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The History of Drunk Driving Laws in The United States

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We’ve walked you through a pretty thorough history of the drunk driving laws in Minnesota, but how were drunk driving laws shaped on a national scale? Thankfully, the good folks at LifeSaver.com put together this handy infographic that showcases how DUI laws were shaped and changed across the 50 states. Take a look at this infographic below, and learn how the laws have been molded over the years. And be sure to check out LifeSaver.com for more bits of useful information, like this piece on Ignition Interlock Devices! (Click Image To Enlarge)

Family Member’s DNA Used to Track down Murder Suspect

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A family member’s DNA was used to track down the suspect of a murder case that took place in Tooele, Utah in 2011. Beaten with a hammer On October 7, 2011 the body of 69 year old Evelynne Derricott was found in her Tooele, Utah home. State medical examiners determined the cause of death to […] The post Family Member’s DNA Used to Track down Murder Suspect appeared first on Salt Lake Criminal Defense Attorney.

Attorney General misses opportunity to improve officer-involved shooting law

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Last Thursday, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) published in the Texas Registry its final rule and reporting form for administering the officer-involved shooting law passed last legislative session. The final rule and reporting form were unchanged from those proposed in December, which made no changes to the first version of the form that the OAG developed in September 2015. By making no changes to the reporting form and the guidance provided to law enforcement agencies, the OAG missed its opportunity to fix identified problems in the administration of the new law. After the rule and form were proposed in the Texas Registry back in December, Representative Eric Johnson (author of the bill), the Austin Justice Coalition, and I submitted public comment with recommendations on how to amend the rules and reporting forms to better administer the law. We identified problems with the way the reporting forms were drafted and being used, and recommended administrative…

Praise for recent Nesbeth opinion using collateral consequences to justify probation sentence for federal drug offense

New Jersey Supreme Court Declines to Find that the Constitution Requires Jury Trials in Third-Offense DWI Cases

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The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees a trial by jury in criminal cases, but courts have never applied this guarantee to all prosecutions. A defendant charged with a “petty” offense is not entitled to a jury trial, according to a long line of court decisions at both the state and federal levels. New Jersey courts have long held that jury trials are not required in driving while intoxicated (DWI) cases. A DWI defendant sought to revisit this issue in 2016, arguing that amendments to New Jersey’s DWI statute had made third-offense DWI a “serious” offense, rather than a petty one. The New Jersey Supreme Court, ruling in State v. Denelsbeck, rejected this argument, but it warned that the statute’s current penalties were the maximum possible for a petty offense. Even though the Sixth Amendment, as written, does not appear to exclude any criminal proceedings from its guarantee of a jury trial, court rulings going back to the…

Police Technical: “free white paper, titled Body Worn Cameras: How They Impact the Law Enforcement Community”

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“POLICE TECHNICAL has released a free white paper, titled Body Worn Cameras: How They Impact the Law Enforcement Community.”

News Scan

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Chicago has Deadliest May in 21 Years:  The fatal shooting of a 15-year-old Chicago boy on May 31st marked the 66th and final homicide of the month, making it the deadliest May in the city since 1995.  Alexandra Chachkevitch, Rosemary Regina Sobol and Jeremy Gorner of the Chicago Tribune report that 243 people have been killed thus far into the year, the most fatalities since 1999 when 248 were killed.  Shooting incidents have also increased for the third consecutive year, spiking over 50% this year with more 1,500 people shot.  Over Memorial Day weekend alone, 63 people were shot and an additional six were killed, while 50 people were shot, eight fatally, earlier in the month over Mother's Day weekend.  "I want to leave Chicago," said the mother of the 15-year-old victim.  "We are ready to go."2 CA Cops Shot, Suspect Dead:  Two Fremont, Calif., police officers were injured by gunfire after a traffic stop turned into…

