Pacific Standard: Murder at the Border by Julie Morse In a rare ruling, Border Patrol Agent Lonnie Swartz has been indicted for the murder of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, the 16-year-old he shot across border lines.
Pacific Standard: Murder at the Border
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Notable new BJS report on "Aging of the State Prison Population, 1993–2013"
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ars technica: Senators put forward new bill to halt expansion of gov’t hacking powers
ars technica: Senators put forward new bill to halt expansion of gov’t hacking powers by Cyrus Farivar: Rule 41 change will let feds search “millions of computers” from just one warrant.
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Mickelson Seeks Relief from Insider Trading Hazard
Almost two years ago, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times first reported an insider trading investigation involving sports gambler William “Billy” Walters and pro golfer Phil Mickelson. At the time, the investigation appeared to focus on trading activity surrounding a potential take-over bid of Clorox. We didn’t think much of potential claims against Mickelson arising out of the Clorox investigation. Yet, buried in both articles was a reference to a second investigation involving trading in Dean Foods. Today, the Dean Foods investigation shot up the leaderboard with the announcement of criminal insider trading charges against Walters and former Dean Foods Chairman Thomas Davis. The SEC also brought civil charges against the pair and has named Mickelson as a “relief defendant,” asserting that Mickelson profited from trading in Dean Foods stock based upon non-public information received from Walters. As a relief…
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Can anyone forcefully assert that a major sentence enhancement based on acquitted conduct (or even uncharged conduct) is "fundamentally fair"?
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Thursday Open Thread
It's a jail day for me, at least it's in the mountains. Here's an open thread for you, all topics welcome. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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California Law Regarding A DUI Arrest
THE DUI ARREST In my last post, I discussed your rights when you are pulled over for suspected driving under the influence of alcohol. As I discussed in that post, you are free to decline the field sobriety tests but whether you stumble on those tests or don’t submit to them at all, if the officer believes you are under the influence of alcohol, he or she will arrest you for DUI. At that point, your rights are diminished. You must submit to the chemical test for blood alcohol content (BAC), which will most likely involve blowing into a breathalyzer device. If you decline to submit to this test, you will still be under arrest and subject to more severe penalties. At the time of your arrest for DUI, you will be required to surrender your driver license. The arresting officer will provide you with a temporary paper license that is goof for only 30 days at which time your license may, and most often will, be suspended by the DMV. In a later post I will discuss the license…
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Know Your Rights Regarding A Stop and Frisk Detention
THE TERRY STOP – “STOP AND FRISK” DETENTION You’ve seen it in the movies and on TV shows: The police approach a person on the street or tell them to get out of a vehicle after a traffic stop and command the person to submit to a frisk. In my previous post, I discussed the lawfulness of police detentions so you might wonder what factors must be present for an officer to lawfully conduct what is commonly called a “Stop and Frisk.” In 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court held that it is not an unlawful search and seizure when an officer stops an individual in the public arena and frisks that individual if the officer has reasonable suspicion that the individual is committing a crime, has committed a crime, or is about to commit a crime and furthermore, has a reasonable belief that the individual might be armed and therefore dangerous. Officers and legal authorities often refer to this as a “Terry Stop,” referencing the Supreme Court…
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Police Dogs 101: What You Need to Know About These Canine Officers
Dogs aren’t just our best friends; these domesticated animals have served people in countless ways for thousands of years. Today, they help individuals with disabilities – but they also have applications in the military, dating back to World War I, and with our modern police departments. For example, many canines can learn to detect bombs... The post Police Dogs 101: What You Need to Know About These Canine Officers appeared first on Graham Donath.
