Crime & Federalism: Criminal Law

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Criminal Law

Crime & Federalism

Discussing recent news and court opinions, with an emphasis on federalism, criminal law, and civil rights actions.

Post Frequency: 8.6/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 15:45:19

As the Country Falls, Goldman Sachs Rises

Posted on July 14, 2009
Is Elliot Spitzer the only former elected official in the United States who understands the evil of Goldman Sachs? We know that Barney Frank is on the payroll. What of Barack Obama. Is Obama ignorant or in cahoots? Oh, and before you say it - as if this is a "point...

Sergey Aleynikov Fan Club

Posted on July 13, 2009
If you are on Facebook, join the Sergey Aleynikov Fan Club. Aleynikov is the whistleblower who copied Goldman Sachs' illegal, market-manipulating computer software. Aleynikov, who should be heradled as a hero, is being prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice - even though Goldman Sachs has admitted that its software is designed to manipulate the stock market...

Goldman Sachs Makes Bernie Madoff Look Like Pick Pocket

Posted on July 13, 2009
Goldman Sachs has admitted that it's trading software allows it to manipulate the market: July 9 (Bloomberg) -- Never let it be said that the Justice Department can?t move quickly when it gets a hot tip about an alleged crime at a Wall Street bank. It does help, though, if the party doing the complaining is the bank itself, and...

Literary Output

Posted on July 13, 2009
A novelist who writes 250 words a day is a success: That's a novel a year. A lawyer who writes 250 words a day is a failure: That's barely a billable hour. How then can a lawyer consider herself anything but a writer? It could be quipped that quantity does not equal quality...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Ira Sorkin Got Paid... For What?

Posted on July 10, 2009
What exactly did Bernie Madoff's lawyer, Ira Sorkin, actually do? Madoff turned himself in. Sorkin didn't try Madoff's case. Sorking didn't prepare for trial; sort through boxes; have armies of associates write motions and writs; prepare witnesses; hire priviate investigators; and, for good measure, pad bills...

Women More Racist than Men; Liberals as Racist as Ever

Posted on July 09, 2009
I always outrage feminists with this claim: Men are less racist than women. Proof: Men have more diversity in their dating lives than women. Really; it's true. How many of your proper white female friends have ever dated or have relations a black guy? How many of your male friends have been with a black chick? It's a fun question...

"Cognitive Daily"

Posted on July 09, 2009
Interesting blog to add to reading rotation.

Textbook False Rape Conviction

Posted on July 09, 2009
This sad story has all the telltale signs. You could make a check list. A drunk woman who claims she was raped. She was too drunk to remember what happened; but somehow not too drunk to know she did not give consent. No DNA evidence from the acussed rapist is present...

Using iPhones to Avoid Speed Traps

Posted on July 09, 2009
Now this is cool: Area drivers looking to outwit police speed traps and traffic cameras are using an iPhone application and other global positioning system devices that pinpoint the location of the cameras. That has irked D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier, who promised her officers would pick up their game to counteract the devices, which can also help drivers dodge...

Interesting Discusson on Sham Affidavit Rule

Posted on July 09, 2009
Plaintiff-deponent gave testimony that would tend to not establish liability. Based on plaintiff-deponent's testimony, there would be no triable issue of material fact; defendant should win. The plaintiff-deponent then introduced evidence from other witnesses that tended to establish liability...

Batson and Comparative Juror Analysis: Stephen Wagstaffe is a Racist and Unethical Prosecutor

Posted on July 09, 2009
Ali v. Hickman (CA9) is going to be tedious - but required - reading. Hickman (here) discusses comparative juror analysis in detail. A comparative juror analysis is common sense, but until recently, wasn't the law. Under Batson v. Kentucky, a prosecutor cannot discriminate against black prospective jurors...

How the Legal Blogosphere has Changed

Posted on July 07, 2009
There's an interesting post about the changes which have occurred in the blogosphere in general. It's a good summary. The legal blogosphere has changed dramatically since I began blogging over 5 years ago. It's a lot worse than it once was. I probably read 5 or 6 law blogs...

Ninth Circuit Issues Two Potentially Big Cases on Class Certification

Posted on July 07, 2009
In Vinole v. Countrywide Home Loans, and Mevorah v. Wells Fargo, the same three-judge panel hols that home loan consultants aren't a proper wage-and-hour class. Mevorah explains why, and thus is the best of the two to read for an understanding of the court's reasoning.

Das Experiment/The Experiment

Posted on July 06, 2009
Leave it to the Germans to make a movie dramatizing the Stanford Prison Experiment. In the Stanford Prison Experiment, the researchers stopped once people started losing it - just six days. In "The Experiment," the experiment goes on. I don't know how to do movie reviews, so here is a good one...

Obama Becoming a Beta?

