Articles Posted in Criminal Law and Justice

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In Congressional Quarterly (CQ) Online News, Keith Perine writes: “…Obama, speaking with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as a backdrop, defended his order to close the detainee prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and outlined several tenets of his own counterterrorism strategy. The president tried to reframe the complex problem of how to treat the Guantánamo detainees as one that requires pragmatism above politics and bipartisan deliberation over partisan attacks.

“As president, I refuse to allow this problem to fester. I refuse to pass it on to somebody else,” Obama said, in one of several thinly veiled digs at the George W. Bush administration. ‘It is my responsibility to solve the problem. Our security interests will not permit us to delay. Our courts won’t allow it. And neither should our conscience.’ ” To see the entire article, including an account of a rebuttal speech by former Vice President Cheney, delivered from the American Enterprise Institute, click here.

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Update from the Lexis Alert Service,

May 20, 2009:.

1. People v. McDonald, 157, 5982/07, SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT, 2009 NY Slip Op 2287; 60 A.D.3d 553; 2009 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2233, March 26, 2009, Decided, THE LEXIS PAGINATION OF THIS DOCUMENT IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE PENDING RELEASE OF THE FINAL PUBLISHED VERSION., THIS OPINION IS UNCORRECTED AND SUBJECT TO REVISION BEFORE PUBLICATION IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS.
The People of the State …
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Carol Berkman, J.), …

2. People v. Batista, 163, 5636/05, SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT, 2009 NY Slip Op 2292; 60 A.D.3d 557; 874 N.Y.S.2d 808; 2009 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2229, March 26, 2009, Decided, March 26, 2009, Entered, THE LEXIS PAGINATION OF THIS DOCUMENT IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE PENDING RELEASE OF THE FINAL PUBLISHED VERSION., THIS OPINION IS UNCORRECTED AND SUBJECT TO REVISION BEFORE PUBLICATION IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS.
The People of the State …
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Bonnie G. Wittner, …

3. People v. Ramirez, 168, 6600/03, SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT, 2009 NY Slip Op 2296; 60 A.D.3d 560; 875 N.Y.S.2d 482; 2009 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2235, March 26, 2009, Decided, March 26, 2009, Entered, THE LEXIS PAGINATION OF THIS DOCUMENT IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE PENDING RELEASE OF THE FINAL PUBLISHED VERSION., THIS OPINION IS UNCORRECTED AND SUBJECT TO REVISION BEFORE PUBLICATION IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS.
The People of the State …
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Edwin Torres, J.), …

4. People v. Pequero, 143, 1348/06, SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT, 2009 NY Slip Op 2242; 60 A.D.3d 542; 2009 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2418, March 24, 2009, Decided, March 24, 2009, Entered, THE LEXIS PAGINATION OF THIS DOCUMENT IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE PENDING RELEASE OF THE FINAL PUBLISHED VERSION., THIS OPINION IS UNCORRECTED AND SUBJECT TO REVISION BEFORE PUBLICATION IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS.
The People of the State …
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Bonnie G. Wittner, …

5. People v. Cantey, 120, 2132/07, SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT, 2009 NY Slip Op 2228; 60 A.D.3d 533; 874 N.Y.S.2d 805; 2009 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2259, March 24, 2009, Decided, March 24, 2009, Entered, THE LEXIS PAGINATION OF THIS DOCUMENT IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE PENDING RELEASE OF THE FINAL PUBLISHED VERSION., THIS OPINION IS UNCORRECTED AND SUBJECT TO REVISION BEFORE PUBLICATION IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS.
The People of the State …
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Lewis Bart Stone, …
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The Justice Policy Institute, an advocacy organization based in Washington DC, has just issued a report, Pruning Prisons: How Cutting Corrections Can Save Money and Protect Public Safety, which argues that states can improve public safety and save millions of dollars by investing in community based alternatives to incarceration. Quoting from the Introduction: “as the United States grapples with harsh economic realities, states and localities continue to cut budgets, shed jobs, and trim institutions that are not cost effective. Among the least cost effective are prisons and jail systems. Bulding on these observations the remainder of the of the report outlines a number of findings and recommendations supported by charts and other data .

More from the Introduction:

The United States’ prison system continues to grow every year. Over 2.3 million people are incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails. As state prisons hold nearly 60 percent of the people incarcerated, yearly increases in the prison system are most keenly felt by states.

