How long? At the moment, it’s almost nine years, the journey having begun in 2007. Carlos Vega still sits on the Rock awaiting his future. Mr. Vega was arrested in the Bronx on Sept. 30, 2007, accused of killing a man in a bodega. Now 33, he has been in jail for nearly nine years. Three trials have failed to yield a verdict. The first trial, more than four years after the murder, ended in a mistrial after the wife of a key witness became ill. The second ended in a hung jury, and the third also ended in a mistrial after a confrontation with a guard left Mr. Vega hospitalized. In all, Mr. Vega’s case has come before the court 126 times as it has been shuffled among three defense lawyers, five prosecutors and 12 judges. Another hearing is scheduled for Monday. That’s the “what,” even if in abbreviated version. But it’s not the “why.” If you don’t read the story carefully, you might think you know why, but you don’t.…
Nine Years After
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W.D.Tex.: Exigencies of crack deal going down in hotel room excused warrant
There was more than probable cause, and inference on inference here showed it on the totality. A crack cocaine deal going down in a hotel room proved to be exigent circumstances. It would take two hours to get a search … Continue reading →
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Building A Legal Practice Designed To Last: How To Become A Self-Made MBA [Part1]
In law school, we learn how to dissect a case, how to argue both on paper and in the courtroom, and how to overcome the fear of being called on in front of a large group of people. In the second and third years, we may even have some practical classes designed at building client relationships, the art of negotiating, or maybe even a class on law practice management. However, law school does not teach, nor are they designed to teach, the basics of running a law practice (i.e. a legal business). As a result, if you graduate from law school without a business background, you need to become a self educated Master of Business (earn you own MBA). Be intentional about how you spend your time. You MUST schedule time to work on your business instead of just in it. Just as you constantly remain a student of the law, become and remain a student of business. Here are 10 ways to become a self-made MBA and do just that: Read books about business, marketing and sales. A…
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FIRE and Rain
If history teaches anything, phrases like “hate speech” and “marginalized communities” will be chalked up to a Koch Brothers conservative conspiracy in 20 years. Hemlines will have risen and fallen many times, and bell bottoms may have even come back in style. And progressive minds will be resolute in their defense of free speech, as if preventing the neo-Nazi’s from marching on Skokie was even an acceptable possibility. The New York Times, in a surprisingly pleasant turn of events, tells of the efforts of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, started by Harvey Silverglate in 1999 in response to restrictive speech codes gaining popularity on campus. FIRE was started in 1999 by Harvey A. Silverglate, a criminal and civil rights lawyer in Boston, and Alan Charles Kors, now a retired University of Pennsylvania history professor. They met as Princeton undergraduates, and in 1998 wrote “The Shadow University: The Betrayal of…
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Nevada Recognizes Utah Concealed Carry Permits Under New Gun Law
Reciprocity agreements allow gun owners to carry firearms between states without fear of being charged with gun crimes. Utah shooting and hunting enthusiasts scored a legal victory in July, when Nevada adopted legislation recognizing concealed carry permits issued in Utah. Is it Legal to Carry a Concealed Weapon in Nevada with a Utah CCW Permit? Some states are more lenient than others when it comes to the restriction of gun rights. For example, Guns & Ammo ranks New York and New Jersey as some of the toughest, while Arizona and Vermont score high marks. Differences between states’ gun laws — which can be vast, even between neighboring states — sometimes create serious legal problems when it comes to interstate travel. Just ask Pennsylvania resident Shaneen Allen, who was arrested in New Jersey for a gun she owned legally under her home state’s laws. Allen, a nurse and mother of two with no criminal record, was eventually pardoned…
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MI dismisses grant of discretionary review on application of Jardines to a knock-and-talk
Michigan granted discretionary review to determine the application of Jardines to a knock-and-talk, but dismissed it after considering the briefs. Three justices dissented from declining to decide the case. People v. Radandt, 2016 Mich. LEXIS 1591 (July 29, 2016)*: I … Continue reading →
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NJ requires court order to get telephone records, but PC not required
New Jersey requires a court order, albeit on less than probable cause, to get telephone records. To enable criminal investigations to proceed, probable cause isn’t required. State v. Lunsford, 2016 N.J. LEXIS 717 (Aug. 1, 2016) (syllabus): To obtain telephone … Continue reading →
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Charleston mass murderer now making mass attack on constitutionality of federal death penalty
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Police Officers and Other First Responders May Soon Be Protected Under Chicago’s Hate Crime Law
Hate crimes, sometimes referred to as a bias-motivated crimes, occur when a perpetrator selects his or her victim based on a perceived membership to a certain social group. For example, if a perpetrator shoots a victim because of the victim’s sex, ethnicity, religion, or sexual identity, then a hate crime has likely occurred. I say likely because the only way to know for sure if a crime qualifies as a hate crime is to check which social groups are protected under the hate crime statute that governs the situation. For instance, if the crime is governed by federal law, then the federal hate crime statute applies. Under the federal hate crime statute, social groups based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability are protected. States, and even some cities, also have their own hate crime laws. Chicago’s Hate Crime Law According to Chicagoist.com, Chicago’s current hate crime law applies when a victim is…
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Harris Sheriff rep blames inmates for preventable, antibiotic-resistant infections in his jail
If you catch an antibiotic-resistant staph infection in the county jail and die, it's your fault for having a weak immune system, opined a Harris County Sheriff spokesman. Or at least that's what you'd take away from this item in the Houston Press, in which Meagan Flynn localized the story of Amanda Woog's new death-in-custody database to focus on deaths at the Harris County Jail. Her article included this remarkable assessment from Sheriff Ron Hickman's spokesman:Asked about the high number of in-custody deaths in 2015, sheriff's office spokesman Ryan Sullivan said without examining the data closely it would be hard to tell, but he suggested that Harris County's drastic population increase could be a large contributing factor. According to county data, the county's population has grown 30 percent since 2000.Otherwise, Sullivan said, "I can't account for why more criminals are pulling guns on officers on the street. ...If…
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"The Effects of DNA Databases on the Deterrence and Detection of Offenders"
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ABAJ: Chemerinsky: Has the Supreme Court dealt a blow to the Fourth Amendment?
