President Obama and Hillary Clinton unleashed powerful attacks on Donald Trump today. Maybe together they will knock him out. Speaking 250 miles apart Tuesday, but as if reading from the same hymnal, President Barack Obama and presumptive... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Obama and Hillary Give Trump a One-Two Punch
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Can I Be Held Criminally Responsible For the Actions Of My Pet?
YOUR PET CAN SEND YOU TO PRISON You could be charged for a crime your animal “commits.” Okay, animals can’t commit crimes but this is serious stuff. If your dog attacks a person or worse yet, kills someone, you can be facing some very serious criminal charges. But it needn’t be your dog or even an aggressive act by an animal you own. One Vermont man is being charged with negligent involuntary manslaughter when his roaming bull was hit by a vehicle, killing the driver and the bull. The bull’s owner faces a sentence of up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted. The significant fact is the bull owner’s negligence. It is alleged that he did not properly contain the animal and this wasn’t the first time the bull had been seen wandering off the property; the bull’s owner had been cited five times for allowing his animals to wander off the pasture. In fact, it was reported that minutes before the fatal accident, another driver had…
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"The Antidemocratic Sixth Amendment"
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Progress for the defense in Massachusetts Breath Test Source Code Challenge
The Statewide challenge to the accuracy of the breath test machine used in Massachusetts took a positive turn for the defense with a ruling from Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice Botsford. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that defendants in a set of cases should be provided access to breathalyzer instruments and the necessary related materials to permit dynamic testing to be performed. The defendants in the cases of Commonwealth v. Figuereo and Commonwealth v. Ananias challenged the scientific reliability of the alcohol breath test results produced by a model of breathalyzer used throughout the Commonwealth, the Alcotest 9510. In both sets of cases, a Daubert-Lanigan hearing is anticipated, and this decision is an effort to define the scope of discovery relating to the defendant’s challenges to the reliability of the Alocotest’s breath test results. The defendants have been permitted to conduct both static and dynamic testing of…
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News Scan
DE High Court to hear Death Penalty Arguments: After a months-long debate, arguments over the constitutionality of Delaware's death penalty will be heard Wednesday by the state Supreme Court. Matt Bittle of the Delaware State News reports that in Rauf v. State of Delaware, the Public Defender's Officer argues that the state's death penalty statute contradicts the right to a jury trial, while the Department of Justice contends that the law does not violate the U.S. Constitution. Delaware's capital punishment law has some similarities to Florida's, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled was unconstitutional in January because it allows the judge to issue a death sentence. If the court rules that similar portion of Delaware's law unconstitutional, it may not strike down the death penalty entirely; however, if the justices find the law does not comply with the high court's January ruling, capital punishment in the state would…
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Even Worse Than Jail? Places DUI Drivers Really Don’t Want to End Up
A conviction for DUI in Los Angeles can land you behind bars. While that isn’t a pleasant experience, some DUI drivers end up in even worse locations. The Times-Union in Jacksonville, Florida, reports that St. Mary’s City and Camden County emergency responders found 52-year-old Charles Edward Fields, Jr., sitting in his pickup truck in the St. Mary’s River. Fields said that while traveling home, he became confused and apparently turned onto a boat ramp instead of a side street. Fortunately, the water at that point wasn’t too deep. Although the truck became partially submerged in the river, police officers assisted Fields out of the vehicle without incident. He agreed to go the police station, where officers measured his BAC above the legal limit and charged him with DUI. In Denver, meanwhile, police arrested Randolph Blazon for DUI after the 25-year-old’s vehicle ended up inside the Colorado Convention Center. What?? Here’s how it happened.…
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DUI Drivers Injure Workers on Road Construction Sites: An Unnerving Survey
Road construction workers have fairly terrifying jobs. They not only operate and move around heavy equipment weighing 10 tons or more (often much more); they also must work while vehicles just a few feet away hurtle past them at 50 and 60 miles per hour. Add to that mix a driver who’s operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs or alcohol—enough to qualify him/her for a DUI in Los Angeles—and you’ve made a difficult situation even more dangerous. According to New Orleans’ Times-Picayune, Earl William Maugham, Jr., caused serious injuries to four people at a construction site on US 61 in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. He first sideswiped an unoccupied Ford Truck, which he should have noticed, since it was flashing white and amber strobe lights marking the work zone. Then he slammed into a John Deere backhoe. The backhoe driver wasn’t injured, but Maugham continued on, jumping two raised center median curbs and eventually hitting…
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The Fourth Amendment, the Wireless Carriers and the Cell Tower Location Data
This post examines an opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit: U.S. v. Carpenter, 2016 WL 1445183 (2016). The court begins by explaining that inFourth Amendment cases the Supreme Court has long recognized a distinction between the content of a communication and the information necessary to convey it. Content, per this distinction, is protected under the Fourth Amendment, but routing information is not. Here, Timothy Carpenter and Timothy Sanders were convicted of nine armed robberies in violation of the Hobbs Act. The government's evidence at trial included business records from the defendants' wireless carriers, showing that each man used his cellphone within a half-mile to two miles of several robberies during the times the robberies occurred. The defendants argue that the government's collection of those records constituted a warrantless search in violation of the Fourth Amendment. U.S. v. Carpenter, supra.The opinion…
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State v. McGrady Confirms NC is a Daubert State: Now What?
