The prosecution of cyberbullying has been a challenge for states looking to protect minors from harassment. A new Illinois bill, introduced by Republican Representative Terry Bryant, provides that those who post videos of fights online with the intent to condone or promote violence could be charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct. One obstacle of the proposal is proving intent of those who post the videos. Another concern is the unconstitutionality of such a law; mainly, infringement on the right to free speech. The proposal stems from a video that Representative Bryant saw on Facebook, showing two young boys fighting, with their classmates watching and recording without anyone calling for help. Social media and the advancement of technology have posed major issues for lawmakers trying to keep up. According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, only half of the anti-bullying laws across the country address cyberbullying. Other than infringement of free speech, there…
Posting Videos of Fights Online Could Become a Criminal Act in Illinois
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Paul Cassell, the former federal judge who sentenced Weldon Angelos to 55 years, writes directly to Prez Obama to support his clemency petition
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Antoine Lawson Accident Spells BIG Trouble for City of Miami
What is with the Miami Police Department and speeding officers? Do you remember the case a few years back where a Florida Highway Patrol trooper pulled over Ofc. Fausto Lopez at gunpoint? Lopez was the Miami Police Officer who was caught speeding 53 times between September and October 2011 alone. On his fastest days, his speeds averaged between 90 and 120 mph. This history is important because speed was obviously a factor in this case. Antoine Lawson (some news sources spell his name as “Antwan Lawson”) is only 6 years old. Eye witnesses claim his little body was dragged underneath the carriage of the police car for at least 30-40 feet. As a trial attorney with a lot of experience dissecting car accidents, I can tell you that the speed of that police car was a major factor in causing this accident. In today’s article, I will explain how this reality coupled with the Miami Police Department’s history for speeding,…
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Antoine Lawson Accident is BIG Trouble for City of Miami
What is with the Miami Police Department and speeding officers? Do you remember the case a few years back where a Florida Highway Patrol trooper pulled over Ofc. Fausto Lopez at gunpoint? Lopez was the Miami Police Officer who was caught speeding 53 times between September and October 2011 alone. On his fastest days, his speeds averaged between 90 and 120 mph. This history is important because speed was obviously a factor in this case. Antoine Lawson (some news sources spell his name as “Antwan Lawson”) is only 6 years old. Eye witnesses claim his little body was dragged underneath the carriage of the police car for at least 30-40 feet. As a trial attorney with a lot of experience dissecting car accidents, I can tell you that the speed of that police car was a major factor in causing this accident. In today’s article, I will explain how this reality coupled with the Miami Police Department’s history for speeding,…
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"Elizabeth Warren Urges CDC To Consider Cannabis To Solve Opioid Epidemic"
The title of this post is the headline of this new International Business Times article discussing a notable new political voice making a notable suggestion to the a federal governmental agency. Here are the details: As the opioid epidemic continues to balloon in the country, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/YGRszIhEOuM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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Some marijuana reform developments (with seasonal politics) via Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform
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Based on Johnson, split Fifth Circuit panel finds another simlar provision of federal law is unconstitutionally vague
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St Louis Speeding Tickets $35: Can I End Up Going To Jail Over A Simple Traffic Ticket?
ONLY $35 FOR MOST ST LOUIS SPEEDING TICKETS!! Yes, you most certainly can!! A straightforward St Louis speeding ticket (that for all intents and purposes should be taken care of with relative ease) can absolutely turn into a nightmare for you! But the good news is that this kind of situation can be handled by our office with no problem! Below is a fuller description: How does someone end up going to jail from a simple traffic ticket? Easy. All you have to do is ignore the ticket (don’t hire an attorney, don’t attend the required court hearing), and the judge will order a warrant for your arrest. Once the warrant is active, you could be hauled off at any moment (especially if you are pulled over for a routine traffic offense in the future). And if you are in jail, then the only viable way to get out is to post a bond (which is essentially you paying a very large sum of money to the court to get you out). But we have a much better plan in mind!! ONLY $150 FOR MOST ST…
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Sleep Deprivation Linked To False Confessions
If you didn’t get your eight hours of sleep last night, you better hope you don’t end up in handcuffs, or you might find yourself confessing to a crime you didn’t commit. According to a new study out of the University of California-Irvine, sleep deprivation plays a pretty big role in people’s willingness to confess to a crime that they didn’t actually commit. In order to examine the effects of sleep deprivation on innocent subjects, a pair of researchers set up their own study. They asked 88 college students to solve computer problems and fill out questionnaires on a computer on two separate locations. Before the began, they were expressly told not to press the escape key, as it would erase important study data. At the conclusion of the second session, the group was split in two. Half the group was allowed to go a resting area and sleep for the night, while the other half was forced to stay awake all night under the watch of the researchers. They…
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Thursday Open Thread
Like BTD, I'm busy at work. 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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Terzian on The Fifth Amendment and Encryption
Dan Terzian has posted The Micro-Hornbook on the Fifth Amendment and Encryption (Georgetown Law Journal Online, 2016, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Micro-Hornbook objectively analyzes whether and how the government may compel you to provide access to...
