Criminal Law

SCOTUS Saves Death Row Inmates' Appeal for Another Day

Posted on October 09, 2008
From Examiner.com: The United States Supreme Court says it needs more time to look at an appeal from Georgia death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis. Davis, 39, was convicted of the 1989 shooting death of off-duty officer Mark Allen McPhail,...

Md. Police Put Activists' Names On Terror Lists

Posted on October 09, 2008
The Maryland State Police classified 53 nonviolent activists as terrorists and entered their names and personal information into state and federal databases that track terrorism suspects, the state police chief acknowledged yesterday. Police Superintendent Terrence B...

New fingerprint technology urged

Posted on October 08, 2008
When Stephanie Hartnett saw the man who had followed her 13-year-old daughter to her Roslindale home, she knew he was not the teenager he claimed to be in text messages and e-mails. But when Boston police responded to her call,...

After domestic killing, Rhode Island requires schools to teach students about dating violence

Posted on October 08, 2008
NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (AP) -- Ann Burke saw signs of trouble with her daughter's boyfriend. He'd incessantly call her at night, keep her from her family, and, ultimately, physically abuse her during a tumultuous relationship that ended with her death...

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Sleuths go door to door to sniff out Medicare fraud

Posted on October 08, 2008
MIAMI ? Medicare investigators Suzanne Bradley and Cecilia Franco rap on an apartment door a little before 10 a.m. on a muggy Thursday. They're seeking an 86-year-old man ? allegedly a homebound diabetic whose home health care agency is billing...

Justice issues collide on ballot

Posted on October 07, 2008
Law and order activists, critics of California's drug laws and victims rights groups independently have loaded three separate crime measures onto the Nov. 4 ballot, and they're not making it easy for state voters to sort them out. Together, Propositions...

Minneapolis' 'blueprint' to attack youth violence is a success

Posted on October 07, 2008
When a politician hails an initiative as a "blueprint" for change, it often fails to deliver any substantial results. This doesn't appear to be the case with Minneapolis' blueprint to prevent youth violence, which started in January. Gathering outside the...

Cincinnati: Homicides ahead of '07 pace Drug Shortage to Blame

Posted on October 07, 2008
Cincinnati has been a violent place lately. In the last week, there have been five homicides - increasing the number this year to 58, compared to 55 homicides at this time last year. On Sept. 29 and Sept. 30 alone,...

U.S. Supreme Court Denies Rehearing in Kennedy v. Louisiana Opinion

Posted on October 06, 2008
On October 1, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Louisiana's request for a rehearing of the Court's ruling striking down the death penalty for non-homicidal offenses against individuals. Louisiana contended that a recent adjustment to military law that continued to allow...

International Law Experts Question Supreme Court Decision in Medellin Case

Posted on October 06, 2008
Notable international law experts cited in a recent article in the Washington Lawyer criticized the Supreme Court?s 2008 decision on whether an international treaty was binding on Texas in the case of death row inmate Jose Medellin. Carolyn Lamm, an....

New Justices content with their dip in the pool

Posted on October 06, 2008
As detailed in this Tony Mauro piece, the new SCOTUS Justices apparently are content to continue to rely on the cert pool to help screen cert petitions: As they enter their second term, the Supreme Court's two newest justices have...

Marie Ashe Professor of Law Suffolk University Law School

Posted on October 05, 2008
Dep. Public Defender, Lancaster County Public Defender Office, Lincoln, 1980-83; Staff Attorney, Nebraska Advocacy Services, Lincoln, 1983-84; Private Practice, Sole, Lincoln, 1983-84; Supervisory Attorney, Civil Clinical Program - Nebraska, Lincoln, 1983; Director, 1984; Visiting Assistant Professor, Nebraska, 1984-85; Assistant Professor,...

State rule clarifies 60-day supply of medical marijuana

Posted on October 04, 2008
A new rule determining how much pot constitutes a 60-day supply for medical-marijuana users was finalized on Thursday, a decade after Washington voters passed an initiative legalizing marijuana for people suffering from terminal and debilitating illnesses...

Interpersonal and Physical Dating Violence Among Teens

Posted on October 03, 2008
The death of a 16 year-old girl, shot and killed by her 17 year-old boyfriend in Oakland, California, epitomizes the potential of interpersonal violence to escalate to a tragic extreme (Contra Costa Times, 2008). Exposure to interpersonal violence often begins...

