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Criminal Law

CrimProf Blog

Criminal law resources, information, and news for the academic community.

Post Frequency: 25.9/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 16:40:00

Eight and on Trial: Young Defendants Throw Criminal Justice Into Confusion

Posted on December 11, 2008
In his videotaped confession to the police, the eight-year-old boy sits in an overstuffed office chair and calmly describes how he shot his father and his father's roommate to death with a rifle. At one point, he buries his head...

Prosecutors Seek to Rescind Cooperation Letter for Millennium Bomber

Posted on December 09, 2008
Federal prosecutors are seeking yet another sentencing for would-be millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam ? this time without credit for helping to convict a fellow terrorist. Ressam was sentenced for the second time last week to 22 years in prison for...

Appeals Court Upholds Senator Craig's Guilty Plea

Posted on December 09, 2008
The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected U.S. Sen. Larry Craig's effort to withdraw his guilty plea to a misdemeanor offense of disorderly conduct in connection with a sex-sting operation. "Because we see no abuse of discretion in the...

Illinois Governor Arrested on Corruption Charges

Posted on December 09, 2008
Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested this morning on federal corruption charges. Wiretaps recorded Blagojevich discussing how to "sell or trade" the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama "for financial and personal benefits for himself and his wife," prosecutors...

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Interrogation Upheld in Country Where Right to Counsel Unavailable

Posted on December 09, 2008
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Nov. 24 upheld the admission of statements elicited overseas by U.S. agents from suspects in the custody of a country that does not provide a right to counsel during interrogations. ?[I]nsofar...

Mental health system ailing

Posted on December 06, 2008
Shannon Harps, a young Sierra Club worker, devoted her life to improving her community before she was killed last New Year's Eve. But her death may spur major mental health system reforms that could result in improved public safety, better...

European Human Rights Court Rules to Remove Innocent People's DNA Samples from UK Database

Posted on December 05, 2008
From timesonline.co.uk: Hundreds of thousands of DNA and fingerprint samples face being removed from police national databases after a court ruled today that holding details of people with no criminal convictions breaches human rights laws. The European Court of Human...

Prosecutors warn against more budget cuts

Posted on December 05, 2008
Kentucky prosecutors warned yesterday that further state budget cuts could significantly disrupt prosecution of crimes and leave the state's court system in shambles. "It's going to be chaos,'' said Christian County Attorney Mike Foster, a member of the Prosecutors Advisory...

17 Dallas police officers violated high-speed chase policy, report finds

Posted on December 05, 2008
Seventeen officers violated the Dallas Police Department's high-speed chase policy in a September pursuit that left an officer seriously injured, an internal affairs investigation has concluded. None of the officers, including the one who was injured, were authorized to be...

Walking in cops' shoes -- in the line of fire

Posted on December 05, 2008
I'M WALKING the beat with Officer Casey when the 911 call comes in. Disturbance. Downtown. Hurry. We rush to the scene and enter a crowded restaurant, our hearts racing. At a far table by the window a man, 40ish, is...

15 officers caught in FBI drug sting

Posted on December 04, 2008
"I ain't always been in law enforcement," a Harvey cop allegedly bragged to the drug dealer whose business he was paid to protect. "I sold a lot of weight at a young age, I just never got caught." His luck...

DNA search fails to find relatives of unknown serial killer

Posted on December 04, 2008
The Los Angeles Police Department's hunt for an elusive serial killer who has stalked women in South L.A. for more than two decades was dealt a setback Tuesday when a controversial search of DNA databases for the killer's family members...

FBI power in terror cases grows

Posted on December 04, 2008
Beginning Monday, the FBI will get increased power to investigate suspected terrorists under revised administrative guidelines that some Muslim Americans and civil rights advocates in metro Detroit are concerned may target innocent people. The new Justice Department guidelines will allow...

Can swabbing for DNA go too far?

Posted on December 03, 2008
In the settlement around Cove Run Creek, nobody said no when police came asking for their DNA. A dead baby, wrapped in a flannel shirt and plastic bag, then stuffed into a knapsack, had been abandoned in the woods in...

Lessons from Hurricane Katrina: Prison Emergency Preparedness as a Constitutional Imperative

Posted on December 03, 2008
Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters ever to strike the United States, in terms of casualties, suffering, and financial cost. Often overlooked among Katrina's victims are the 8,000 inmates who were incarcerated at Orleans Parish Prison (OPP)...

