Supreme Court Decides Setser: And the Last Word on Sentencing Goes to . . .
The U.S. Supreme Court recently addressed the roles of two entities that often have a substantial impact on the sentence actually served by a federal criminal defendant—state courts and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). District court judges have discretion to impose sentences that are either consecutive to or concurrent with a federal sentence that […]
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Are Police Taking Over the Drug Trade
The Strokes’ most infamous song, “New York City Cops” was pulled from America’s release of “Is This It” because of one line: “New York City cops They ain’t too smart.” The song is hardly the incendiary piece of anti-authoritarian polemic it was made out to be, and the line about New York cops could easily […]
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Hackers crack more than 60% of breached LinkedIn passwords
Speed of hackers to crack passwords shows weakness of security scheme used by LinkedIn, researchers say. More than 60% of the unique hashed passwords that were accessed by hackers from a LinkedIn password database and posted online this week have already been cracked, according to security firm Sophos. It’s very likely the remaining passwords have […]
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Perpetual War on Methamphetamine as Status Quo
A New York paper, the Star-Gazette of Elmira/Corning, has aneditorial today that is an unwittingly accurate description of the mindset of contemporary drug warriors. The piece is titled as follows: Crusade to Fight Methamphetamine Never Ends Setting aside the interesting use of the word “crusade” to describe drug policy, it’s remarkable that this paper seems […]
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Pennsylvania judge sentenced to 28 years in prison for selling teens to prisons
Judge Busted in Kids for Cash Scheme When Mark Ciavarella, Jr. was sentenced to twenty-eight years behind bars, he said he was “sorry.” Observers aren’t sure that he was sorry for his actions when landed him in prison. Most believe he was sorry he got caught. A disgraced Pennsylvania judge, Ciavarella had been found guilty […]
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Internet Sex Crimes
Internet sex crimes include the possession of child pornography, solicitation of a minor, providing online of sending emails or texts of nude photos via a mobile device. New York considers Internet sex crimes serious. You could be charged with a first, second or three degree felony depending on the nature of the sex crimes such as […]
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New York Police Pilot Android Smartphone Program
The New York Police Pilot Android Smartphone Program, which began last summer, provides police with thousands of criminal records while they canvas a particular building or area. Over 400 phones have been distributed to police officers since the program began. Police can now access your criminal history and your neighbors by tapping on their smartphone […]
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The Kelly Surprise: Attorney General Concedes That Amendment of Compassionate Use Act Was Unconstitutional
Surprising news in California medical marijuana law: the California Attorney General has conceded that the legislature’s amendment of the 1996 Compassionate Use Act was unconstitutional, meaning that criminal defendants may soon be able to regain the ability to put on a trial defense under the Compassionate Use Act even if the amount of medical marijuana […]
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Court Suppresses Evidence in Wecht Case, Leaving Little or Nothing Left
Last Thursday, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin presiding, ruled that the government could not use evidence obtained from two search warrants against former Allegheny County Coroner, Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, as reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The warrants were issued for Dr. Wecht’s pathology laboratory in 2005. Agents seized […]
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Malamud Linked to PACER Pilot Shut Down
Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is an archaic, document tracking system used by the federal courts. This is the database that stores all complaints, court motions, case scheduling and decisions. In 2001, the Judicial Conference of the US released a web-based version of the PACER database allowing remote access to most federal civil […]
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