Online Prescription Case Ends in Conviction for Doctor
A former doctor from Colorado has been convicted of practicing medicine in California without a license for prescribing a generic form of Prozac over the Internet for a Stanford student who later committed suicide. Christian Hageseth, 68, could face up to a year in jail when he is sentenced April 17, in a precedent-setting case […]
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Zimmerman was on the ground being punched when he shot Trayvon Martin
Trayvon Martin’s Parents Give Their Account in New Book: “Rest in Power” It was dark in a violent neighborhood the night of February 26, 2012. A black teenager was shot by a Hispanic man. That is the only thing on which everyone agrees. The other details are still discussed five years later. Trayvon Martin‘s parents […]
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Accessory After The Fact
Criminal Penalties for Helping a Wanted Person Escape Prosecution Recently, the Los Angeles Times reported on a mother who helped her son flee to Mexico and who was subsequently extradited to face charges. The case made headlines because the mother was the parent of a teenager named Ethan Couch, who became famous for raising a […]
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The Ambien Defense
A North Carolina woman charged in four arson blazes has suggested that Ambien may have caused her behavior: “Her lawyer said she has been taking the prescription sleep aid, Ambien, periodically for the past several years. He said that may have been a factor in the crime.” That defense seems unlikely to succeed because the […]
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Acquittal in Ambien-Related Vehicular Homicide
The Boston Globe’s John Guilfoil had an item a few days ago about an apparently successful “Ambien defense” to vehicular homicide: An Andover lawyer was acquitted yesterday of a charge of motor vehicle homicide in the death of a Methuen man who was changing a flat tire on Interstate 93 in Tewksbury in July 2006. […]
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You Won’t Believe What is Considered Justified Grounds for a SWAT Raid on Your Home
The Fourth Amendment is supposed to ensure that law enforcement cannot conduct unjustified searches of a person or his home. Your house is particularly sacrosanct, as you have the ultimate expectation of privacy when you are in your own home. This is why it is so unbelievable that a federal judge recently ruled that a […]
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Scholarship Applicant Information:Anna Diyamandoglu
Citizens and residents of the United States alike pride themselves on their country’s freedoms. The first and foremost of these freedoms is our first amendment right to speak and publish whatever we believe or wish to express without fear of punishment. Over the last 230 years this right, or luxury even, has served as a […]
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Ambien and Mens Rea, Take Two
Back in May of 2006 this blog noted some of the potentially complicated issues that can arise in criminal cases where the defendant claims his or her behavior was related to use of the drug Ambien. The issue arises in cases like the one I noted last June where a woman claimed that the drug […]
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Sleeping Pills vs. Salvia and the Rhetoric of Risk
Many times when legislators speak about the need to criminalize the hallucinogenic plant salvia divinorum, they cite the risk that somebody could drive when under its influence, a scenario that suggests that salvia is dangerous even if people normally just sit around in their living room while they use it and don’t harm anyone. (See, […]
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Plea Bargaining
Prosecutors Not Disclosing Extrajudicial Consequences of a Plea Bargain Plea bargaining has become the norm in criminal cases, with 97 percent of federal convictions and 94 percent of state convictions resulting from guilty pleas. Plea bargains have become more and more common as prosecutors increasingly threaten defendants with serious charges carrying mandatory minimum sentences […]
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