The North Carolina Supreme Court held in State v. McGrady, __ N.C.___ (June 10, 2016), that Rule 702(a) of the North Carolina Rules of Evidence incorporates the standard set forth in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 509 U.S. 579 (1993). That’s what the court of appeals had already said, so it isn’t a big surprise. In McGrady, the application of Daubert led the state supreme court to conclude that the trial court did not err in excluding testimony from an expert in law enforcement training about the defendant’s conscious and unconscious responses to a perceived threat from the victim. McGrady’s analysis opens the door for reconsidering the admissibility of many types of expert testimony previously admitted as a matter of course, including expert testimony from law enforcement experts involving scientific and medical principles. Facts. Charles McGrady was indicted for first-degree murder in the shooting death of his cousin, James Allen Shore Jr.,…
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Split Second Circuit panel reverses (on procedural grounds, sort of) 60-year sentence for production and possession of child porn
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Passion For Justice
Quin Denvir, a long-time criminal defense attorney -- with significant stints as the State Public Defender and the Federal Defender for the Eastern District of California -- embodied the zealous advocate, representing countless criminal defendants with fierce determination and more than occasional brilliance. He and I were co-counsel for Tom Thompson, who was executed on July 14, 1998 -- a case that was fraught with legal errors, arbitrary rulings and mind-blowing unfairness with serious questions of Tom's guilt remaining unresolved. (I've written extensively about the case, including here: The Arbitrary Execution of Tom Thompson) Quin died last week at the age of 76. At his funeral yesterday, I heard for the first time that when the State of California was busy killing Tom, Quin was at the St. James Catholic Church in Davis, having asked the pastor to open the doors for him, weeping. …
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Father’s Day Tips and Gifts for Attorneys
Most attorneys, whether they practice in criminal defense, personal injury, family law, or another area of focus, work an excessive number of hours each week. While successful lawyers do generally enjoy a comfortable living, their time off is cherished. With Father’s Day coming up, you may be wondering what you can do for the dad who seems to have everything! The truth is, many attorneys relish just relaxing and spending time with family more than any “gift” that could be purchased. Considering the time of year Father’s Day falls, the weather is nice across most of the country. Adult children may want to consider doing something for their attorney dads such as throwing a steak or burger on the grill and enjoying a relaxing meal outdoors. A drink or glass of wine before dinner, good conversation, just being a family and being together can mean more than anything to a father. Attorneys’ time is valuable, so a day…
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DOJ Announces New Policy Regarding Individal Accountability and Corporate Cooperation for False Claim Act Cases
Dear Readers:Acting Associate Attorney General Bill Baer spoke at the ABA's 11th National Institute on Civil False Claims Act and Qui Tam Enforcement last week in Washington, D.C. AAG Baer addressed how the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) will focus on individual accountability in civil False Claims Act (FCA) cases and in light of that focus, what steps corporations must undertake to earn "cooperation credit" in settling FCA cases. These new DOJ policies announced by AAG Baer are very important for practitioners in qui tam/FCA cases and will certainly impact how corporate defendants investigate, report, and settle FCA cases.DOJ published AAG Baer's remarks, which are found here. I highlight below those portions of his remarks that I found to be most interesting.First, AAG Baer addressed how the DOJ policy of holding individuals accountable for corporate misdeeds, announced in the Yates memo, would be "implemented" in FCA cases. He stated:DOJ is…
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Randall & Venkatesh on the Marital Rape Exemption
Melanie Randall and Vasanthi Venkatesh (University of Western Ontario - Faculty of Law and University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Students) have posted Why Sexual Assault in Intimate Relationships Must Be Criminalized as Required by International Human Rights Law:...
