Criminal Procedure

Man sentenced to 15 years in prison for cocaine before test showed real identity of white substance

A homeless man arrested in Oklahoma City was sentenced to 15 years in prison on a cocaine charge before the final test results revealed the real identity of the white powder found in his backpack.

Oct 17, 2019 1:03 PM CDT

Lawyer accused of stalking his girlfriend and telling her that criminals owe him favors

A Milwaukee criminal defense lawyer arrested at the courthouse Friday has been accused of stalking and intimidating his former girlfriend, telling her that he could find criminals to enact violence on her family.

Oct 16, 2019 11:22 AM CDT

‘Parks and Recreation’ reminds us how important court reporters are to the legal system

Court stenographers, or “court reporters” as they are commonly referred to, are often left overshadowed and underappreciated. But proper and reliable conclusions to controversies would not be possible without their invaluable work, says lawyer Adam Banner.

Oct 16, 2019 6:30 AM CDT

Lawyer accused of flying pregnant Marshallese women to US to place children for adoption

A lawyer who is also the assessor for Maricopa County, Arizona, is facing charges in three states for allegedly operating an illegal adoption scheme involving pregnant women from the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

Oct 10, 2019 2:17 PM CDT

Murder suspect’s ankle bracelet is repossessed and removed for unpaid fees

A Houston murder suspect was unmonitored for about two weeks after the company that provided his GPS ankle monitor repossessed the device for unpaid fees.

Oct 7, 2019 1:42 PM CDT

SCOTUS opens new term with criminal law cases addressing insanity defense and unanimous juries

The U.S. Supreme Court has several blockbuster cases in its new term—on gay and transgender rights, federal immigration enforcement and gun regulation. But before it gets to any of those, the court on the first day of the term will take up two criminal law cases raising significant questions, even though only a handful of states are affected by each.

Oct 3, 2019 5:03 PM CDT

Ex-lawyer gets jail time for stealing from and vandalizing law firm; judge cites ‘vengeful’ sex toy purchase

A disbarred Pennsylvania lawyer was sentenced to 1½ to 3 years in prison on Wednesday for stealing from her Harrisburg law firm and vandalizing its offices after she was fired.

Oct 3, 2019 10:54 AM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Murder charge against 9-year-old tossed; judge bans mystery proceedings

Judge tosses murder charge against 9-year-old boy A murder defendant cried and hugged his father after Michigan Judge David Tomlinson tossed a murder charge against him Friday. The defendant was 9 years old. He was accused of fatally shooting his adoptive mother. Tomlinson found the boy incompetent to stand trial…

Sep 30, 2019 4:25 PM CDT

On prison and rehabilitation: ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ 25 years later

Stephen King’s novella premiered as an adapted motion picture that earned seven Oscar nominations. The depictions of the adjustment challenges of reentry have been referenced in several professional journals on incarceration. But what of the significance?

Sep 26, 2019 6:30 AM CDT

As facial recognition software becomes more ubiquitous, some governments slam on the brakes

This year, the cities of San Francisco, Somerville, Massachusetts, and Oakland, California, all banned the government’s use of facial recognition technology as a larger legislative package overseeing police surveillance technology. Now, a few other states are looking to, at a minimum, press pause on the police use of this technology.

Sep 24, 2019 6:00 AM CDT

Why scraping publicly available information online isn’t a crime

To criminalize public website scraping castrates an open internet by curtailing access to information, says ABA Journal Legal Affairs Writer Jason Tashea. This isn’t just an issue for internet startups and academic researchers but also the legal community.

Sep 23, 2019 6:30 AM CDT

Superior court judge who suspected DA hacked her computer is charged with computer trespassing

A superior court judge in Gwinnett County, Georgia, has been indicted on three counts of computer trespass for allegedly allowing outsiders to access the county computer system, reportedly to investigate whether the district attorney had hacked her computer.

Sep 19, 2019 1:24 PM CDT

Victim advocates concerned after Nevada top court gives jury trial right to accused domestic batterers

The Nevada attorney general and victims’ rights advocates are raising concerns about the impact of a recent Nevada Supreme Court decision giving misdemeanor domestic violence defendants the right to a jury trial.

Sep 19, 2019 10:47 AM CDT

Are jailhouse lawyers beneficial or bad for the system?

I remember Corbin Bernsen. I remember the saxophone intro. I remember the synthesizer crescendo reminding the audience that they were smack-dab in the late ’80s/early ’90s. For whatever reason, I never really watched much L.A. Law, though. One of my readers suggested I go back and take a look at…

Sep 19, 2019 7:00 AM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Florida Coastal law student sues over prep course; suit tossed over hate group label

Florida Coastal law student sues school for allegedly toughening graduation standard A law student at Florida Coastal School of Law claims in a lawsuit that the school made it more difficult to graduate after she enrolled there. The suit by the “Jane Doe” student alleges breach of contract and negligent…

Sep 17, 2019 4:05 PM CDT