New York City has agreed to a settlement in the long-running legal battle over abuses at Rikers Island, the country’s second-largest jail system, federal and city officials said on Monday. The administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio committed to a host of far-reaching reforms in the deal, including the appointment of a federal monitor, an […]
READ MOREAssessing the Effect of Crack Sentencing Retroactivity
What difference has it made that the federal sentencing guideline on crack cocaine was retroactively reformed? Depends who you ask. At the Heritage Foundation, Charles Stimson has a piece up right now essentially arguing that it’s important to keep statistics about the effect of the sentencing change. Stimson also writes It is inevitable, though, that […]
READ MORECA 2d District on Patdown Search for Identification
A patdown search merely to find a suspect’s identification is not okay under Terry v. Ohio. That’s the holding of People v. Garcia, B187453, decided today by the California Second District Court of Appeal. In this case, a police officer stopped a man for the heinous offense of riding a bike without a headlamp and […]
READ MORECA 4th District on Traffic Stop of Vehicle Without License Plates
A police officer does not violate the Fourth Amendment by conducting a traffic stop of a car that has no license plates, even if that car has valid temporary registration papers properly displayed, if the officer does not see those registration papers before conducting the stop. That’s the holding of the California Fourth District Court […]
READ MOREOrin Kerr: Brendlin “Deliciously Certworthy”
Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, Orin Kerr has some harsh wordsfor the California Supreme Court’s reasoning in People v. Brendlin, the June 2006 decision in which it said that the passenger of a car stopped by police is not “seized” for Fourth Amendment purposes. Kerr calls Brendlin “one of the nuttiest Fourth Amendment decisions I […]
READ MORESavannah Attorney Arrested on Counterfeiting Charges
Savannah attorney, Arthur Gibson, 63, was arrested last week on counterfeiting charges after an investigation that lasted several months. During the course of the investigation, as detailed in this complaint and affidavit, Gibson purchased $10,000 of counterfeit currency for $2,000. As detailed in the affidavit, Gibson came to the attention of the U.S. Secret Service following his […]
READ MOREWhitey Bulger’s Girlfriend to Plead Guilty
Whitey Bulger’s longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig, is set to enter a guilty plea today in federal court in Boston to multiple counts relating to her 16 years on the run with the notorious Boston gangster. The Bulger case has fascinated us for almost 2 decades after his flight to avoid prosecution just before his indictment in […]
READ MOREUnited States v. Rodriquez: Supreme Court on “Serious Drug Offense” under the Armed Career Criminal Act
The Supreme Court today handed down United States v. Rodriquez, a sentencing case involving the interaction between state and federal law for people with prior “serious drug offense” convictions. I’m too slammed to do a writeup, but here’s the link to the opinion. Prof. Berman has a little analysis at the Sentencing Law and Policy […]
READ MOREErrors in DNA Match Calculations Show the Fallibility of Scientific Evidence
For many criminal defendants, DNA evidence is the key piece of prosecutorial evidence that results in conviction. A prosecutor has the burden of proving a case beyond a reasonable doubt, and if there are questions about whether you were the person who committed the crime, DNA evidence goes a long way towards showing you were […]
READ MORELengthy Prison Sentences Can Come from Not Cooperating with Police Investigations
Can individuals who don’t actually commit a criminal act be sentenced to prison for helping to cover up evidence when a crime is committed? The answer to this question is a resounding yes. If you help a friend after-the-fact or obstruct a police investigation, you can face serious criminal charges. Three college friends of Dzhokhar […]
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