by David M. Kennedy, Niskanen Center (niskanencenter.org)
Executive Summary: I work with cops, and I support this movement.
Police Violence Is State Violence
Let’s be clear about what’s been happening in the country these last few weeks. Policing is an arm of the state. Police departments and police ...
by Kevin Bliss
Derek Chauvin could still receive about $50,000 a year in pension partly funded by taxpayers like George Floyd’s surviving family, even if he’s convicted of second-degree murder.
Moreover, qualified immunity would most likely prevent Floyd’s family from successfully suing him.
Chauvin was the police officer in Minneapolis, ...
by Dale Chappell
Who would have predicted that the courts would expand compassionate release to allow non-medical reasons for reducing a sentence, including the chance to fix unfair sentences when no other avenue exists? Now that prisoners can file their own compassionate release motions, instead of waiting for the Bureau ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held on June 19, 2020, that a district court resentencing someone again to the maximum sentence possible and well over double the recommended Guidelines sentencing range (“GSR”) must provide “especially compelling justification” for such a significant increase in ...
by Dale Chappell
In a case of first impression, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that an accused’s admissions during a pretrial services (“PTS”) interview for bail are confidential and cannot be used at trial to prove guilt.
The case came before the Court after Michael ...
by Ed Lyon
Police officers have traditionally been referred to and thought of as keepers of the peace. Most licensing authorities call them peace officers. During the years, monikers like “Blue Knights” and “New Centurions” have been used to characterize police officers. Unfortunately, people tend to forget that a centurion ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”) remanded Terence Tramaine Andrus’ case to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (“TCCA”), directing the TCCA “to address Strickland prejudice in light of the correct legal principles.”
Andrus, 18, was high on marijuana and PCP when he attempted a ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Indiana held that a defendant cannot be forced to unlock her smartphone because doing so would violate her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The Court also provided a detailed rationale against extending the “foregone conclusion” exception of Fisher v. United States, 425 ...
by Anthony Accurso
The Supreme Court of California reversed a judgment of the Court of Appeal by holding that a defendant need not be released from custody in order to demonstrate living an ‘‘honest and upright life,” a prerequisite to having his conviction expunged.
Misael Vences Maya was convicted of ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit explained the meaning of conduct that is “part of the same course of conduct or common scheme or plan” when a district court determines whether it is relevant conduct for sentencing purposes.
On January 22, 2018, Tom Lewis ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reaffirmed that a district court must personally invite a defendant to allocute at the time of sentencing.
A jury convicted Michael Scripps of seven counts of wire fraud for fraudulently transferring millions of dollars from the bank accounts ...
by Ed Lyon
George Floyd’s death at the knees of Minneapolis, Minnesota, police was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back as far as police brutality. People are fed up with reports of abuse, assault and deaths at the hands of police.
There is a growing movement to defund ...
by Douglas Ankney
On June 30, 2020, the Supreme Court of Hawai’i announced that, going forward, police officers are not permitted to testify in expert or lay capacity that a driver appeared intoxicated, overruling State v. Toyomura, 904 P.2d 893 (Haw. 1995).
Maxwell F. Jones was convicted following a ...
by Douglas Ankney
NYC Mesh is a free community owned internet service provider in New York City that is operated by a group of activists. The activists’ new project involves archiving hundreds of gigabytes of the city’s surveillance camera footage in an effort to hold police accountable.
Aakash Patel, a ...
by Douglas Ankney
May 26, 2020, demonstrations around the nation erupted over the police killing of George Floyd. Shortly afterwards, the FBI signed an expedited agreement to extend its relationship with Dataminr, The Intercept reported.
Dataminr is a company that monitors social media and had already had contracts with the ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”), in a 5-4 decision, ruled in favor of a defendant who argued that the State of Oklahoma (“Oklahoma”) lacked jurisdiction to prosecute him because he is a Native American, and his alleged crime occurred on tribal land. The decision ...
by Matt Clarke
The Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District, held on June 16, 2020, that the California Supreme Court’s decision limiting the kill zone theory in prosecutions for attempted premeditated murder applies retroactively. The court reversed 11 convictions each for two habeas petitioners.