ABA Journal: Chemerinsky: Has the Supreme Court dealt a blow to the Fourth Amendment? by Erwin Chemerinsky: In the recently completed Supreme Court term, Utah v. Strieff was the only major decision where the conservatives prevailed in an ideologically divided … Continue reading →
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Evaluating the Pokemon Go Class Action Lawsuit
Several news outlets have reports on Marder v. Niantic, Inc., filed July 29, 2016 in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California. A copy of the complaint is available here.Coverage of the complaint is available here, here, here, and here, although the Boston Herald seems to have the most direct quotes from various people involved in the suit or otherwise wronged by Niantic's Pokemon Go app.The Complaint outlines Pokemon Go's success, but notes that the game places "PokeStops" and "Gyms" -- locations that attract players -- on or near private property. The Complaint states that Niantic "blithely" acknowledges that players may trespass, although a round of updates a few days ago added more explicit admonishments against trespassing. The Complaint also notes several times in bold and italicized letters that "Niantic even placed three Pokéstops within the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum."Strong…
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Boni-Saenz on Sexual Advance Directives
Alexander A. Boni-Saenz (Chicago-Kent College of Law) has posted Sexual Advance Directives (68 Alabama Law Review __ (2016), Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Can one consent to sex in advance? Scholars have neglected the temporal dimension of sexual...
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Changes Coming Campus Sexual Assault Reporting
Minnesota has passed legislation that will require all colleges to publicly reveal the number of sexual assault complaints they investigate each year. Furthermore, the colleges will also have to publish how many of those investigations lead to perpetrator punishment, and what those punishments entail. The law went into effect with a number of other laws on August 1, and it requires all Minnesota colleges in October to start sending yearly reports on campus sexual assault investigations to the state. By the end of the year, the Minnesota Office of Higher Education expects to make the data public, but details including names and other identifying characteristics will be kept confidential. In addition to the data publication, students will also be able to report a sexual assault through an anonymous online tool. “The big impetus (for the law) was to make reporting go better for students,” said Yvonne Cournoyer of the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual…
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Trademarks for Retail Marijuana Stores (Legal Update)
On July 14, 2016, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) decided the matter of In Re Morgan Brown, Serial No. 86362968, affirming the USPTO’s refusal to register the mark “HERBAL ACCESS” on the grounds that the applicant’s use of the mark constituted unlawful use in commerce. In support of their precedential decision, the three-judge... Read More The post Trademarks for Retail Marijuana Stores (Legal Update) appeared first on Northwest Marijuana Law.
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Judge says convicted Utah scamster addicted to defrauding others | The Salt Lake Tribune
A convicted fraudster who got out of prison early after completing a drug addiction program was sent back for 2½ more years on Tuesday by a judge who said he was addicted to defrauding people. U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart sent Christopher D. Hales, 35, back to prison for 30 months for violations of his […]
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News Scan
CA Murderer's Death Sentence Upheld: On Monday, the California Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of a Riverside man convicted in the abduction and murder of an elderly woman and the torture and rape of another 15 years ago. Ali Tadayon the the Press-Enterprise reports that Bailey Lamar Jackson, 45, has been on death row since 2005 for first-degree murder, and is also serving 212 years to life for charges of attempted murder, torture, rape, burglary and robbery. On Mother's Day 2001, Geraldine Myers, 81, disappeared and her car was later found containing a bag with her blood on it. A month after Myers' disappearance, an 84-year-old woman in the same neighborhood was robbed, tortured, raped and left for dead, but managed to call 911. Jackson was arrested when her stolen television was found in his room. A few days after his arrest, Jackson was linked to Myers' disappearance when a bloodhound led her handler to to him…
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Is “Justification” a Defense to Possession of a Firearm by a Person with a Felony Conviction?
North Carolina law prohibits a person who has been convicted of a felony from possessing a firearm. The prohibition, set forth in G.S. 14-415.1, contains narrow exceptions, such as for antique firearms. The question has arisen in several cases whether a person with a prior felony conviction may possess a firearm if necessary to defend himself or others—in other words, whether the person may rely on a justification defense. So far, the North Carolina appellate courts have withheld final judgment on the question. Several North Carolina decisions acknowledge that other courts have recognized that a person with a prior felony conviction may assert a justification defense to a charge of illegally possessing a firearm. These decisions set forth the requirements for the defense and measure the defendant’s conduct against them. They do not recognize the defense explicitly, however, stating that assuming the defense exists, the defendant did not satisfy the requirements.…
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Delaware Supreme Court Gets Hurst Wrong
When Hurst v. Florida was decided earlier this year, I wrote a post titled Dangerously Sloppy Language in the Hurst v. Florida Opinion. Sure enough, four of the five justices of the Delaware Supreme Court have now decided that the state's long-established and thoroughly vetted death penalty statute is unconstitutional. That would be true only if one sloppy piece of obiter dictum wipes out the distinction between the eligibility decision and the selection decision crafted over decades and clearly set forth in numerous U.S. Supreme Court opinions. The case is Rauf v. State. See Justice Vaughn's dissent for the correct answers.Does Delaware Attorney General Matt Denn have the requisite vertebrae to petition for certiorari? Let's hope so.
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