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When pleading guilty, consider a no-civil-commitment agreement.

By Marks & Katz, LLC

  Imagine being in prison for a few years or many more than that, and counting the days to freedom, as Tom Waits's Zack does at the beginning of this clip from Down by Law. Eventually the days until release are shorter than the days that have been spent in prison, and eventually the years turn into months, then weeks, and then days until release.  And then someone plays what seems a cruel joke, with a government lawyer slapping a petition to keep you incarcerated as a dangerous person under the civil commitment laws -- under an evidentiary standard below the reasonable doubt standard, and without the right to a jury trial -- after having completed your criminal sentence. It happens. U.S. v. Comstock, et al., _ F.3d __ (4th Cir., Jan. 8, 2008)...continue to full post

Full post as published by Underdog on January 08, 2009 (boomark / email).