Posts Tagged ‘news roundup’

News Roundup

Friday, October 30th, 2009

Even leaving aside the saga at the Board of Elections, there have been too many interesting news stories lately to ignore.

1. The News and Observe has this story about inmates seeking release in connection with the Bowden case. (You can read previous posts about Bowden here and here.)

2. The paper’s also running a story about the sex-offenders-in-church controversy, in connection with a case in Chatham County. Check it out here.

3. UCLA Public Policy professor Mark Kleiman has just released a book called When Brute Force Fails, the gist of which seems to be that smarter policing strategies and alternatives to incarceration can reduce crime and the costs of crime control. You can read some blog posts he wrote based on the book at the Volokh Conspiracy; a good place to start is here. But the news I want to highlight isn’t acually about the book, which my colleague Jamie Markham may review later. Instead, it’s about one of the examples Kleiman uses — a pretty interesting effort to close down open-air drug markets in High Point. Apparently, community leaders, police, and state and federal proecutors worked together to identify and build cases against several leading drug dealers — but, instead of arresting them, the authorties brought them in for a come-to-Jesus meeting at which the drug dealers were give a choice: knock it off, or go to prison. According to this news story, the strategy worked to shut down the drug markets and improve the neighborhood. Pretty interesting, but I wonder whether the results of the “High Point low-arrest drug crackdown” have stood the test of time. Any High Point folks care to comment?

4. This British news story says that a California man, already serving a long sentence for one murder, is actively seeking to be sentenced to death in connection with a second murder, because he believes that the conditions of confinement on Death Row will be better than the conditions in general population. (Hat tip: Crime and Consequences.)

5. The Washington Post has jumped into the debate about whether federal law should provide for equal punishment for crack offenses and powder cocaine crimes. This contrarian editorial argues that it should not, though the wind seems to be blowing the other way these days.

6. I’m traveling today, which means I read the USA Today in the hotel lobby this morning. It had a fascinating story about a prisoner rodeo at the (in?)famous Angola prison in Louisiana.

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News Roundup

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

The criminal-law-related legal news has been coming fast and furious over the past week or so.

1. The fallout from the Bowden case continues. The case, discussed here, held that a life sentence imposed during a several-year window in the 1970s meant 80 years, subject to further reduction through good time credits. Later this month, it will result in the release of a number of inmates, unless the federal authorities bring charges against them, which this News and Observer story says they may. (Statute of limitations and speedy trial issues appear to be significant barriers to such prosecutions. Unlike state law, federal law provides a statute of limitations for most felony offenses.) If they are released, it appears that virtually all of the inmates will be unsupervised by any probation or parole officer.

2. The federal Department of Justice just announced that it will discourage federal prosecutions of marijuana suppliers and users who are acting in conformity with state medical marijuana laws. Press release here, news story here. Obviously, there’s no direct impact on North Carolina, since state law doesn’t allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes, but perhaps it incrementally strengthens the hand of those who support the legalization of medical marijuana, by removing the objection that “allowing” medical marijuana is pointless in light of federal law prohibiting the possession and sale of marijuana under all circumstances.

3. With the Supreme Court underway on its new Term, the USA Today prepared this interesting story on Justice John Paul Stevens. The story characterizes him as a master tactician, assembling majorities for liberal viewpoints on an increasingly conservative Court, and suggests that his likely retirement — he hasn’t hired the usual spate of law clerks for next year — will leave the liberal wing of the Court without a clear leader.

4. The Washington Post wonders why President Obama has been slow to nominate candidates for federal judgeships.

5. There’s a new batch of Court of Appeals opinions today. As usual, we’ll unpack the most interesting ones on the blog in the next few days.

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News Roundup

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

It’s time to round up some news.

First, the News and Observer recently commented on President Obama’s failure to nominate any additional North Carolinians for the Fourth Circuit — a court on which Tar Heels are wildly underrepresented — despite several vacancies. Of course, the White House has been moving rather deliberately on judicial nominations in general, as discussed here.

Second, I’ve previously noted — here and here – the Willingham case, in which Texas may have executed an innocent man. The City of Corsicana has submitted its papers to the commission reviewing the case. A bit of commentary on the papers, and a link to the document itself, is available here.

Third, the effect of North Carolina’s sex offender laws on offenders’ ability to go to church is drawing national attention, as evidenced by this AP story.

