Criminal Law

Around the Web

Posted on September 10, 2008
Crime and Consequences points us to a Poughkeepsie Journal report that "a convicted sex offender who violated the terms of probation less than an hour after he left the courtroom in July received 1 1/2 to five years prison sentence...

Tipping Point Against SORNA?

Posted on September 10, 2008
I've long felt that economics are the most significant constraint on increasingly restrictive sex offender policy. That's why less states have civil commitment provisions (very costly) than basic registries (relatively cheap). The Justice Policy Institute has just issued a report...

Court Asks for More Briefing Concerning Kennedy Rehearing

Posted on September 08, 2008
It looks like "irregular blogging" turned into "no blogging" during my trip. It's the middle of the night in Scotland and I fly back to the States tomorrow. I have a lot to catch up on, but I just saw...

Irregular Blogging Schedule

Posted on September 03, 2008
I am headed out to a conference in Scotland to present a paper that has absolutely nothing to do with sex crime law, so I'm not sure what my blogging schedule will be like for the next week. I'll try...

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Only Words?

Posted on September 02, 2008
The unusual prosecution for obscenity of a person based entirely upon writings has ended in a plea deal. From the WSJ Law Blog:From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, we have news of an interesting obscenity case, long in the making, that reached...

Another District Court Finds AWA Registration Provisions Unconstitional

Posted on June 14, 2008
And the holding was apparently based upon Commerce Clause grounds. Sentencing Law & Policy is covering the story. Like Berman, I couldn't find the opinion (the District of Montana's website has a link for opinions that is under construction). Here...

Not Guilty

Posted on June 13, 2008
After all this time, R. Kelly was find not guilty on all counts. I have to admit that I'm a bit surprised. Here is the story from CNN: A Chicago jury has acquitted R. Kelly on all counts at his...

Around the Web

Posted on June 12, 2008
More media fallout regarding the sexually explicit files found on the personal server of the Chief Judge of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals occurred today. First, Judge Kozinski (who is currently presiding over a high-profile obscenity trial) acknowledged...

Locked in Limbo

Posted on June 12, 2008
A couple of helpful readers let me know about this wonderful series in the Minneapolis Star Tribune about the Minnesota's post-incarceration institutionalization program. The story is divided into four parts on the paper's website and you can find those links...

More on ISP Agreement Regarding Child Pornography Sites

Posted on June 11, 2008
Dan Filler at The Faculty Lounge covers the story that I mentioned yesterday and addresses the problem of public/private coordination: Private ISP's are (largely) free to shut down any information streams they choose - whether that be child pornography or...

Around the Web

Posted on June 11, 2008
The Department of Justice has issued a proposal which would implement provisions of the Adam Walsh Act which would require that "producers of depictions of simulated sexually explicit conduct to maintain records documenting that performers in those depictions are at...

A Famous Judge, Cows, and Obscenity

Posted on June 11, 2008
How Appealing reports that a Los Angeles obscenity case will test the community standard in the nation's pornography capital. This article in the LA Times quotes the filmmaker as saying his films feature bestiality and defecation, but still have artistic...

Agreement with ISPs to Block Child Pornography

Posted on June 10, 2008
Cuomo has announced an agreement with 3 ISP's to block access to certain websites that post child pornography. Here is the story from the Washington Post: Three of the nation's major Internet service providers have agreed to block customer access...

Around the Web

Posted on June 10, 2008
A three judge Nevada Supreme Court panel has ruled that a former sex offender who is serving time for a non-sexual offense does not need a psychological certification before getting parole. Typically, before Nevada sex offenders are released, a panel...

Humanitarian Workers and Rape

Posted on June 10, 2008
Via abyss2hope, there was this recent story on CNN about humanitarian workers engaging in sexual violence: Humanitarian aid workers and United Nation peacekeepers are sexually abusing small children in several war-ravaged and food-poor countries, a leading European charity has said...

