome to the power of social media and the Internet. . . 1. Bill Cosby Sexual Assault Charges Continue Along With Trial by Media Consider this past week, for example, where Bill Cosby’s criminal case for sexual assault has been allowed to proceed even though it’s pretty clear that there was a deal made between his lawyers and the head prosecutor at the time that no charges would be filed. Why so clear? Well, there’s the emails that were revealed by CNN for one thing. Another? Cosby did testify…
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San Angelo Man Sentenced to Eight Years Probation for Sexual Assault of a Minor in Plea Agreement
Recently, a San Angelo man who would have faced up to 20 years in prison had his sexual assault case gone to trial was sentenced to eight years probation. Daniel Armenta, 29, allegedly sexually assaulted a minor; he pleaded guilty to a single count of sexual assault of a child younger than 17 in a plea agreement that resulted in dismissal of an indecency with a child sexual contact charge. The charges stem from an incident that occurred in March last year when Armenta picked the girl up from a Mertzon school, then took her to his San Angelo home. The girl claims that at his residence, Armenta tried to become intimate with her, forcing his hand down her pants and assaulting her. She said that her efforts to remove his hand were unsuccessful. Armenta was arrested six days after the alleged sexual assault took place, and booked into jail where he has remained until his release on February 9. The judge in the case asked the prosecutor how giving Armenta probation (deferred…
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Can Breathalyzers Measure Marijuana?
I’ve written here in past posts about the difficulties of trying to use a breathalyzer on a driver to determine whether he is under the influence of marijuana. See Is It Possible to Prove Driving Under the Influence of Drugs?. As a study authored by Dr. Jim Hedlund, formerly a senior official with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, has concluded:. The relations between a drug’s presence in the body, its concentration, measured in blood, breath, saliva or urine, and its impairing effects are complex and not understood well. A drug may be present at low levels without any impairing effects. Some drugs or metabolites may remain in the body for days or weeks, long after any impairment has disappeared (Berning et al., 2015; GAO, 2015). In particular, marijuana metabolites can be detected in the body for weeks after use (Berning and Smither, 2014). On the other hand, concentrations in the body of some drugs decrease rapidly while…
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West Lake Hills set to defend its registered sex offender ordinance, city council says
2-10-16 Texas: General-law city, nonprofit organization face off over residency restrictions Texas Voices of Reason and Justice filed a lawsuit Dec. 28 against several cities, including West Lake Hills, alleging the city’s restrictions on where registered sex offenders can reside violate the Texas Constitution, said Richard Gladden, Texas Voices of Reason and Justice attorney. The nonprofit
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State Assembly passes bill restricting where violent sex offenders can live
2-10-16 Wisconsin: MADISON, Wis. —The Wisconsin Assembly has signed off on a bill creating uniform restrictions on where violent sex offenders can live. Right now, municipalities use ordinances to determine where sex offenders can't live. The bill would bar violent sex offenders from living within 1,500 feet of any school, day care, youth center, church or public park anywhere in the state. If
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Selfies, Distracted Driving, and the Virginia Plan
Everyone knows that it is unlawful to text while driving in North Carolina. But what’s the legal status of all of the other distracting things people do with their phones? Is it unlawful to take a selfie while driving? To post the selfie to Instagram? To look at a friend’s driving selfie on Instagram? To read another friend’s Facebook status update? To search the web for the latest weather forecast? None of these actions is banned by the state law barring texting while driving. See G.S. 20-137.4A. Some may be prohibited by the statute that bars a person from viewing a computer while driving on the theory that using apps on a mobile phone renders the phone a computer. See G.S. 20-136.1. For the most part, however, the answers to the questions posed above are unclear. As a result, these types of behaviors seldom are addressed by law enforcement officers. Moreover, the fact that many of the hand manipulations that drivers perform on their phones…
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Gov. Brown Denies Parole For SD Officer’s Killer
Early this New year, Governor Jerry Brown has once again denied parole to a former gang member who was convicted of fatally shooting a San Diego police officer in 1978. Jesus Salvador Cecena, 54, was only 17 when he was convicted of first-degree murder for shooting Officer Archie Buggs four times at a traffic stop, in the Skyline neighborhood. This marks the second year in a row the governor reversed the Board’s decision to recommend Cecena for parole. A two-member panel had announced its decision during an August 2015 hearing, citing that he had met the standards under a new law meant to assist prisoners serving long sentences for crimes committed as juveniles. The local police department there obviously launched a campaign against this decision to allow Cecena for parole. While Brown acknowledged Cecena’s young age at the time, the Governor said in his statement he still believes Cecena would be a threat to society if he were to be released from prison. He claims…
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"The State of Sentencing 2015: Developments in Policy and Practice"
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