Fourth, in light of North Carolina’ own litigation over lethal injection and the administration of the death penalty, readers may be interested in what’s happening in Ohio in the aftermath of the failed execution of Romell Broom. (Despite hours of trying, prison staffers were unable to get an IV line working, leading to the abandonment of the execution.) Apparently, the state is considering dramatic changes to its execution protocol, including a change in the combination of drugs used, a change in the method of injection (to intraosseous injection), etc. Sentencing Law and Policy is all over this issue; the most recent post, with links to earlier ones, is here.

Finally, another midwestern state making criminal law news is Indiana. An appellate court there recently ruled that a cheek swab for DNA is so minimally intrusive that it can be done without a warrant and on reasonable suspicion. A summary and critical analysis of the decision is here.

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News Roundup

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

Several recent news items may be of interest to readers of this blog:

1. FBI data shows that violent crimes, and especially homicides, dropped again last year and are now at rates that one expert says haven’t been seen since the 1960s. The FBI’s report is here and the News and Observer’s story is here.

2. In my last news roundup, I noted the mounting evidence that Texas executed an innocent man. I recently came across this local story, which argues that Cameron Willingham wasn’t innocent at all. It’s a pretty compelling read and a nice counterpoint to the New Yorker piece I referenced earlier. (Hat tip: Crime and Consequences.)

3. The border search doctrine holds that suspicionless searches of anyone and anything coming into the United States are consistent with the Fourth Amendment. The Department of Homeland Security relies on the border search doctrine to search travelers’ laptop computers. Although these searches sometimes yield results — most often, as far as I can tell, by uncovering child pornography — business travelers and others have complained about them, especially when the authorities seize a computer and keep it for a protracted period of time for analysis. The Department recently issued a new set of standards for when and how it will conduct such searches. The policy, available here, is summarized and criticized here. This is relevant to North Carolina, because we have both a maritime border and several international airports.

4. North Carolina has a new cyberbullying law, making it a misdemeanor to undertake various computer activities in order to intimidate, tormet, or harrass minors. You can read the session law here. It’s been quietly controversial (if such a thing is possible), with odd bedfellows the ACLU and the Civitas Institute both concerned about its potentially far-reaching effects. Similar legislation has been proposed at the federal level, as a result of the so-called MySpace suicide case. Stay tuned for further developments.

5. Finally, on the lighter side, police in Kissimmee, Florida, arrested a man for chewing breath mints, which the police mistook for crack cocaine. The local story is here. (This story probably isn’t so “light” for the person arrested, since he apparently spent three months in jail awaiting lab test results.)

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News Roundup (Actual Innocence Edition)

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

Although there’s been a ton of relevant news since the last News Roundup, the most timely and interesting stories all relate to claims of actual innocence. To start with, Joseph Abbitt of Winston-Salem was exonerated yesterday. After serving 14 years for raping two teenage girls — both of whom positively identified him as the perpetrator — Abbitt was freed based on DNA evidence showing that he did not commit the crime. The News and Observer story is here.

Second, there is mounting evidence that Texas executed an innocent man. Cameron Willingham was put to death in 2004 after being convicted of setting fire to his own home, killing his three young children. As detailed in this lengthy piece in the New Yorker, a new inquiry into the case is underway, and substantial — though preliminary — evidence suggests that the fire was likely an accidental electrical fire. (A short summary of the matter can be found in this New York Times editorial.)

Third, as detailed in this story, the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission is conducting a hearing today to consider the case of Greg Taylor, a Cary man serving a life term for a murder that he claims he did not commit. Whatever the outcome of the  Taylor and Willingham cases, the Abbitt case is simply the latest reminder that the criminal justice system is, after all, a human system, and all human systems are fallible.

Among the non-innocence related news recently: Reports suggest that Justice Stevens is considering retirement; a new Gallup poll reveals that people don’t like lawyers; the Heritage Foundation just issued a report arguing that some juveniles’ crimes are serious enough to merit sentences of life without parole; and Mexico is decriminalizing drug possession, as noted here.

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News Roundup

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Although the General Assembly has finally wrapped up for the year, there’s still been a fair bit of news lately that may be of interest to readers of this blog.

