Writing in the Arizona Law Review, Chuck Weisselberg and Su Li have a very interesting article, Big Law’s Sixth Amendment: The Rise of Corporate White-Collar Practices in Large U.S. Law Firms. The abstract: Over the last three decades, corporate white-collar criminal defense and investigations practices have become established within the nation’s largest law firms. It […]
Archive | Criminal Law
Bleg on 3-strikes laws
What are the most draconian three-strikes laws currently on the books? Do any states still have a 25 year mandatory minimum for the third strike?
Thoughts on The Collapse of American Criminal Justice (Part 1 of 2)
I recently finished the new book by the late Bill Stuntz, The Collapse of American Criminal Justice. My co-blogger Paul Cassell reviewed it here in the Wall Street Journal, and I wanted to blog my own thoughts about the book. My basic take is that it’s a great book, with many important insights. It’s the […]
How the War on Drugs Creates Perverse Incentives for Police
By Ilya Somin on November 25, 2011 10:59 pm in Asset Forfeiture, Criminal Law, Property Rights, War on Drugs
Radley Balko has an interesting piece at Huffington Post on the ways in which the War on Drugs creates perverse incentives for police departments: Arresting people for assaults, beatings and robberies doesn’t bring money back to police departments, but drug cases do in a couple of ways. First, police departments across the country compete for […]
Protecting (the Government’s) Right to a Jury Trial
State legislators in Ohio are considering legislation that would enable criminal prosecutors to insist on a jury trial even when a criminal defendant waives that rate and asks for a bench trial. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports: Ohio prosecutors want to change the law to give themselves veto power when a criminal defendant chooses to […]
Penn State
I have nothing useful to add about the awful events at Penn State, both the child molestation and the failure of various people to properly intervene to stop it. But I do want to second Jonah Goldberg’s disgust at the rioting students, rioting that just adds an extra level of nastiness and moral failure to […]
Felony to Steal an Aluminum Can — or a Penny — in Texas
That’s what it looks like, given a newly enacted state statute. Until recently, Texas Penal Code § 31.03 provided that theft is “a state jail felony if,” among other things, “the value of the property stolen is less than $20,000 and the property stolen is insulated or noninsulated tubing, rods, water gate stems, wire, or […]
Does Law Banning “Lur[ing] … a Child into a Motor Vehicle” Cover Simply Offering a Child a Ride?
No, said the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday in Commonwealth v. Hart (Pa. Sept. 28, 2011), over one judge’s dissent (and with an interesting short concurrence). Here’s an excerpt from the majority opinion: [W]e determine that a “lure” involves the making of a promise of pleasure or gain, the furnishing of a temptation or enticement, […]
Poisoning the Hamburger Helper
By Stewart Baker on September 11, 2011 4:49 pm in Computer Crime Law, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Criminal Law, Uncategorized
The Obama Administration’s legislative proposals on cybersecurity are a distinctly mixed bag. But probably the worst ideas are those put forward by the Justice Department, which last week testified about the need to update the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Again. In fact, for the eleventh time since it was adopted in the 1980s. We’ve seen […]
Religious Community Authorities’ Massive Obstruction of Justice?
Der Spiegel (Germany) has an interesting and troubling story about this. Here’s an excerpt, though you should read the whole thing: According to police, the victim’s and the perpetrator’s families had met at a restaurant in the presence of an Islamic “justice of the peace,” an arbitrator who mediates conflicts between Muslims. The two families […]
Involuntary Manslaughter Conviction for Asking Jealous and Dangerous Ex-Boyfriend to Drive You to the House of the New Boyfriend?
I just ran across an interesting 2009 case that I thought I’d note for our readers. Here’s a brief and oversimplified summary of the facts: Danna Back dated Nicholas Super, but then decided to get back together with an earlier boyfriend, Daniel Holliday. Back knew that “Super threatened Holliday with a gun several times,” and […]
Golden Retriever Takes the Stand in New York Criminal Trial
A golden retriever named Rosie recently became the first judicially approved dog allowed in the witness box for the purpose of comforting a witness while she testifies: Rosie, the first judicially approved courtroom dog in New York, was in the witness box here nuzzling a 15-year-old girl who was testifying that her father had raped […]
Political Ignorance and “Caylee’s Law”
The recent controversial acquittal of Casey Anthony has stimulated efforts in many states to enact “Caylee’s Law” as a response. The law would require parents to report a missing child to the authorities within 24 hours, and the death of a child within 1 hour. If they fail to do either, they would be guilty […]
The Puzzling Case of Moore v. State
Held, by the Indiana Supreme Court: A drunken passenger in a car that is pulled over for a traffic violation is guilty of public intoxication, on the ground that “established precedent has long recognized that a person in a vehicle stopped along a highway is in a public place for purposes of the public intoxication […]
Statutory Rape Law Held Unconstitutionally Open to Selective Enforcement, As Applied to Sex Between Two Minors
The Ohio Supreme Court just held this yesterday in In re D.B.; it’s a very important decision, and since the court expressly rested its holding on its view of the U.S. Constitution, not of the Ohio Constitution (see footnote 2 for the reason), I think there’s a substantial chance — not a certainty, but a […]