Academic

The Importance of Venue

Posted on January 14, 2011
As Wikipedia notes, in law ?venue? is ?the location where a case is heard.? The Wikipedia entry goes on to discuss venue, but it?s only concerned with venue in civil cases. In this post, we?re going to be dealing with venue in criminal cases...

Spyware . . . Fail

Posted on January 12, 2011
This post isn?t about a case that?s particularly significant or controversial. It?s about a case I found amusing, in one particular respect . . . and I think there?s room for the occasional amusing-case-blog-post. I hope you agree...

"Panorama Evidence"

Posted on January 10, 2011
This is a new phrase to me. . . . I discovered it in a recent opinion from a Wisconsin court: State v. Jensen, 2010 WL 5371177 (Wisconsin Court of Appeals 2010). Jensen was charged with, and convicted of, ?the first-degree intentional murder of his wife Julie? in violation of Wisconsin Statutes § 940...

Yard Sales, ?Wiped Clean? Laptops and the Rules of Evidence

Posted on January 07, 2011
Unlike many of my posts, this one isn?t about a case in which someone was convicted of a computer-related crime and either moved to dismiss the charges or appealed after being convicted of them. This post deals with an opinion in which a federal district judge in Virginia ruled on two motions federal prosecutors filed, each of which argued for the use of certain evidence at the defendant?s eventual trial...

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?Prying by a Former Bureaucrat?

Posted on January 05, 2011
As I?ve noted in earlier posts, a provision of 18 U.S. Code § 1030, the general federal computer crime statute, makes it a federal crime to access a computer ?without authorization? or by ?exceed[ing] authorized access? if certain conditions are met...

Emails, Wire Fraud and Impersonating a Federal Officer

Posted on January 03, 2011
This post is about a case that involves a pretty bizarre set of facts. The case is U.S. v. Ottoman, 2010 WL 5136069 (U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit 2010), and this, basically, is how it arose: In the 1990s, [Marcia] Ottoman and her husband lived in a farmhouse owned by her husband's parents...

iPhone Juror Misconduct

Posted on December 31, 2010
In a post I did about a year and a half ago, I explained what juror misconduct is and pointed out that technology has made juror misconduct ? at least misconduct of a certain type ? much more common than it used to be. Since then, I?ve done a few other posts that dealt with various aspects of juror misconduct in an era of pervasive technology...

Consent and Taint

Posted on December 29, 2010
As I?ve explained in earlier posts, consent is one of the exceptions to the 4th Amendment?s warrant requirement. As I noted in those posts, the 4th Amendment requires that a search or a seizure be ?reasonable;? the default way a search or seizure can be reasonable is for it to be conducted pursuant to a search and/or seizure warrant...

"Tampering with Records"

Posted on December 27, 2010
Most ? if not all ? U.S. states have statutes that make ?tampering with records? a crime. It seems to be considered a type of forgery. As Wikipedia notes, the crime of forgery is ?essentially concerned with a produced or altered object...

Forfeiture, Replevin and Res Judicata

Posted on December 24, 2010
This post deals with a forfeiture issue that arose in connection with a case I did a post on a couple of years ago. As you can see from that post, James Cline was prosecuted for, and convicted of, unauthorized use of a computer and telecommunications harassment in violation of Ohio law...

Cell Phone Calls and Hearsay

Posted on December 22, 2010
As I?ve noted before, the U.S. states and the U.S. federal government all have ?rules of evidence.? As Wikipedia explains, rules of evidence ?govern whether, when, and how, and for what purposes, proof . . . may be placed before a trier of fact for consideration? in resolving a civil or criminal case...

Good Faith and Flash Drives

Posted on December 20, 2010
In U.S. v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897 (1984), the U.S. Supreme Court articulated what is often referred to as the ?`good faith? exception to the exclusionary rule.? In Leon, the Court explained that since ?the exclusionary rule is designed to deter police misconduct,? it should not be applied ?to deter objectively reasonable law enforcement activity...

?Did Advise and Encourage? Suicide

Posted on December 17, 2010
I don?t know if you?re familiar with the ongoing prosecution of William Francis Melchert-Dinkel for allegedly advising and encouraging suicide in violation of Minnesota law. I must admit, I wasn?t until relatively recently. If you?d like a brief overview of the case, check out this Wikipedia entry of Melchert-Dinkel...

Harassment and ?Repeated Communications?

Posted on December 15, 2010
As I explained in an earlier post, ?harassment? is a crime in most, if not all, states. As I also noted there, harassment is usually defined in terms of someone who, ?acting with the intent to harass, annoy or alarm? another, but with ?no intent of legitimate communication? uses a computer or other telecommunications device to communicate with another person, the victim of the harassment...

Court Finds Stored Emails Private under the 4th Amendment

Posted on December 15, 2010
This isn't a post . . . it's a news flash about a recent decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.Two years ago, I did a post noting that the 6th Circuit backed off from an earlier decision in which it held that individuals have a 4th Amendment expectation of privacy in the contents of emails they leave stored with an ISP, such as Yahoo! As I noted in that post, the court didn't reject that proposition; it merely held that the decision reaching that issue was premature...

WikiLeaks and Receiving Stolen Property

Posted on December 13, 2010
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Spousal Privilege and ?Telephonic Voicemail Messages?

Posted on December 10, 2010
As Wikipedia explains, in U.S. law ?the spousal privilege comprises two separate privileges, the marital confidences privilege and the spousal testimonial privilege.? As Wikipedia also explains, the marital confidences privilege protects the contents of confidential communications between a married couple...

Emails, Canons and Recusal

Posted on December 08, 2010
This post is about a case in which the issue was whether a judge should have recused herself from presiding over a trial in a case assigned to her. As Wikipedia explains, [j]udicial disqualification, also referred to as recusal, refers to the act of abstaining from participation in an official action such as a legal proceeding due to a conflict of interest of the presiding court official...

?Rants and Raves? . . . and Sentencing

Posted on December 06, 2010
A couple of weeks ago, I did a post dealing with a case in which the defendant in a federal criminal case challenged the sentence imposed on him under the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines. As Wikipedia notes, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines ?are rules that set out a uniform sentencing policy for individuals ...

Revealing Password was ?Testimonial? and ?Incriminating?

Posted on December 03, 2010
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Broken Laptop Not ?Material Exculpatory Evidence?

Posted on December 02, 2010
As Wikipedia notes, in Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), held that the prosecution?s withholding exculpatory evidence violates ?due process `where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment?. As Wikipedia also notes, [e]xculpatory evidence is the evidence favorable to the defendant I a criminal trial, which clears or tends to clear the defendant of guilt...

Transportation ?in Interstate or Foreign Commerce?

Posted on November 29, 2010
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Charging Error Due to Computer Glitch

Posted on November 26, 2010
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Outlawing Botnets

Posted on November 23, 2010
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?No Record? and the Best Evidence Rule

Posted on November 22, 2010
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Computer Logs and Obstruction of Justice

Posted on November 20, 2010
As one website notes, obstruction of justice is a ?criminal offense that involves interference, through words or actions, with the proper operations of a court or officers of the court.? As this site also notes, law criminalizes acts interfering with the operations of a court because the ?integrity of the judicial system depends on the participants? acting honestly?...

Computer Destruction, Bad Faith and Acquittal

Posted on November 17, 2010
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"Outrageous Government Conduct"

Posted on November 15, 2010
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Distribution Enhancement . . . Fails

Posted on November 12, 2010
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Search Unlawful But Evidence Not Excluded

Posted on November 10, 2010
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