1. First and foremost, the United States Supreme Court recently took the virtually unprecedented step of ordering a hearing on an “original” habeas petition — one filed directly with the Supreme Court, rather than in a lower court — in a Georgia capital case. Defendant Troy Davis has exhausted the usual avenues of review, but apparently has a plausible claim that he is innocent. The Court’s order is here, Justice Scalia’s dissent is here, this Time magazine article gives you the basics in a readable way, and some blog commentary is here and here. Although some prosecution-leaning folks worry, and some defense-leaning folks hope, that this signals the opening of a whole new avenue of review for capital defendants, I doubt that the Court will make a habit of ordering hearings in original habeas proceedings. Rather, the main legal significance of the case is that it may result in a ruling on whether a claim of actual innocence, unconnected to any procedural defect in a defendant’s trial, is cognizable in federal court — a surprisingly controversial issue.

2. The News and Observer published this piece about the effect of the sex offender laws on offenders’ ability to attend church. Although the article contains some legal inaccuracies, it also raises some important questions, and is worth a read.

3. In Texas, attorneys who represented a death row inmate (who has since been executed) filed a judicial standards complaint against Sharon Keller, the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The attorneys contend that Judge Keller refused to keep the clerk’s office open after its usual 5 p.m. closing time to receive a last-minute filing challenging Texas’s method of execution. As far as I can tell from this AP story, Judge Keller’s response is that the lawyers could have filed whatever they wanted to file with the “duty judge” at any time, so there was no need for the clerk’s office to remain open. Part of what makes the case interesting is that it raises the question of whether and to what extent normal procedural rules should be suspended in death penalty cases.

4. Former New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress pled guilty to one count of attempted criminal possession of a weapon after shooting himself in the leg at a nightclub. He received a two-year sentence, of which he’ll likely serve about 20 months. According to the AP, football fans and others are atwitter comparing his sentence to the sentences received by fellow NFLers Michael Vick (who served about 18 months in connection with federal dogfighting charges) and Donte’ Stallworth (who received probation after killing a Florida pedestrian while driving drunk).

5. Finally, a Columbus, Ohio homeless man was briefly set on fire as a result of being Tased/Tasered/hit with a Taser. He’s OK, but according to this article, he’d been huffing, and the electric current carried by Tasers can cause flammable chemicals to ignite. Be careful out there!

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News Roundup

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

There has been an endless parade of relevant news over the past week or so.

First, Justice Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in. This New York Times story about her confirmation gives you the basics if you’ve been living under a rock.

Second, I’ve just come back from a week of vacation in Canada. The locals were complaining about the brutal temperatures, which regularly pushed into the — gasp! — high 70s. Anyhow, reading the Toronto papers was an eye-opener, especially this article about an infamous white-collar criminal who fleeced innocent investors through a multi-million dollar accounting fraud. Sound like someone else who’s been in the news recently? Well, in Canada, such shenanigans will earn you a hefty sentence of . . . seven years. But you don’t start serving it until after your appeals are exhausted. And because of generous parole rules, you may be released in 14 months. And you may serve your time at a prison with an “executive golf course.” Sounds pretty brutal.

Third, a number of interesting items have cropped up in connection with sex offenders, including two articles (here and here) from The Economist, generally arguing that America’s sex offender registration regimes are too extensive, and a remarkable comment by a federal circuit court about a long sentence for a first offender in a child pornography case. A few tidbits on the lighter side of a serious subject include this story about an iPhone app for tracking sex offenders and, perhaps my favorite, this story about a man who claimed that his cat downloaded child pornography behind his back.

Fourth, another cluster of stories has come out, this one about prisons. There was a massive race riot at a California prison, which some have suggested may be due to a Supreme Court decision rejecting California’s previous practice of racial segregation in prison, and others have suggested may be connected to the state’s prison overcrowding. But no matter how bad the situation in California may be, it pales in comparison to the situation in Mexico, where complete corruption is the rule. The New York Times reports that “[w]hen life inside, with its pizza deliveries, prostitutes and binges on drugs and alcohol, becomes too confining, prisoners sometimes pay off the guards for a furlough or an outright jailbreak.”

Finally, the General Assembly is supposed to be winding down, but it is still cranking out bills, from the Racial Justice Act, which allows statistical evidence of racial discrimination to be introduced in capital cases (and which Governor Perdue reportedly will sign today), to a bill prohibiting “cyberbullying,” to bills that change the structured sentencing grid to the net modest benefit of defendants. I’ll try to do a more systematic analysis of the legislative session once it is complete.