New Charge for Bernard Kerik

Posted on December 03, 2008
Disgraced former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik's glib response to White House officials when he interviewed to be director of homeland security may land him in prison. "Nope, it's all in my book," Kerik said when asked in 2002 if there...

Roman Polanski Files for Dismissal of Criminal Case

Posted on December 02, 2008
LOS ANGELES, Dec 02, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Academy Award-winning film director Roman Polanski, through new lawyers, Chad Hummel of Los Angeles' Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP, and Bart Dalton of Los Angeles, today filed a formal request with the...

Circuit Court Finds Defendant Had Right to Cross-Examine Witness about Swastika Tattoos

Posted on December 02, 2008
The broad discretion that the Sixth Amendment confrontation clause provides to trial judges to control the presentation of evidence was abused when a federal district judge barred a defendant from cross-examining a government witness about the witness's swastika tattoos, the...

In a Brooklyn Parking Lot, the End of a Quiet Life

Posted on December 02, 2008
The church custodian saw him first: a man alone in a parking lot, swinging a folding chair like an ax, bringing it down toward the windshield of a parked van and stopping, an inch from the glass. Then backing up...

Standing their ground: More citizens enforcing the law themselves

Posted on December 02, 2008
"I'm killing you right now! You shouldn't have looked at me, man! Go ahead. Say goodbye. Say goodbye. I'm blowing you away right here.'' But when the teen suddenly fled, Morelli's fear morphed to rage. Pursuing his attacker and dodging...

Cops Say Legalizing Drugs Can Boost Economy by Billions

Posted on December 02, 2008
This Tuesday, December 2, a group of law enforcers who fought on the front lines of the ?war on drugs? and witnessed its failures will commemorate the 75th anniversary of alcohol prohibition?s repeal by calling for drug legalization. The cops,...

Plaxico Burress Turns Himself In On Gun Charge

Posted on December 01, 2008
Troubled Giants star Plaxico Burress turned himself into a Manhattan precinct Monday morning where he is expected to be charged after accidentally shooting himself in the right thigh while drinking at a Midtown nightclub. Walking with no sign of a...

Treatment programs key to winning war on drugs

Posted on December 01, 2008
A recent report by the Government Accountability Office, commissioned by Sen. Joe Biden, has come to an unsurprising conclusion: After more than $6 billion spent, the controversial drug control operation known as Plan Colombia has failed by large margins to...

Gun checks may violate federal law

Posted on December 01, 2008
The Delaware State Police have been conducting secret background checks of some gun owners since 2001, a process known as "superchecks" that may violate federal law. The checks have resulted in confiscation of weapons, some for legitimate reasons, but have...

Spare the innocent

Posted on December 01, 2008
Another innocent man has been freed. When will state legislators respond to what can only be called a crisis of wrongful conviction in New York? Perhaps in January, when Democrats take over the State Senate. Albany has been woefully uninterested...

Erik Luna Professor of Criminal Law S.J. Quinney College

Posted on November 30, 2008
Professor Luna graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California, and he received his J.D. with honors from Stanford Law School, where he was an editor of the Stanford Law Review. Upon graduation, he was a prosecutor in...

New trial ordered in 1991 Buddhist temple killings

Posted on November 29, 2008
A federal court of appeals on Thursday overturned the conviction of a West Valley man found guilty of killing nine people at a Buddhist temple west of Phoenix in 1991. Jonathan Doody was one of two youths convicted of the...

A chance for sensible gun laws

Posted on November 28, 2008
WIth the historic election of Barack Obama, the nation finally has an opportunity to enact sensible national gun policy. Obama should look to big cities, especially Boston, for guidance. Big-city mayors know all too well the devastating impact a failed...

U.S. war on drugs has failed, report says

Posted on November 28, 2008
The United States' war on drugs has failed and will continue to do so as long as it emphasizes law enforcement and neglects the problem of consumption, a Washington think tank says in a report co-chaired by a former president...

Guilty verdict in MySpace suicide case could chill Internet speech

Posted on November 28, 2008
A high-profile Internet legal case that just concluded here will have a chilling effect on users of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook if the verdict holds up on appeal, legal experts say. A Los Angeles jury on...

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