Continuing his notable clemency momentum, Prez Obama grants 111 more commutations
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Daniel Koewler In The News: "Okay Boys, Let's Take Some Pictures"
The Ramsey Law Firm--specifically Daniel Koewler-- has once again made the news! This time it was to discuss our recent victory at the Minnesota Court of Appeals (Janssen v. Commissioner of Public Safety) in the Minnesota Lawyer. Koewler, who argued the case at the Court of Appeals, discussed the opinion and its significance. Koewler is cited as saying the opinion is just as "consequential [as the Bernard case] but for very different reasons." What reasons? Well, this holding opens the door for drivers to challenge the taking of their driver's license and license plates based on a breath test of at least twice the legal limit (0.16), or more. These challenges are often based upon scientific principles such as measurement uncertainty, incorrect application of the machine's bias, and even ketones in the breath of diabetics improperly affecting test results. It is imperative, under due process, that drivers be allowed make these…
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2016.032: Safe From Suit, But Not From Prosecution
…That night, someone sent an e-mail to Vietnamese groups alleging appellant was going to Vietnam to “bow down” to Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese Communists. . . . . . In 2014, appellant [Al Hoang] won the Republican primary for State Representative District 149. Nguyen continued to label appellant a Vietnamese Communist. In October of that year, Nguyen reported that appellant’s father committed suicide in 2007 because appellant was a Communist. Nguyen also stated that appellant made the bomb with which he was threatened in 2012 to gain attention. From 2010 to the time suit was filed in October 2014, articles published in Thoi Bao called appellant “a Vietnamese Communist, an agent of Vietnamese Communist, or a spy of the Vietnamese Communist [sic].” These articles were also disseminated to Vietnamese groups and over the internet. Appellees win: Appellant had failed to provide “clear and specific evidence that the statements of which he…
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Pokémon Go: Helping, and Annoying, Police Since 2016
Charlotte Criminal Lawyer Brad Smith answers the question: “Am I allowed to videotape an interaction with police? Can they make me stop filming?” Whether you’re an avid catcher of Pikachus or are convinced the era of technology taking over is upon us, you’ve no doubt noticed Pokémon’s rather public reentrance into society lately. Advocates have lauded Pokémon Go’s ability to get gamers off the couch and moving…and get them moving it has. Some have walked straight into varying degrees of trouble with the law, including one man with an open warrant for his arrest who wandered by his local police station to battle his creatures there. Other reports have fallen more on the crime fighting side—two Go players helped catch a man wanted for attempted murder, and one woman found a dead body in her Pokémon Go meanderings. Continue reading →
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Trump, His Critics, and Law and Order
Donald Trump's recent comments on law and order have been a mixed bag. He has said some things that are obviously wrong. No, violence in our cities is not record levels. Surely a New Yorker of Mr. Trump's age remembers how bad things were back in the day when the subway was so crime-infested and so dangerous that Bernhard Goetz opened fire there with minimal provocation and was hailed as a hero by many for doing so. Today is not that bad, not even close.Even so, Trump is more right than his critics on the major issues. Heather MacDonald has this article in the WSJ. She quotes the usual suspects spewing the usual garbage, such as a historian reciting the very old and very wrong line that "the term law and order" is "racially tinged." The fact that the anti-law enforcement side chooses to view "law and order" through a tinted glass does not tinge the object itself.As over-the-top as Trump can be at…
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ISIS Chief Spokesman Killed in Aleppo
This is pretty big. ISIS Chief Spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani has been killed in Aleppo Province. ISIS affiliated news agency Amaq has confirmed it and said he “was martyred while surveying the operations to repel the military campaigns... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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New Jersey Courts Can Convict a Defendant of DWI Even Without Direct Evidence that They Were Driving
New Jersey’s law on driving while intoxicated (DWI) prohibits “operat[ing] a motor vehicle while under the influence” of alcohol or drugs, or with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 percent or greater. Courts have addressed multiple challenges to the definition of “operate” under this statute. New Jersey courts have held that the key issue is a defendant’s intent to drive, and the Legislature’s objective of preventing drunk driving requires a broad definition of “operate.” The New Jersey Appellate Division reviewed these issues in a recent decision, State v. Cancelosi, in which a defendant challenged the state’s proof that he “operated” his vehicle. The Appellate Division’s ruling in Cancelosi drew heavily on the Law Division’s ruling affirming the defendant’s conviction. The Law Division judge cited multiple cases addressing the definition of “operating” a vehicle…
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Seattle Times: FBI’s massive porn sting puts internet privacy in crossfire
Seattle Times: FBI’s massive porn sting puts internet privacy in crossfire by Mike Carter: The FBI snared scores of people after taking over a child-pornography bulletin board and conducting a sting and computer-hacking operation. But there is a growing social … Continue reading →
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cato.org: ‘Pre-Search’ Is Coming to U.S. Policing
cato.org: ‘Pre-Search’ Is Coming to U.S. Policing by Jim Harper: News that the city of Baltimore has been under surreptitious, mass-scale camera surveillance will have ramifications across the criminal justice world. When it comes to constitutional criminal procedure, privacy, and … Continue reading →
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McDonnell Decision Gives Sheldon Silver Breathing Room
The Supreme Court decision in McDonnell v United States, decided June 27, has given several politicians whose corruption convictions are on appeal both a cause for optimism and freedom on bail pending appeal. Last week SDNY District Judge Valerie Caproni...
