In the 1980s and 1990s, federal lawmakers passed a number of tough-on-crime measures to address growing concerns about the crack epidemic and high crime rates. Now, decades later, the outcome of the crime laws has become apparent: mass incarceration, unfair outcomes, and penalties that do not fit the crime. The federal government realizes that something […]
READ MOREBoston Globe on Medical Self Defense and the Abigail Alliance
The Boston Globe has an interesting piece on the movement to assert the right of “” and on the Abigail Alliance’s case still-pending before the en banc DC Circuit Court of Appeals. It’s a complicated issue in part because of the difficulty of drawing the limits on the assertion of such a right. As author […]
READ MOREEn Banc Rehearing in Abigail Alliance v. Eschenbach
How Appealing notes that the DC Circuit’s decision in Abigail Alliance v. Eschenbach will be reheard en banc. This is a big deal. As this blog wrote about in more detail in this post, the conclusion of Abigail Alliance was that individuals had a due process right to access potentially lifesaving drugs even before they have […]
READ MOREConrad Black Re-Sentenced to an Additional 13 Months’ Imprisonment
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve of the Northern District of Illinois re-sentenced Lord Conrad Black, former CEO of newspaper giant Hollinger International, Inc., to serve the remainder of his sentence, as reported in Canada’s Globe and Mail. Black has served 29 months of his original 78 month sentence, imposed following his conviction […]
READ MOREVermont Judge Rejects the Hudson v. Michigan Approach to No-Knock Warrants
A federal trial judge in Vermont last week ruled that the police’s failure to knock at a residence before executing a search warrant is a violation of the Vermont state constitution, even if it is no longer a violation of the federal constitution after the Supreme Court’s decision in Hudson v. Michigan. As the federal […]
READ MORECA Moves Toward Regulating — Rather Than Wholly Criminalizing — Salvia
A big hat tip to reader J, who notes that a California bill on salvia divinorum, AB 259, has been passed through committee in a form that simply criminalizes the sale of salvia to a person under the age of 18. Persons who violate that prohibition would be subject to misdemeanor sanctions. When I was […]
READ MORECan Comments on a Police Blog Be the Basis for a Motion to Suppress?
My eyes bugged out a little bit on reading a recent post on the blog of the LAPD that described a “surprise discovery” made by officers serving a warrant at a home in South Los Angeles where stolen property and drugs were found (a screenshot of the post is below in case it later gets edited. Click on […]
READ MOREConviction Overturned for Kentucky Pain Doctor
The Kentucky Supreme Court has tossed out the conviction of a pain doctor who had been sentenced to 20 years in prison for unlawfully prescribing medication. The evidence against Dr. Fortune J. Williams was based in part on files seized during a warrantless raid of his office — a raid that was carried out both by […]
READ MOREHearse and Body Stolen in Atlanta; Police Arrest Suspect
Man Steals Hearse for a Joy Ride, Finds Out Later a Corpse Came Along It’s a bad weekend when a family member dies. It only gets worse when the funeral home calls you later to say their hearse was stolen — and your loved one’s body was inside. Maybe the only one having a worse […]
READ MORENinth Circuit on ‘Good Faith’ Exception When Warrant Clearly Unsupported By Probable Cause
The U.S. v. Leon rule allowing officers to rely in “good faith” on what turns out to be an inadequate warrant does not apply when it was not objectively reasonable in the first place for the officers to believe that the warrant was supported by probable cause, a Ninth Circuit panel held today in U.S. […]
READ MORE