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News Roundup

Friday, July 31st, 2009

Several recent news stories that may be of interest:

1. Governor Perdue just signed S 920, which makes substantial changes to the probation laws. For example, it requires all probationers to submit to warrantless searches by probation officers, and to a lesser degree, by law enforcement officers. It also clarifies the tolling provisions of the probation statutes, modifies the requirements for intensive probation, and imposes new rules regarding community service, among other things. The News and Observer’s story about the new law is here; if we’re lucky, Jamie Markham will give us a breakdown soon.

2. In a story that’s a particularly appropriate topic for a blog post, a Virginia woman has been arrested for blogging about the members of a law enforcement drug task force, including posting their pictures, and in at least one case, an officer’s home address. The story — available here — implies that she was trying to expose officers who work undercover as a way of frustrating their efforts. She was charged with harassment of a police officer, a charge that doesn’t exist in North Carolina. Anyone think a charge of resisting, delaying, or obstructing an officer would fly on these facts? Or another charge? Or is this protected speech?

3. Finally, there’s been a tremendous amount of discussion recently about a concurring opinion in a Tenth Circuit felon-in-possession case. The case upheld the defendant’s conviction over a Second Amendment challenge grounded in Heller v. District of Columbia, the Supreme Court case that held that the Constitution protects an individual right to bear arms. Because Justice Scalia’s majority opinion went out of the way to state that nothing in Heller should be taken to cast doubt on the validity of laws preventing felons from carrying firearms, the Tenth Circuit held that the federal felon-in-possession law survived Heller. Concurring judge Tim Tymkovich, however, questioned whether Justice Scalia should have prejudged the felon-in-possession issue, suggesting that nonviolent felons might have the same self-defense rights as nonfelons. You can read the opinion here, and some blogosphere commentary here, here, and here. Unsurprisingly, the defendant plans to petition for certiorari review, and some of the big names in legal academia and appellate practice seem interested enough that this issue might have some legs. For what it’s worth, I note that the federal felon-in-possession law already excludes some nonviolent felons, such as those convicted under the antitrust laws. See 18 U.S.C. s. 921(a)(20)(A). North Carolina’s Felony Fireams Act, however, has no exceptions. See G.S. 14-415.1.

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News Roundup

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Update:

It has come to my attention that there may be a bit more to the AOC restitution story than meets the eye. This memo from Judge John Smith, the director of the AOC, provides a bit of explanation for why the restitution priorities were set as they were, and to what extent the General Assembly was briefed on the issue.

Original Post:

Noteworthy news:

1. Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings begin today, with a statement by the nominee and statements by the Senators on the Judiciary Committee. Questioning begins tomorrow.

2. The News and Observer had a front-page article on Sunday, pointing out that offenders’ payments have been used to pay probation fees, community service fees, and other expenses before being applied to restitution. The law requires that payments be used first for restitution, and the AOC has apparently begun to address the problem brought to light by the article, and at least one clerk’s office has taken action on its own initiative. The article is a nice example of the value of newspapers, and helps to explain why I still subscribe to the ever-shrinking N&O.

3. Senator Hagan has submitted her list of recommendations for several high-profile jobs in the federal court system, including U.S. Attorney for each of the three federal judicial districts in the state and two vacant federal judgeships. The list is available here, and it includes several state court judges, one elected district attorney, and several other names that will be familiar to readers of this blog. Law enforcement readers may be interested in the recommendations for U.S. Marshal.

4. The Obama administration has been reviewing the so-called 287(g) program, which empowers local law enforcement officers to enforce certain federal immigration laws. The program, which I mentioned previously here, is up and running in a number of North Carolina counties. Apparently, the administration plans to increase oversight of the implementation of the program in an effort to reduce racial profiling, but otherwise plans to continue to expand it. The New York Times doesn’t think that’s a good idea.

5. Finally, golfers should be aware of this story, which culminated in a golfer receiving 21 months in prison for assaulting another golfer who was playing too slowly. If you played a round this weekend and escaped serious injury, thank your lucky stars and consider changing hobbies to something safer, like skydiving or auto racing.

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