Juan Marshall Rayford and ...
by Kevin Bliss
USA Today, in conjunction with the Chicago-based nonprofit Invisible Institute, has compiled the largest database of instances of police misconduct — and it’s accessible by the public. The database contains disciplinary records for over 85,000 police officers for the past 10 years. These include “more than ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held on May 15, 2020, that a prosecutor’s improper comments to the jury during a murder trial, and counsel’s failure to object to those comments, were grounds for granting habeas corpus relief, requiring a new trial.
In 2007, ...
by Douglas Ankney
Perhaps now those who are actually innocent in Virginia will be able to prove their claims, thanks to legislation signed by Governor Ralph Northam. The Writ of Actual Innocence law was created in Virginia in 2004. Only four wrongfully convicted persons have obtained relief under the law’s ...
by David M. Reutter
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that 18 U.S.C. § 3013 provides for an assessment to be applied on a per-offender basis, not a per-count basis.
Before the Court was the appeal of Paul Haverkamp. He exchanged over 400 messages on the ...
by Matt Clarke
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that a criminal sentence was unreasonable where the district court failed to offer an explanation for a special condition of supervised release requiring addiction treatment, and the court failed to address the defendant’s nonfrivolous mitigation arguments. The ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Hawai’i held that showing a video to the jury of a defendant declining an officer’s request to reenact the crime violated the defendant’s right to remain silent.
Anthony G. Beaudet-Close had an altercation with Luke Ault. Ault sustained life-threatening injuries, was hospitalized, and ...
by Jayson Hawkins
A string of recent polls suggests a dramatic shift in American public opinion about the use of force by police, especially against people of color. The Washington Post released a poll in early June that found 69% of Americans believe the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
Police departments are using the coronavirus pandemic to expand their use of surveillance tools in the name of public health and safety. Privacy advocates are concerned about the encroachment of the carceral state on civil liberties, especially in predominantly Black and Brown communities.
In New York ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of Georgia held a habeas corpus petitioner was denied the effective assistance of counsel due to counsel’s failure to advise him of his absolute statutory right to withdraw his guilty plea prior to sentencing.
Morocco Jacobi Wilkey was indicted in 2014 for possession ...
by Matt Clarke
On June 8, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit announced that federal courts are directed to use the categorical approach “to identify felony drug offenses for sentencing enhancement purposes …,” rather than a circumstance-specific analysis, and vacated a drug defendant’s sentence and remanded ...
by Anthony Accurso
It’s no secret that our digital devices, especially our phones, are collecting troves of data about us — our preferences, habits, and movements. Many of us understand this is the price we pay for “free” services, such as email by Google and social networking by Facebook. What ...
by Dale Chappell
As Congress looks to renew the PATRIOT Act, some members of Congress and privacy advocates are concerned about privacy issues because Congress has no idea what internet data the government has been collecting on citizens.
In a letter sent by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden to Acting Director ...
by Dale Chappell
With law enforcement targeting anyone and everyone during recent demonstrations, here are a few tips from some experts on what to do if you’re pepper-sprayed.
The most important tip, they say, is not to take a shower — yet. If you do, the pepper spray will run ...
by Michael Fortino, Ph.D.
Kevin Baker and Sean Washington, having served nearly 25 years on a double murder sentence and facing life in prison, never gave up hope because they each knew that eventually someone would believe that the evidence in their case was flawed — that someone was The ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held on June 15, 2020, that a district court’s failure to fully advise a defendant of the elements of the charges and the correct penalty he faced amounted to his waiver of trial counsel not knowingly made.
Randy ...
by David M. Reutter
he Supreme Court of Colorado held that the “plea provisio [in Colo Rev. Stat. § 18-1-409(1) (2019)] does not preclude an appeal related to the manner in which the sentence was imposed, including the sufficiency and accuracy of the information on which the sentence was imposed.” ...
by David M. Reutter
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit granted conditional habeas corpus relief to a Michigan prisoner who alleged that the use of shackles upon him during trial was unconstitutional and prejudiced his guilt determination. The majority of the Court’s opinion focused on the proper ...
by Derek Gilna
Arrest statistics and eyewitnesses seem to show that the New York City Police Department is continuing its pattern of making low-level arrests for non-violent crime in low income areas of the city during the COVID-19 pandemic, which had killed 23,592 people in the city as of August ...
by Kevin Bliss
Georgetown Law professor Neel Sukhatme and Texas Criminal Justice Coalition lawyer Jay Jenkins conducted a study of judges and their assignment of legal representation to indigent defendants in Harris County, Texas. They found it a “pay for play” arrangement, which they said promotes cronyism.