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**Update**Fatal Crash I84 East of Jerome
IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE District 4 Patrol 218 West Yakima, Jerome, ID 83338-5904 (208) 324-6000 Fax (208) 324-7897 For Immediate Release: 06/15/16 12:15 p.m. Please direct questions to the District Office ***Update*** The driver of the vehicle was Johanna Melgar-Vasquez, 28, of West Valley, UT. The passenger of the vehicle was Erik Bahena, 25, of Taylorsville, UT. Notifications have been made. Bahena was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, it is unknown if Melgar-Vasquez was wearing hers. SG//KJ ***end of update*** On Wednesday, June 15th, 2016, at approximately 10:20 a.m., the Idaho State Police investigated a single vehicle fatality rollover crash westbound I84 at milepost 187, east of Jerome. A 2011 Nissan Versa was traveling westbound, when the driver lost control and the…
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**Correction**Fatal Crash I84 East of Jerome
IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE District 4 Patrol 218 West Yakima, Jerome, ID 83338-5904 (208) 324-6000 Fax (208) 324-7897 For Immediate Release: 06/15/16 12:15 p.m. Please direct questions to the District Office ***Update*** The driver of the vehicle was Johanna Melgar-Vasquez, 28, of West Valley, UT. The passenger of the vehicle was Erik Bahena, 25, of Taylorsville, UT. Notifications have been made. Bahena was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, it is unknown if Melgar-Vasquez was wearing hers. SG//KJ ***end of update*** On Wednesday, June 15th, 2016, at approximately 10:20 a.m., the Idaho State Police investigated a single vehicle fatality rollover crash westbound I84 at milepost 187, east of Jerome. A 2011 Nissan Versa was traveling westbound, when the driver lost control and the…
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ATTORNEY SAM CONTINUES LISTING THE CONTENTS OF THE TYPICAL DRUG TRAFFICKING PROSECUTION (Part Two)
Yesterday, we discussed a gent who is looking at criminal charges for allegedly participating in a heroin trafficking ring. We began listing items that one normally finds being offered into evidence in such cases. We now continue. Attorney Sam’s Take On Additional Pieces Of Evidence In A High Level Drug Trafficking Prosecution A Stash This refers to other drugs that are waiting to be sold in or around the location. An important part of a high-level drug trafficking investigation is finding the sources of drugs. Drug operations tend to be multi-level. Generally, law enforcement is more interested in getting the “bigger fish” than the “little minnows”. The prosecutorial hope is that the more drugs that are found, the higher the level of the dealers. In terms of the individual prosecution, the finding of a stash is good evidence that the people present are involved in the drug trade. It is especially helpful when the type and packaging of the drugs…
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"Andrew Caspersen, Charged in $40 Million Fraud, Had Gambling Addiction, Lawyer Says"
From the New York Times: [O]n Tuesday, Mr. Caspersen’s lawyer contended that his client, a former Wall Street executive with an Ivy League pedigree, was the victim of an uncontrollable gambling addiction that drove him for more than a decade....
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Will the wife of the Orlando Shooter’ Face Federal Criminal Charges for Misprison?
Today Lee Brantley, the Assistant United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, and Richard Hooper, FBI Assistant Agent in Charge, both declined to comment on whether or not the wife of the Orlando gunman would face federal charges for the shooting. What is known, however, is that a federal grand jury has been convened to investigate the shooter’s wife. Will the shooter’s wife face charges for misprision? CNN reports that one of the charges she could face is the charge of misprision. What is Misprison of a Felony? The technical definition of Misprision can be found in the statute itself. 18 USC 4 Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. 18 USC 4 makes…
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Mungan on Salience and the Severity Versus the Certainty of Punishment
Murat C. Mungan (George Mason University School of Law) has posted Salience and the Severity Versus the Certainty of Punishment on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The certainty aversion presumption (CAP) in the economics of law enforcement literature asserts that...
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