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Appeals Court Overturns Conviction in Wire Theft Case
In 2014, Chad Colton Bass was convicted in Lewis County in Washington State on charges of first-degree trafficking in stolen property, second-degree burglary, and third-degree theft in connection with the stripping of recyclable metals from a power pole in Centralia. At trial, Bass testified that he believed the former owner of the home where the power pole was located had given permission for him to cut the wire from the pole; he maintained that he was not aware the residence was bank owned following foreclosure proceedings. An employee with the city of Centralia discovered the cut wire, and matched the cut end with wire sold at a metal recycler. While his convictions for the second-degree burglary and third-degree theft charges were upheld, the Washington State Court of Appeals overturned the first-degree trafficking in stolen property conviction, ordering a new trial after finding the trial court refused to allow the jury in the case to consider second-degree trafficking in…
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News Scan
Two MD Officers Shot and Killed: Two Maryland sheriff's deputies were fatally shot Wednesday afternoon during an incident that began in a crowded restaurant, and the shooter was also killed. Justin Jouvenal and Dana Hedgpeth of the Washington Post report that Deputy Patrick Dailey, a 30-year veteran of the Harford County Sheriff's Department, and Senior Deputy Mark Logsdon, with the office for 16 years, were shot and killed by David Brian Evans, who was being sought by Dailey for an arrest warrant from Florida for assaulting a police officer there. Dailey approached Evans in the crowded restaurant and was shot "almost immediately" in the head. Evans fled to the parking lot and got into his vehicle, where he fired shots at Logsdon, among the first on the scene, striking him. Logsdon managed to return at least three rounds while other deputies arriving on the scene also opened fire, killing Evans. Last year, three Maryland…
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Talking about Sentencing at Trial
It’s like Fight Club: the first rule of talking about sentencing at trial is don’t talk about sentencing at trial. Well, it’s not actually a hard-and-fast rule. But the relatively few cases we have suggest that it’s rarely a good idea to discuss a defendant’s possible punishment in front of a jury. A leading case is State v. Lopez, 363 N.C. 535 (2009). In Lopez, the jury found the defendant guilty of involuntary manslaughter. The State also pursued the aggravating factor that the crime knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person. When presenting that factor to the jury, the State gave a pretty detailed presentation—using a blackboard—of the impact the aggravating factor could have on the sentence. Here’s an excerpt: “All right. If we got up to this range, this aggravator, say we’re in the aggravated range of 20, there would be a corresponding maximum that goes with that. And this one would be 24. .…
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Investment Property Scheme Sentences
Minas Litos, 50, Saint John, Indiana; Adrian Tartareanu, 45, Saint John, Indiana; and Daniela Tartareanu, 44, Saint John, Indiana; were sentenced in federal court by Chief Judge Philip Simon for conspiracy and wire fraud. Litos entered a plea of guilty to one count of conspiracy and sixteen counts of wire fraud and was sentenced to 18 […]
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What Are My Rights If the Police Stop Me?
Many people who are stopped by the police in different circumstances don’t know what to say or do. Some people ask questions like, “What should I say if I am stopped by the police?”, “How do I act… The post What Are My Rights If the Police Stop Me? appeared first on Chapman Criminal Defense Firm.
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Honest Services Fraud - "Value of Benefit Received" Explained
United States v. Harper, No. 14-2701. The defendant pleaded guilty to fraud consisting of her having abused her position as a member of a Chicago public-school board by accepting kickbacks of more than $500,000 from bus companies to which she steered transportation contracts worth $21 million. The parties stipulated that the value of the benefit received from the fraud was between $7 and $20 million. The guidelines in effect at the time required a 20-level enhancement for honest services fraud when "the value of the payment, the benefit received or to be received in return for the payment, the value of anything obtained or to be obtained by a public official or others acting with a public official, or the loss to the government from the offense, whichever is greatest," was between $7 and $20 million. U.S.S.G. §§ 2C1.1(b)(2), 2B1.1(b) (2012). "The value of `the benefit received or to be received' means…
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An international perspective on the marijuana reform momentum (and its regulatory challenges) via <em>The Economist</em>
A terrific student in my marijuana seminar alerted me to this lengthy new article in The Economist headlined "Reeferegulatory challenge: A growing number of countries are deciding to ditch prohibition. What comes next?". The article merits a full read, and here are excerpts: Since California’s voters legalised the sale of...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/ric9-u4O1r0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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Know Your DUI Probation Requirements in Tacoma / Pierce County
You were arrested for DUI, you were tried and you were convicted. Or perhaps you plead guilty. If you had the assistance of Smith & White, PLLC then you likely plea bargained to a reduced charge that does not have mandatory jail, can come off of your record and does not have a 5 year probation period. However, if you went with someone else then you may have spent a day or two in jail. Now you’re thinking, “That was horrible but I paid my debt and now it’s all over.” It can be. Of course what you will want to do is make sure it is. What you may not realize is that when the court sentenced you they probably placed you on probation. In fact, unless the court gave you the maximum jail sentence of a year they did put you on probation. The probation in Washington lasts for two to five years and is sometimes supervised and sometimes unsupervised. When you were placed on probation the rest of the jail time was put on suspension. It…
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FBI Hair Review Results in Release of Innocence Project Client George Perrot
Last week, the Innocence Project announced that its client George Perrot had his 1992 rape and burglary convictions vacated based on evidence that an FBI agent gave erroneous testimony that greatly overstated the significance of a hair used to connect Perrot to the crime scene. Yesterday, in recognition of the fact that “the case against Perrot would likely not result in a conviction—or even get to a jury— should prosecutors re-try the charge” today, Superior Court Judge Robert Kane released Perrot on his own recognizance, reports the Boston Globe. Perrot was 17 years old when he was accused of raping and burglarizing then-78-year-old Mary Prekop in her Springfield, Massachusetts, home in November 1985. He was convicted two years later based largely on the testimony of an FBI analyst who said that a single hair found at the crime scene was “consistent with” coming from the teenager. But in 2014, Perrot received a notice that…
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More Pages to Explore .....