Mackerel Economics in Prison Leads to Appreciation for Oily Fillets

Posted on October 03, 2008
When Larry Levine helped prepare divorce papers for a client a few years ago, he got paid in mackerel. Once the case ended, he says, "I had a stack of macks." Mr. Levine and his client were prisoners in California's...

Second Circuit Overturns Terrorism Convictions

Posted on October 03, 2008
Finding that a Yemeni cleric and his assistant had been deprived of a fair trial because of errors by the presiding judge, a federal appeals panel in New York on Thursday overturned their convictions in a prominent terrorism case once...

Mistrial Motion Being Considered in Trial Of Sen. Ted Stevens

Posted on October 02, 2008
The trial of Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, teetered on the verge of a mistrial or even a dismissal of the charges on Thursday because of the discovery that Justice Department prosecutors had withheld information that they were supposed...

Murders send city crime rate upwards

Posted on October 02, 2008
The city's crime rate jumped last month, led by a spike in murders, NYPD statistics show. The murder rate rose nearly 77% to 46 homicides through Sept. 28, compared with 26 through the same date in September 2007. Shooting crimes...

Judge: No Internet for stalker

Posted on October 02, 2008
A local artist who pleaded guilty to cyberstalking has been given a sentence that includes writing ?I will not interfere with the Plaza Central Art Krawl? 1,000 times. Kevin Starr, whose real name is Herschel Crumbley, was accused of sending...

Temple professor ponders role in Phila. parole review

Posted on October 02, 2008
The Temple University professor who hastily accepted Gov. Rendell's request Monday to conduct a "top-to-bottom" review of Pennsylvania's parole system knows very little about the new assignment or how long it will take to complete. John S. Goldkamp, head of...

Crime lab shutdown slammed as too fast

Posted on October 01, 2008
A group of scientists told the Detroit City Council on Tuesday that the closing of the police crime lab was hasty and left a slew of employees with tarnished reputations and job uncertainty. Cathy Carr, 50, a senior forensic biologist,...

High court rebuffs Louisiana in child rape case

Posted on October 01, 2008
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court declined Wednesday to revisit its recent decision outlawing executions for people convicted of raping children. The unusual request, from Louisiana and the Bush administration, was based on the failure of anyone involved in the case...

When deadly force is justified

Posted on October 01, 2008
The Indiana law that justifies use of deadly force for people defending themselves, their home or others in danger is seldom used, but this week's case involving a Northwestside family brings it to the spotlight. Sunday, Robert McNally put a...

SCOTUS Grants Cert. in Seven Criminal Cases

Posted on October 01, 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court today granted review in seven criminal cases. Among the issues the Court will address are two Sixth Amendment issues: whether a defendant whose Sixth Amendment right to counsel has attached and who has been appointed counsel...

Third Circuit Requires Reasonable Suspicion for Border Searches of Sleeping Compartments

Posted on September 30, 2008
The Fourth Amendment generally prohibits federal agents from conducting border searches of sleeping compartments on vessels unless the agents have reasonable suspicion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit announced Sept. 4 (United States v...

D.C. Police Officers Carry iPhones, Panasonic Toughbooks

Posted on September 30, 2008
Tucked in with their Tasers and service weapons, some District of Columbia police officers are now sporting iPhones. An initiative spearheaded by Vivek Kundra, chief technology officer for the District of Columbia, is putting Apple's smartphone -- along with Panasonic...

No Charges Expected in Dismissal of Attorneys

Posted on September 30, 2008
A Justice Department investigation offers a blistering critique of the political motivations that led to the firings of a group of United States attorneys in late 2006 but stops short of recommending criminal charges against former Attorney General Alberto R...

Colorado sex-crime database perplexes

Posted on September 29, 2008
When President Bush signed the Adam Walsh Act into law, it required states to contribute to a national database of sex offenders with more current and stringent registration requirements. But states and American Indian tribes are having a tough time....

Opponents of Tough Federal Sentencing Rules Take Up Heller for Help

Posted on September 29, 2008
The federal judge that sentenced Weldon Angelos to 55 years and one day in prison in 2004 said his hands were tied by mandatory-minimum gun laws, calling his own sentence "unjust, cruel, and even irrational." Now a law professor and...

More hurt in spring prison riot than originally reported

Posted on September 29, 2008
The April riot that left two inmates dead at the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence lasted nearly a half-hour and injured six times the number of people the Bureau of Prisons announced at the time, according to an incident report obtained...

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