How a Lawyer Will Use Facebook Against You

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Everyone has heard the Miranda advisement “You have the right to remain silent. Everything you say can and will be used against you…” As an Orange County criminal defense lawyer, I would like everyone to hear that everything you post on Facebook or other social media will be used against you. In just the last few months I’ve seen the following: -Two gang members and a friend post a video of a fight they got in with a rival gang member. -A woman posts a picture of herself holding a meth pipe and blowing a ring of smoke. Continue reading →

ANOTHER DEATH PENALTY WIN

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It just keeps getting worse and worse for proponents of the death penalty (Motto "kill em all, guilty or innocent.") .Judge Brennan granted a defense motion to strike the death penalty because the ASA failed to file the new notice of intent to seek death with the applicable aggravating factors within the time periods prescribed by the new statute. Chris Decoste with RC3 with the nice win. This decision is case specific and doesn't have the precedential  value of Judge Hirsch's order, but a win is a win. Query: is the death penalty dead?RUMPOLE RUCKUSLots of negative comments about our actions with the blog-thief, even from long-time and careful blog readers. Take our new poll. Site Feed

U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1 Loss Amount Calculation: Money Paid Back to Victim Before Fraud Detected NOT Counted at Sentencing

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USA v. Christian Peterson.  No. 14-3716.     Before running into legal trouble, Christian Peterson, an entrepreneur doing business in Madison, Wisconsin, owned several manufacturing and realestate development firms. He misused corporate finances, frequently making unauthorized intercompany loans and occasionally using corporate funds to pay off his personal gambling debts. Eventually all of his business ventures failed, his companies defaulted, and federal agents launched an investigation. Peterson was indicted on thirteen criminal counts—bank fraud, making false statements to banks, money laundering, and pension theft—and a jury found him guilty of eight of those crimes.       Regarding the sentence, the judge correctly calculated the gross receipts Peterson derived from his fraud; because he was the sole perpetrator, all proceeds of the fraud were properly attributed to him. But Peterson repaid in full a…

//blawgsearch75.rssing.com/chan-6519914/article18471-live.html

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US v. Spears, Sr., No. 13-30253 (6-2-16)(Bea with Gilman; dissent by Tashima). Here, the defendant, serving life for relevant conduct for crack offenses, tries to take advantage of the guidelines amendment that raises the crack thresholds.  The 9th affirmed denial of a motion to modify a sentence as a result of sentencing guidelines amendments for lack of jurisdiction.  The denial was based on amendment 750, which raised the crack drug thresholds.  The majority held that the amount under the guidelines would still have been life.  As for a subsequent guidelines amendment, the defendant must file another motion.  Lastly, the motion to modify is not a proper vehicle to challenge procedural errors at sentencing.  Dissenting, Tashima argues that the motion is allowed if the guidelines are adjusted downward.  They were.  That should end the analysis.  Instead, the majority engages in fact finding, and effectively resentencing, which…

Wrongful Convictions of Sexual Assault

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A press release from the Center for Prosecutor Integrity announces a new program to curb such convictions: [T]he Center for Prosecutor Integrity is launching a new initiative designed to address the over-criminalization of sexual conduct and to end wrongful convictions...

How Young is Too Young to be Liable for Negligence?

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Can Children Be Held Liable for Negligence? Can a young child be held liable for negligence? A person is negligent when he owes another a duty and then breaches that duty. Negligence is the legal theory on which most personal injury cases are based. Over the years the question has arisen of whether young children can be negligent. This issue was again recently addressed. In Nielsen v. Bell, Nielsen was babysitting a four-year-old boy who threw a rubber toy at her, striking her in the eye that previously received a cornea transplant. Nielsen consequently lost all vision in that eye and sued the boy’s parents for negligent supervision and the boy for negligence. Nielsen argued that Utah should not recognize a fixed age cutoff for negligence liability while the four-year-old defendant argued that the court has recognized that children under the age of five may not be found negligent. The district court granted summary judgment on the negligent supervision claim against…