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Suggesting we suffer from "under-incarceration," Senator Cotton calls federal sentencing reform "dead in this year’s Congress"
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John Hudak pens terrific "memo to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on marijuana policy"
Regular readers are likely used to seeing me in this space praise the work being done by Brookings in general, and John Hudak in particular, in the arena of responsible and thoughtful discussion of marijuana law, policy and reform. This latest Brookings piece by Hudak, styled "A memo to Hillary...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/W3KhyVw1Av0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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MN: Police had exigency to seize cell phone during murder investigation
Police were interviewing defendant in a murder case. Once her story started making no sense anymore, an officer seized her phone and then applied for a warrant to search it. The officer had exigent circumstances to seize the phone to … Continue reading →
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Reviewing another notable week at Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform
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E.D.Va.: The gov’t had individualized suspicion for a forensic border search of def’s cell phone
The post-arrest, off-site forensic search of defendant’s phone was instead a border search, which did not require a warrant supported by probable cause. The first search of defendant’s phone conducted at the airport was a routine border search that did … Continue reading →
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Appeal Court Says Rejects Mandatory Polygraph Exam for Sex Offender Treatment Program
There are more than 10,000 registered sex offenders in the State of Colorado. In 1992, lawmakers in Colorado created the Sex Offender Management Board (“SOMA”), charging it with the task of developing and implementing “standards” for the assessment, evaluation, treatment, and behavioral monitoring of adult sex offenders. SOMA created the following mandates: Compliance with all SOMA standards is mandatory. No state agency or judicial department may contract with any “non-certified treatment provider” to provide treatment for sex offenders. Failure to comply with SOMA standards can lead to the removal of the state’s list of “approved providers.” Registered sex offenders are assigned to a SOMA certified treatment provider called Redirecting Sexual Aggression, more commonly referred to as RSAs. SOMA guidelines require a non-negotiable “written contract” between the sex offender and the RSA. One…
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CA6: Where def refused to provide combination to his safe during execution of a SW, it was reasonable to pry it open
Defendant showed the police that he had marijuana inside his home and the police obtained a warrant to search his home. Thus, suppression was not warranted because there was an outright certainty, not just a “fair probability,” that the house … Continue reading →
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Here’s Why Blocking Refugees from the Eastern Corridor is Irresponsible
By Baylen Campbell and Katherine Mitchell, Identity and Discrimination Unit Interns Despite the fact that the global community is facing the worst refugee crisis since WWII, the European Union (EU) has undertaken aggressive efforts to divert or even block some of the safest pathways. Over 19.5 million people–of the over 60 million displaced people globally– have so far been recognized as refugees, meaning they are people fleeing their countries because of a well-founded fear of persecution from which the government cannot or will not protect them. Yet rather than providing protection to asylum-seekers and refugees, countries throughout the EU have shut down their borders and forced them to traverse more dangerous routes. Amnesty has reported on the increased securitization of borders along the Eastern Migration Corridor through Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, and up through the Balkan region into Slovenia and Hungary. As the first entry points into the EU for…
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Barry on The Death Penalty and the Dignity Clauses
Kevin M. Barry (Quinnipiac University - School of Law) has posted The Death Penalty & the Dignity Clauses (Iowa Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: “The question now to be faced is whether American society has reached...
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News Scan
Signatures for Death Penalty Measure Submitted: Californians for Death Penalty Reform and Savings submitted 593,000 signatures Thursday for a November ballot initiative to accelerate executions for death row inmates, which will appear alongside an opposing measure to repeal capital punishment in the state. Elliot Spagat and Don Thompson of the AP reports that the measure would speed up the appeals process for death penalty cases by assigning attorneys to condemned inmates more quickly, limiting the number of appeals and forcing them to be filed sooner. The whole process would have to be completed in five years, sharply contrasting the current system, in which inmates don't get a lawyer assigned until five years after their sentence. Other provisions of the measure would allow death row inmates to be housed in prisons other than San Quentin and require them to work and pay victim restitution while they await execution. California has the…
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Can The Police Search My Car In Texas If They Just Smell Marijuana?
By Bo Kalabus www.rosenthalwadas.com; b.kalabus@rosenthalwadas.com 24-hour Jail Release: 214-402-4364 YES! In Texas, the odor of burned marijuana gives the police the probable cause necessary to perform a legal search. The situation usually presents itself during a traffic stop when an officer smells marijuana through the open window while speaking with the driver. The odor of marijuana either fresh or faint is a trigger point for the police to search a vehicle without first obtaining a warrant. Citizens have much less 4th Amendment protection against an illegal search and seizure when they are in their vehicles. The main rationale is that cars are mobile, and they could flee before an officer can get a warrant from a judge to search the vehicle. Another thought is that since cars are regulated by state laws, and are also on public streets, drivers have a reduced expectation of privacy compared to the privacy in their homes. In short, your vehicle is NOT the same thing as your…
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