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To view the full-text of cases you must sign in to FindLaw.com. All summaries are produced by Findlaw.

May 14, 2009.

CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE US v. Ness, No. 05-440 Conviction for conspiring to commit three money laundering offenses is reversed where: 1) a reasonable jury could not find beyond a reasonable doubt that the purpose of defendant’s transportation of narcotics proceeds was to conceal the nature, location, or source of the narcotics proceeds; and 2) the government failed to prove that defendant violated 18 U.S.C. sec. 1957(a), as it did not present sufficient evidence that a financial institution was involved. .

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Update from the Lexis Alert Service,

May 18, 2009.

1. People v. Smith, 558, 2680/07, SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT, 2009 NY Slip Op 3839; 2009 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3674, May 14, 2009, Decided, THE LEXIS PAGINATION OF THIS DOCUMENT IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE PENDING RELEASE OF THE FINAL PUBLISHED VERSION., THIS OPINION IS UNCORRECTED AND SUBJECT TO REVISION BEFORE PUBLICATION IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS.

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Top Ten Stories of the Week ending May 8, 2009:

Law Practice Management Downturn’s Losers: BigLaw, ‘Entitled’ Associates, Top Schools May 7, 2009, 10:12 am CDT

Law Schools Blog Questions ‘Rankings Malpractice’ by Law Schools

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In its preliminary statistics released on May 11, 2009 the FBI reports that 41 of our nation’s law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2008. All but five were killed with firearms. The number of officers feloniously killed was 17 fewer than in 2007. A more detailed explanation of these numbers is provided in the Press Release announcing the release of these statistics:

FBI Press Release May 11, 2007

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May 4 -8, 2009
To view the full-text of cases you must sign in to FindLaw.com. All summaries are produced by Findlaw.

U.S. Supreme Court, May 04, 2009 Flores-Figueroa v. US, No. 08-108 Defendant’s aggravated identity theft conviction is reversed where 18 U.S.C. section 1028A(a)(1) requires the government to show that a defendant knew that the means of identification at issue belonged to another person.

U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, May 04, 2009 Rice v. Hall, No. 07-2660 In conviction for murder, denial of petition for habeas relief is affirmed where plaintiff failed to show: 1) counsel’s performance was unreasonable or incompetent; and 2) any error that prejudiced him such that the outcome would likely have been different but for the error.

U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, May 05, 2009 US v. Angulo-Hernández, No. 07-2428 Conviction and sentence for drug crimes is affirmed where: 1) the evidence presented was sufficient to support each of the defendants’ convictions; 2) any possible error in the admission of lay testimony was harmless; 3) district court’s participation in trial did not constitute prejudicial error; 4) the defendants’ jurisdictional challenge under the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act was meritless; 5) the court did not abuse its discretion in denying the defendants’ multiple requests for a continuance and proceeding with the trial as scheduled; and 6) defendant’s sentence was reasonable.
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Update from the Lexis Alert Service,

May 11, 2009.

1. People v. Acevedo, 511 70/06, 512 70/06, SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT, 2009 NY Slip Op 3673; 2009 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3554, May 7, 2009, Decided, May 7, 2009, Entered, THE LEXIS PAGINATION OF THIS DOCUMENT IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE PENDING RELEASE OF THE FINAL PUBLISHED VERSION., THIS OPINION IS UNCORRECTED AND SUBJECT TO REVISION BEFORE PUBLICATION IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS.

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While most agree that forensic science is a critical element of the criminal justice system, there are increasing expressions of concern as to whether it is becoming fragmanted, less reliable, and urgently needs an infusion of financial and research support in order to remain viable.

These and related concerns have been discussed in a variety of books, journals as well as the web media. Of particular interest to many is the National Academy of Sciences Report on Forensics which addresses directly many of the points mentioned above. While I cannot link directly to that Report here I can link to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) catalog where you can purchase a copy: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12589 . There may be a free summary available at that site. The NAS Report is also discussed in some depth in an American Judicature Society Editorial at http://www.ajs.org/ajs/ajs_editorial-template.asp?content_id=797 Also recommended is the Comments on the Release of the NAS Report on Forensic Sciences by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors (ASCLD).

Recognizing the growing concern and importane of viable forensics, the New York Times has devoted most of the Science Section of its May 12, 2009 issue to what it calls the “New Forensics”. This issue contains a wide selection of articles addressing various aspects of forensic science as related to criminal justice. Links to a few are included in the listings below:”

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