Criminal Law Library Blog

April 21, 2009

New York Legislation: Update to Legislation Regarding Rockefeller Drug Law Reform

On March 30, 2009 we posted information on this blawg about the historic agreement reached by New York lawmakers regarding reform of the Rockefeller drug law. Since that time there has been significant activity related to his effort including the signing of Chapter 56 of 2009 by the Governor on April 7, 2009. Although Chapter 56 is considered as primarily related to budget matters it contains significant material related to the Rockefeller Law reform initiatives.

For your information this posting includes links to those parts of the aforementioned legislation which appear to be relevant to the Rockefeller Drug Law reform issue. The links are to items I have posted on the New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library Blog:

http://www.bloglines.com/blog/PLL?id=12751 for Part AAA of Chapter 56 of 2009.

April 13, 2009

Q&A: Serial Volumes Received with Accompanying Flash Drives: How Should Libraries Respond?

by David Badertscher

At least one publisher appears to be experimenting with issuing flash drives to accompany at least some of the serial volumes they publish. How, or should, libraries process flash drives received in this matter and incorporate them into their collections. Below is a question posed via e-mail by someone actually receiving such materials and some responses and recommendations:*

QUESTION:

“Recently our library received an ABA serial, the 23rd Annual National Institute on White Collar Crime, with an accompanying flash drive. We have not received flash drives with print material before, and since this is sure to be a trend, I wanted to find out how others are handling this situation. The flash drive contains the contents of the entire volume, plus some unique material not replicated in the serial volume. Since we’d prefer to keep the information on the flash drive and the book together, one potential idea was to burn the flash drive contents to a CD-ROM and insert the disc in the back of the book.”

April 13, 2009

Electronic Court Records Conference: Seattle, Washington

by David Badertscher

The King County Superior Court Clerk’s Office 2nd Annual Electronic Court Records Program Conference will be held August 4-6,2009 in Seattle, WA. This is a free program.

DESCRIPTION:

King County Superior Court Clerk’s Office proudly presents

April 13, 2009

William S. Hein Publications: Special Pricing for National Library Week

by David Badertscher

April 12-18, 2009

William S. Hein & Co., Inc. is pleased to offer special pricing on a selection of our newest and best selling titles during National Library Week!

Purchase ONE title and receive 10% off

April 13, 2009

New York Appellate Criminal Cases Originating from the New York Supreme Court NY County. April 13, 2009.

by David Badertscher

Update from the Lexis Alert Service,

April 13, 2009.

1. People v. Gagot, 277, 6919/06, SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT, 2009 NY Slip Op 2724; 2009 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2591, April 9, 2009, Decided, April 9, 2009, Filed, 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.

April 13, 2009

Findlaw Case Summaries

by David Badertscher

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

April 6-10, 2009:

U.S. Supreme Court, April 06, 2009 Corley v. US, No. 07-10441 Defendant’s bank robbery conviction is vacated, where the District Court erred by denying Defendant’s motion to suppress his confession under McNabb v. US, 318 U.S. 332 (1943), and Mallory v. US, 354 U.S. 449 (1957), based on the government’s delay in bringing him before a judge, where 18 U.S.C. section 3501 modified McNabb-Mallory but did not supplant it. …

U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, April 09, 2009 US v. González-Castillo , No. 07-2134 Sentence for unlawfully entering the U.S. after being previously deported is reversed and remanded where a clear and obvious error occurred when the court based defendant’s sentence on unsupported factual assertions, such that the error affected the defendant’s substantial rights and impaired the fairness of defendant’s sentence. .

U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, April 06, 2009 US v. Hertular, No. 07-1453 Conviction for drug and drug-related crimes is affirmed in part, reversed in part, and vacated and remanded where: 1) the evidence was insufficient to support defendant’s conviction for forcibly impeding or intimidating a federal officer under 18 U.S.C. sec. 111(a)(1) as the agents were not being threatened with immediate harm; 2) defendant’s sufficiency challenge to his obstruction of justice conviction was patently without merit; 3) there was no plain error in the district court’s jury instructions regarding the specific intent element of the obstruction of justice charge; and 4) although defendant’s sentence is vacated in light of the reversal of his sec. 111 conviction, there is still no merit to defendant’s procedural challenges to his sentence.
Continue reading

April 13, 2009

Findlaw Case Summaries: Constitutional Law 12

by David Badertscher

U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, April 08, 2009 Davis v. Tarrant Cty., No. 07-11223 In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action seeking admission to a state system of appointing attorneys in felony cases, the dismissal of the complaint is affirmed, where Plaintiff lacked standing because he failed to show that his application would have been denied had he reapplied for the position after changes in the system. .