In the 1960s, ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of Hawai’i held on June 9, 2020, that a dog sniff search based on reasons unrelated to the original purpose of a proper traffic stop was an unconstitutional search and vacated the judgment affirming a drug conviction.
When Cheri Numazawa called 911 to report ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Hawai’i announced that, going forward, trial courts have a duty to obtain a knowing and voluntary waiver of the penal-responsibility defense.
In June 2014, Michael Glenn was charged with Terroristic Threatening in the First Degree. Upon motion of defense counsel, the circuit court ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Colorado announced the framework for distinguishing a true threat from constitutionally protected speech.
A few days after a shooting at Arapahoe High School, students from Littleton High School (“LHS”) got into an argument on Twitter with students from Thomas Jefferson High School (“TJHS”). ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that Shane Thomas Young’s confession was involuntary because, under the totality of the circumstances, his capacity for self-determination was critically impaired.
As a sheriff’s deputy attempted to pull Young over, he drove his vehicle onto a nearby ...
by Anthony Accurso
The Supreme Court of Minnesota reversed a Court of Appeals decision requiring a defendant to register as a predatory offender because proving the elements of the out-of-state conviction does not necessarily prove a violation of Minnesota law. Additionally, the Court announced rules for analyzing whether out-of-state convictions ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held on April 28, 2020, that eligibility under the First Step Act’s retroactive application of the Fair Sentencing Act (“FSA”) applies to all crack-cocaine offenses “as a whole,” regardless of the amount of crack involved in the offense. ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Kentucky heldthat a trial court’s ex parte discussion with a juror who was offered a bribe was a structural error because it denied Steven Dale Eversole his right to an impartial jury.
Eversole was tried by jury on charges of first-degree fleeing or ...
by Ed Lyon
It is no secret that the inability to gain employment by prisoners who have either finished their sentences or been released from prison to parole is a major factor in recidivism. Returning to crime in order just to survive is a fact of life for many, as ...
by Douglas Ankney
Tear gas is a chemical weapon banned by numerous international treaties from use in warfare. But as the images on the nightly news show us, police have used it indiscriminately on crowds of peaceful protesters.
A main chemical in tear gas is 2-chlorobenzylidene malonitrile, or “CS.” CS ...
by Ed Lyon
The entire premise underlying punishment is that the person being punished knew what they did was wrong before they acted but did the action anyway. If the person lacked the requisite knowledge of right and wrong, then they may not legitimately be punished for having committed the ...
Police culture can be insular and tough to penetrate, but the public can hold law enforcement accountable.
Here are important methods and context you need to know.
Link For Article Listed Below: https://www.propublica.org/article/i-cover-cops-as-an-investigative-reporter-here-are-five-ways-you-can-start-holding-your-department-accountable
by Andrew Ford, Asbury Park Press
This story was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
This article was produced in partnership with the Asbury Park Press, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network
The death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis has drawn historic levels of interest in police misconduct and drawn condemnation from law enforcement leaders nationwide.
As a reporter covering law enforcement for the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey, and now in partnership with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, I use investigative reporting techniques to strengthen police accountability. Other journalists do the same. But, in truth, any citizen can apply the same methods to ensure the law enforcement system they’re funding is serving them well.
Police culture can be insular and tough to penetrate. But I’ve been surprised by how often it’s possible, though time consuming, to expose ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Phillip K. Dick made the concept of “pre-crime” famous in his novel Minority Report, which described a future where people with “pre-cognitive” abilities could predict a crime and those predictions were used to arrest and convict “offenders.”
Without the luxury of pre-cognitive abilities, modern police agencies ...
Loaded on
Aug. 15, 2020
published in Criminal Legal News
September, 2020, page 50
Arizona: Mariah Valenzuela has filed legal notices against the city of Phoenix and Maricopa County over Phoenix police officer Michael McGillis’ use of force during a January 16, 2020 traffic stop, abc15.com reports. The officer, driving a white van, stopped Valenzuela for allegedly veering across the center line, then ...