Posted on July 06, 2009
This is pathethic. Barack Obama is the President of the United States. Yes, dealing with Russians is challenging. Russians are natural alphas. Nevertheless, the Presient of the United States must communicate, "No, fuck you. I'm the President. You come to shake my hand...

Why One Cannot Take Paul Krugman or Other Keynesians Seriously

Posted on July 03, 2009
In his latest New York Times column, Krugman "argues" in favor of a second - this time much larter - stimulus. Argues in in quotes, since Krugman doesn't really make an argument. Rather, like a holy man or witch doctor with a direct line to the supernatural, he makes assertions...

Out of Work? Start a Business

Posted on July 03, 2009
How many people will take advantage of the incredible opportunity that joblessness offers? It's cliche, but true: Often the best things in life happen after tragedy or trauma. If you had a job you didn't enjoy but could pay the bills with; how do you quit? How do you justify that choice to people you might be supporting? "Sorry, dear,...

Perception and Reality: It's Still Fast Food

Posted on July 03, 2009
This blog should encourage thoughts about subjects other than fast food. Must read.

How Shady are Bank Overdraft Fees?

Posted on July 02, 2009
Clusterstock is a finance news site with a very pro-capitalist readership. Read the comments if you want to see the anti-banking sentiment. When a bunch of capitalists agree that banks are robbing people, something very criminal is ocurring. There are some good comments regarding the shady practice of overdraft fees...

Lessons from Bernie Madoff, Robert Allen Stanford, and Marc Rich

Posted on July 01, 2009
Bernie Madoff surrended himself to authorities. He cooperated fully. He put up no fight. He got 150 years in prison - a death sentence. J. Allen Stanford, who has not yet been convicted, returned from a foreign country to fight the criminal charges against him...

Jury Selection and the Five Factor/Big 5 Personality Factors

Posted on June 30, 2009
Snoop (here) focuses on the Big 5 personality factors. Why care? Because it seems that the Big 5 are correlated with actual juror behavior. According to one study: Actual venire members ( N = 764) completed the Big Five Inventory before going through the jury selection process for 1 of 11 criminal or 17 civil trials...

"The Private Lives of Jurors"

Posted on June 29, 2009
In the most recent Los Angeles Lawyer is an article exploring the legal and ethical issues of having a private investigator, investigate jurors. (It's here.) It's written by two associates from the best investigative firm in California, Batza & Associates...

Have You Heard?

Posted on June 29, 2009
Michael Jackson died, Bernie Madoff got 150 years, and the United States Supreme Court sided with the white firefighters. Life would be unintesting if everyone stopped talking about the same things as everyone else. And if everyone else decided to stop being interested in the same things, life would be a bore...

Western Centric Bias, Pascal's Wager, and Muslim "Freedom"

Posted on June 29, 2009
An ignorant 19-year-old from a farming community, I found Pascal's Wager reasonable. "Pascal's Wager (or Pascal's Gambit) is a suggestion posed by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal that even though the existence of God cannot be determined through reason, a person should wager as though God exists, because so living has everything to gain, and nothing to lose...

Blogger Crosses Fine Line

Posted on June 25, 2009
It's one thing to say, "I wish you were dead!" It's quite another to post your photo, work address, references to colleagues of yours who had been killed, etc. Details here.

Even in Recession, Good Help is Hard to Find

Posted on June 24, 2009
Saying this deeply offends people, as the truth often does: If you are the best at what you do, you'll always have a job. People go home, drink beer, and watch televion. They are then shocked to lose their jobs. Sure, rarely an industry dies; but even then, start learning a new skill while your industry lives...

Are California's IOUs an Unconstitutional Bill of Credit?

Posted on June 24, 2009
California is broke. It's going to start issuing IOUs to creditors. Article One, Section 10 of the United States Constitution provides: "No State shall ... emit Bills of Credit []." Is an IOU a "bill of credit"? I don't know. Do you?

Kindle DX Review

Posted on June 23, 2009
Awesome, A+, fantastic, must-see review here. The .pdf feature is what sold me on the DX rather than the Kindle 2. The DX is larger, though. With the Kindle 2, you must convert .pdf files. Not everyone has had good luck with the conversion. Most of my day is spent reading trial transcripts...

Gig: What Your Jurors Do For a Living

Posted on June 23, 2009
I was up too late last night reading Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs. People from every job imaginable (or unimaginable) give a first-person narrative of what their jobs are like. Each entry is a few pages. Easy to skip from one profession to another...

Conclusive Evidence of Media Cover-Up: New York Times Covers Up David Rohde Kidnapping

Posted on June 21, 2009
It doesn't get more overt than this. The New York Times and every other media outlet refused to cover a story involving a kidnapped Times reporter. They had good reasons.... If you believe that it's the job of a media outlet to decide when to cover something that is clearly newsworthy...

Previous | Next