Computer Search Subject to Probation Condition

Posted on June 09, 2008
FourthAmendment.com has details on a case where a computer was searched for child pornography subject to a probation condition: Probation search condition that permitted search of work place computer was not unreasonable and furthered the purposes of probation...

Defense Rests in R. Kelly Trial

Posted on June 09, 2008
After waiting an eternity for the trial to begin, it is almost over in the blink of an eye: Defense attorneys have rested their case in the child pornography trial of R&B singer R. Kelly in Chicago. The singer looked...

Conviction in Major Obscenity Trial

Posted on June 06, 2008
A man who went by the alias "Max Hardcore" has been found guilty of 20 counts of obscenity violations in a Florida federal court: A Tampa federal jury that watched more than eight hours of graphic and violent pornography in...

TalkLeft on FLDS

Posted on June 06, 2008
TChris at TalkLeft posts about how the fear of sex abuse led to some mistakes in the handling of small children in the FLDS crackdown: Some of the minors at the FLDS compound may have been coerced into sexual unions...

Around the Web

Posted on June 05, 2008
A Michigan sex offender, who walked away from prison work detail 38 years ago, was arrested this week in Wisconsin. The man was sentenced in 1968 to a term of five to ten years after a conviction for taking indecent...

More from SSRN

Posted on June 05, 2008
I talked a bit about Berman & Bibas's new article, but I am little behind on the rest of my reading on SSRN (144 essay exams by 1L's will do that to you). Here are some interesting articles posted recently...

Around the Web

Posted on June 04, 2008
CrimProf Blog has a post noting an NPR story discussing Kennedy v. Louisiana which is currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. NPR speaks to Ted Cruz, "the former Solicitor General of Texas, who also participated in Kennedy's Supreme Court...

Berman Responds to My Comments

Posted on June 04, 2008
In response to my comments about his article (co-authored with Bibas), Berman had this to say: In my view, connecting the emotion/rational divide to the retribution/deterrence divide is insightful, but incomplete. I personally think there is and should be some...

A Trifecta of Fourth Amendment Issues in Sex Crime Cases

Posted on June 04, 2008
FourthAmedment.com has had three recent posts concerning search and seizure issues in kiddie porn cases. First up was a post about whether voluntary showing of some computer images constituted consent for viewing of other images on the computer at a....

Berman and Bibas on Capital Emotions

Posted on June 03, 2008
Two leading sentencing scholars have posted a paper revolving around the Louisiana v. Kennedy case. Here is the abstract on SSRN: The Supreme Court, in Kennedy v. Louisiana, is about to decide whether the Eighth Amendment forbids capital punishment for...

Sex Crimes Makes Top 100 Criminal Law Blogs List

Posted on June 03, 2008
I'm not sure who created this list, but I'm honored to have my humble little blog included. A lot of my favorite blogs make the list as well (including a lot that have very little criminal law content). There are...

Carnival Against Sexual Violence 48

Posted on June 03, 2008
It is up at abyss2hope. Here is the legal section: In Do we have to have several decades of lawsuits? posted at Change Happens: the SAFER blog, we get a discussion about rape survivors suing their schools (the University of...

Repressed Memory and Sex Abuse by Catholic Priests

Posted on June 03, 2008
Largely due to statutes of limitations on claims against Catholic priests in sex abuse cases, the use of repressed memory arguments have played a central role in making such lawsuits possible. At Prawfsblawg, Tim Lytton has an interesting post (related...

Around the Web

Posted on June 02, 2008
Prosecutors in California announced that they will seek the death penalty in the murder trial of a convicted sex offender who is accused of killing a young woman whose body was found in a trash can in the mountains near...

Mole Found

Posted on May 30, 2008
It looks like the defense argument that R. Kelly was not on the infamous video tape has run into a snag. Apparently, the prosecution has found the mole that the defense previously said was missing: The mole that R. Kelly's...

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