No Remorse for Doctored Video

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Erik Wemple, who covers media issues for the WaPo, has this post on the doctored video in Katie Couric's documentary on gun rights, which Bill noted Tuesday.   Wemple notes that while Couric has apologized, director Stephanie Soechtig continues to insist she did nothing wrong.For the record, the edit in question misportrayed an exchange between Couric and members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. In response to a question about background checks, VCDL members are depicted in stunned silence for about eight seconds. An audiotape recorded by VCDL President Philip Van Cleave showed that Couric's inquiry fetched an immediate and quite reasonable response.After quoting Soechtig's absurd responses in an interview, Wemple concludes, "Arrogance and disregard for people are horrible traits in someone who purports to explore one of the country's most divisive issues."Unfortunately, Soechtig's attitude is all too common in too many…

Alcala to SCOTUS: Overturn these two bad CCA decisions

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On her Twitter feed, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Elsa Alcala notes that she wrote dissenting opinions in two of the six petitions being considered in conference at SCOTUS today - Moore v. Texas and Buck v. Stephens.Here's her dissent in Moore, in which  she focused on the first of the two questions to be considered by the Supreme Court: "Whether it violates the Eighth Amendment and this Court’s decisions in Hall v. Florida and Atkins v. Virginia to prohibit the use of current medical standards on intellectual disability, and require the use of outdated medical standards, in determining whether an individual may be executed"? Alcala was the lone judge to answer "yes" to that question.The Duane Buck case has received more attention (my neighbor Jordan Smith logged an good article at The Intercept about the case ) because of the culture war angle: E.g., the New Yorker called the use of disputed racist testimony by Dr. Walter Quijano…

Injury Crash On US20 At Franklin Boulevard

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IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE District 3 Patrol 700 S. Stratford Dr., Meridian 83642 (208) 846-7550 Fax (208) 846-7520 For Immediate Release: 06/02/2016 4:15pm Please direct questions to the District Office On Thursday, June 2, 2016, at 12:57pm, Idaho State Police investigated an injury crash at the intersection of US20 and Franklin Boulevard near Nampa, ID. Lazaro I. Nunez-Elizalde, 23, of Meridian, was driving northbound on Franklin Boulevard in a 2005 Infinti GS35. Nunez-Elizalde failed to stop at the stop sign at US20 and pulled in front of a 1989 Mack cement truck that was traveling eastbound on US20. The Nissan traveled off the road, coming to rest against a fence on the south shoulder of US20. The cement truck, being driven by Jeremy T. Loftis, 43, of Layton, UT, overturned coming to rest on the north…

Smith & White, PLLC Enforce Transparency in Government

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A good win for Smith & White, PLLC as we successful brought claims against the City of Lakewood for wrongfully withholding documents.  We had to appeal to the Court of Appeals to achieve our victory.  We  think transparency in government is a worthwhile fight. 2016 WL 3043151 Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 2. JAMES J. WHITE, Appellant v. CITY OF LAKEWOOD, Respondent. No. 47079-9-II May 25, 2016 PUBLISHED OPINION Lee, J. *1 LEE, J. — James J. White submitted three separate public records requests pursuant to the Public Records Act1 (PRA), requesting documents from the Lakewood Police Department. The city of Lakewood (City) withheld certain documents, claiming that the documents related to an active law enforcement investigation and thus were exempt from disclosure. Subsequently, White sued the City for PRA violations. The superior court found that White’s claims arising from his first and second PRA requests were…

Alschuler on Wrongful Detention

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Albert W. Alschuler (University of Chicago Law School) has posted Amicus Brief in Manuel v. Joliet on SSRN. Here is the abstract: A series of Seventh Circuit decisions declares that the Fourth Amendment “falls out of the picture” when an...

"Rich Defendants’ Request to Judges: Lock Me Up in a Gilded Cage"

"Rich Defendants’ Request to Judges: Lock Me Up in a Gilded Cage"

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From The New York Times: When Reza Zarrab, a gold trader based in Turkey, was arrested on a recent trip to the United States and sent to New York to face federal charges, his lawyer tried to keep him out...
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