From the ABA Judicial Division:
The ABA Judicial Division presented and received favorable press coverage of the many wonderful programs during the 2008 Midyear Meeting in Los Angeles, CA, February 6-10. You can read, listen, and/or view these programs by clicking on the links below. This information is also posted to: http://www.abanet.org/jd/
Stranger in a Strange Land: Cross-Cultural Issues in the Courts — Video | Audio
“(U.S. 6th Cir., Feb. 5, 2008) – Defendants’ sentences resulting from their clumsy robbery of rare books from a university and attempts to sell them at auction are vacated and remanded for re-sentencing, where the district court erred by excluding books dropped and abandoned in the library stairwell from the valuation of loss and computation of the sentencing range. The court held that the defendant-robbers “took” the books, under USSG, 2B3.1, when they exercised dominion and control over them, such that they completed the acts necessary to seize the books.”
“Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Feb. 11, 2008) – The U.S. Department of Defense announced that six high-value detainees held in Guantanamo Bay were charged, under the Military Commissions Act, with planning and executing the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Specific charges include violations of the laws of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destroying of property in violation of the laws of war, terrorism, and material support to terrorism”
U.S. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed et.al.: Specifications and Charges
Source: Findlaw Featured Documents, February 11, 2008.
Report prepared by U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General
February 2008.
Section 1001 of the USA PATRIOT Act (Patriot Act), Public Law 107-56, directs the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ or Department) to undertake a series of actions related to claims of civil rights or civil liberties violations allegedly committed by DOJ employees. It also requires the OIG to provide semiannual reports to Congress on the implementation of the OIG’s responsibilities under Section 1001. This report – the twelfth since enactment of the legislation in October 2001 – summarizes the OIG’s Section 1001-related activities from July 1, 2007, through December 31, 2007.
The following is a question and and responses to that question. We have made every effort to remove all identifying information Regarding both the person who submitted the question and those who responded.
QUESTION:
How many of you have a wiki at your firm? What is it used for? Who is allowed to contribute?
While reviewing responses to readers of this blawg, I noticed that many seem interested in postings related to information security. Therefore, as an experiment beginning with this posting I plan to include an occasional newsletter covering topics and issues related to information security.
As an added activity I serve on an Information Security Committee at my orgaization. This experience has certainly increased my awareness of the importance of information security issues to all of us, including law librarians. Let’s see how this works. Comments are welcome.
David Badertscher
We have recently received information on the following recent American Bar Association Publications:
ABA Standards for Criminal Justice, Third Edition: DNA Evidence
“The ‘black letter’ Standards contained and discussed in this publication relate to collecting, preserving and use of DNA evidence, DNA testing, pretrial proceedings, trial, post-conviction, charging by DNA profile, and DNA databases. The ‘black letter’ Standards were approved by the American Bar Association’s policymaking House of Delegates in August 2006. The commentary was approved by the Criminal Justice Standards Committee in July 2007. Although this publication is part of the Third Edition of the Criminal Justice Standards, this is the first volume relating to DNA Evidence.”
Source: Findlaw Documents:
Indictment Unsealed Against Accused Gambino Crime Family Defendants
U.S. V. JOSEPH AGATE, ET AL .
A Report for Congress Prepared by Garrine P. Laney, Analyst in Social Policy, Domestic Policy Division of the Congressional Research Service, February 4, 2008.
The following is from the Summary:
“Monitoring the movement of sex offenders in communities continues to be of interest to Congress, state legislatures, and local governments. In response to some citizens’ concerns, Congress passed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-248), which, among other provisions, provides for mandatory registration of sex offenders who are released from prison, closer scrutiny of them,
DAVID BADERTSCHER
The following posting consists of a series of documents selected to hopefully help provide those readers interested with an overview of the budget and the budget process. It also includes a list of the web sites rererenced in President Bush’s Budget Message.To provide added context I have embedded some of the citation references within quotations from his message. Due to the size and complexity of this budget as submitted we can only include a few of the documents in this posting. The following includes links to the series of documents selected.
SELECTED DOCUMENTS:
