by Christopher Zoukis
State legislatures across the nation seem unable to stop themselves from tinkering with and upgrading their sex offender registry laws. The Rhode Island Legislature is no exception, and continual changes forced the state’s Supreme Court to wade into the treacherous waters on April 23, 2018.
In November ...
by Christopher Zoukis
On February 14, 2017, seven U.S. Border Patrol Agents were involved in an altercation with six subjects and three projectiles (rocks, bottles, and tree branches). How many assaults occurred?
According to traditional law enforcement accounting methods, seven, even assuming that none of the agents were hit with ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s ruling that a man civilly committed under 18 U.S.C.S. § 4247 (a)(7), part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (“Act”), was no longer a “sexually dangerous person.”
As a ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The Supreme Court of Washington held a community custody condition preventing a probationer from possessing or accessing pornography unconstitutionally vague under the First Amendment because the prohibition also extended to works of art, books, advertisements, movies, and television shows. The May 10, 2018, opinion ruled that though ...
by Christopher Zoukis
A federal judge in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas threw out evidence found during a warrantless search of a vehicle when “consent” was obtained from a non-English speaker via Google Translate. The June 4, 2018, opinion found that the defendant did not ...
by Christopher Zoukis
National Medical Services, Inc. (“NMS”), a Pennsylvania-based forensics and medical lab, was cited in a recent report by the Texas Forensic Science Commission (“TFSC”) for improperly overamplifying DNA during work for a defense attorney. The “overblown” DNA led NMS scientists to conclude that the sample contained more ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The United States is one of the only nations left in the world that does not have a national ID card. It also is one of the last remaining places where an individual does not have to show an ID to the police, except in certain circumstances. ...
by Christopher Zoukis
Baltimore officials agreed in May 2018 to settle a claim of wrongful conviction brought by a man who spent more than 20 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. The city agreed to pay exoneree James “J.J.” Owens $9 million, the largest settlement in city ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The former director of forensic science at the New York Department of Criminal Justice Services (“DCJS”) said the Office of Forensic Science (“OFS”) made three “catastrophic” DNA identification errors and falsified a certification document in a fourth case.
The claims were made by Brian Gestring, a member ...
by Christopher Zoukis
Newly appointed New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal has directed his prosecutors to take over an investigation into the 1993 murder conviction of two men who might be innocent.
He also formed a panel to consider whether New Jersey should establish a “conviction review unit” to look ...