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"Frustration yields to joy as DNA evidence springs Tony Wright after 25 years in prison"
From WHYY in Philadelphia. In part: After convincing a judge to order DNA tests of a Chicago Bulls sweatshirt and the blue jeans he allegedly wore during a 1991 rape and murder, Wright was granted a new trial, and the...
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"If a magistrate issues a warrant for a daytime search, when (if it at all) can it be executed at night?"
Orin Kerr has this post at The Volokh Conspiracy. In part: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit handed down an interesting Fourth Amendment decision Friday in Jones v. Kirchner. The question in the case is whether a...
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Motor Vehicle Homicide Conviction overturned: Expert Testimony or Merely an Opinion?
Expert testimony is critical in a Massachusetts Motor Vehicle Homicide prosecution. The issue of whether this testimony is admissible came up in the trial of Commonwealth v. Guinean, which was recently decided by the Massachusetts Court of Appeals. Back in 2010, Douglas Guinan was found guilty of both OUI and motor vehicle homicide, after a Superior Court judge abused his discretion in admitting expert testimony introduced by the Commonwealth. The expert testimony was in relation to the computer-assisted power steering mechanism within the defendant’s motor vehicle. After further consideration and appeals by the defendant, conclusions were made that the trooper merely stated his opinion and generally lacked the qualifications necessary to testify regarding the computer system within the vehicle. Because this information was central to Guinan’s defense, the Massachusetts Appeals Court overturned the OUI and motor-vehicle convictions. OUI or a Vehicle…
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cato.org: The Weird World of Data (and Your Privacy)
cato.org: The Weird World of Data (and Your Privacy) by Jim Harper: In 2007, Judge Richard Posner found it “untenable” that attaching a tracking device to a car is a seizure. But the Supreme Court struck down warrantless attachment of … Continue reading →
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"UN rights expert condemns Iran execution of 12 drug offenders"
From Jurist: Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran Ahmed Shaheed[official website] on Monday expressed "outrage" [press release] regarding Iran's execution of 12 people for drug-related charges on Saturday. The day before the execution, Shaheed had publicly...
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WaPo: The Watch: For nine years, DEA withholds names of masked agents who violently raided two innocent women. Federal court shrugs
WaPo: The Watch: For nine years, DEA withholds names of masked agents who violently raided two innocent women. Federal court shrugs. by Radley Balko: The Burley sisters say they were raided, roughed up and verbally abused, but because they can’t … Continue reading →
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Sanders on Confrontation as a Sentencing Right
Shaakirrah Sanders (University of Idaho - College of Law) has posted The Value of Confrontation as a Felony Sentencing Right (Widener Law Journal, Vol. 25, No. 103, 2016) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Article advocates recognition of the...
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Unholstered: Texas Tribune takes deep dive on police shootings
The Texas Tribune today published a major web feature on police shootings in Texas. They examined shootings by 36 Texas police departments cities with more than 100,000 population for the period 2010-2015, so they don't capture other LEOs like sheriffs deputies or constables; the cities they researched include about half the state's population.In those 36 cities they found 656 shootings involving 881 officers over that period. This is basically a large sample,there were many more shootings over that period.Several article accompanied the initial web piece. This one focused on on the rarity of discipline after police shootings. Only a handful of officers were disciplined by their department: 14 were suspended, 10 were fired (including 7 who were indicted), and one received a written reprimand. Another focused on use of force when officers respond to mental health crises.Another piece explored shootings that occurred while officers are off duty. And here's an…
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Hampson on Criminal Justice Debt
Christopher D. Hampson has posted State Bans on Debtors' Prisons and Criminal Justice Debt (Harvard Law Review, Vol. 129, p. 1024, 2016) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Since the 1990s, and increasingly in the wake of the Great Recession,...
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Latino legislator group calls for ending the death penalty
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