by Christopher Zoukis
All across the nation, a major pushback against hardline, tough on crime prosecutors is taking place. In the same election cycle which saw the elevation of "law and order" candidate Donald Trump to the presidency, several high profile prosecutors have been voted out of office.
In Chicago, ...
by Christopher Zoukis
Raul Olmeda, a three-and-a-half year veteran of the NYPD, has been arrested and charged with paying an underage girl for sex and recording the incidents.
According to the New York Daily News, the 40-year-old Bronx cop engaged in the illegal sex acts five times between January ...
by Christopher Zoukis
A rogue police officer from the Edison, New Jersey police department has been sentenced to 20 years in prison following his guilty plea to a string of violent offenses, including the firebombing of his boss's house.
Michael Dotro was an Edison cop for 10 years before his ...
by Christopher Zoukis
A report from KilledByPolice.net, a website that tracks police killings, indicates that the number of such killings is up as compared to last year. According to the site, police have killed 884 people as of September 26, 2017. Over the same period in 2016, police had killed ...
by Christopher Zoukis
Founding Father George Mason once said, “When the same man, or set of men, holds the sword and the purse, there is an end of liberty.” Mason, along with many other founders of the United States of America, believed strongly in the separation of government powers. These ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The use of drug detecting dogs in law enforcement is ubiquitous across the country. They are a popular tool among police agencies, because a drug dog’s “alert” provides the probable cause necessary to legally search a vehicle without warrant or permission. But are these alerts a response ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The use of DNA evidence in criminal trials has become ubiquitous. Because DNA evidence is highly persuasive to judges and juries, several new tests purport to make positive DNA matches using minuscule amounts of matter, or even matter that has been polluted. As defense attorneys push back ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The indigent defense crisis in Louisiana continues, but it is now taking a new and more ominous direction. In order to fund local public defenders, the state has taken $3 million from capital defenders, leaving at least 11 Louisiana defendants who are facing the death penalty without ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The Georgia Supreme Court answered an unusual, yet significant, question on December 11, 2017. Can a conviction that requires proof that a rental car was stolen outside of the state coexist with a conviction that requires proof that the same car was stolen in the state? Both ...
by Christopher Zoukis
Fred Steese spent 21 years in prison for a murder that he did not commit. He was granted an Order of Actual Innocence in 2012, but was released from prison only upon entering an Alford plea—not admitting guilt but acknowledging that there is sufficient evidence to prove ...