U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, April 06, 2009 US v. Benson , No. 08-1312 District court action enjoining defendant from selling materials based on his premise that customers could stop paying federal income taxes and avoid or defeat prosecution by relying on the materials is affirmed where: 1) defendant violated 26 U.S.C. sec. 6700 by selling an illegal method by which to avoid paying taxes, and knew that his statements regarding the illegal plan were false or fraudulent; and 2) the injunction was properly issued and did not violate the First Amendment. Denial of government’s request to require defendant to divulge a list of his customers is reversed where: 1) defendant would not be harmed by identifying his customers and it would serve the public interest for the government to receive the full list; and 2) an order divulging the client list does not infringe on the First Amendment rights of defendant’s customers.

U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, April 09, 2009 City of Joliet v. New West, L.P. , No. 08-3032 In an action involving eminent domain proceedings, district court judgment is affirmed where neither the National Housing Act nor the Multifamily Assisted Housing Reform and Affordability Act preempts state and local condemnation laws.
Continue reading

April 10, 2009

Study: People With Untreated Mental Illness May Pose A Greater Threat to the Future of Libraries Than the Internet

by David Badertscher

Mark Estes, Editorial Director of AALL Spectrum, has forwarded the following Press Release about an important study published in the March/April 2009 issue of American Libraries, the journal of the American Library Association. The study suggests that people with untreated severe mantal illness may pose a greater risk to America’s public libraries than the internet.*

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:

April 10, 2009

ALA Direct Newsletter

by David Badertscher

April 8, 2009.

ALA Direct is the eNewsletter of the American Library Association.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Included in this issue is a link which our Senior Law Librarian and ALA member Philip Blue recommends for job seekers:
http://joblist.ala.org/index.cfm

ALA Connect debuts
“ALA is now providing its members a common virtual space to engage in ALA business and network with other members around issues and interests relevant to the profession. In the first phase of ALA Connect, every ALA group will have the ability to utilize posts, online docs, a group calendar, surveys, polls, chat rooms, and discussion forums. Members can log in using their regular ALA website username and password. Their records are automatically synchronized with the ALA membership database, so affiliations with committees, divisions, events, round tables, and sections are displayed. Project Manager Jenny Levine offers an overview of the site and writes: ‘I feel a little like Doctor Frankenstein-it’s aliiiiiive-but so far the patient is doing quite well.’ ”

A letter to President Obama “On March 18, ALA President Jim Rettig submitted a letter to President Obama (PDF file) to address the issues ALA members chose to share with the administration during a January 24 Town Hall Meeting during the Midwinter Meeting in Denver: ‘Libraries are perfectly positioned to disseminate information relevant to the issues and challenges that face us as a nation, the same key issues which your administration is seeking to address.’.”..

Downturn puts new stresses on libraries “As the national economic crisis deepens and social services become casualties of budget cuts, libraries have come to fill a void for more people, particularly job-seekers and those who have fallen on hard times. Libraries across the country are seeing double-digit increases in patronage, often from 10% to 30% over previous years. Many librarians say they feel ill-equipped for the newfound demands of the job, the result of working with anxious and often depressed patrons who say they have nowhere else to go….
New York Times, Apr. 1”

Google’s plan for orphan works “Millions of orphan books may get a new legal guardian. Google has been scanning the pages of those books and others as part of its plan to bring a digital library and bookstore, unprecedented in scope, to computer screens across the United States. But a growing chorus, including ALA, is expressing concern that a far-reaching settlement of a suit brought against Google by publishers and authors is about to grant the company too much power over orphan works….”
New York Times, Apr. 3–4 Continue reading

April 10, 2009

CLLB Information Security Newsletter. April 2009 Volume 2 Number 4.

by David Badertscher

http://www.msisac.org/April 2009 Volume 2 Number 4.

From the Desk of David Badertscher

The use of credit cards to pay for goods and services is a common practice around the world. It enables business to be transacted in a convenient and cost effective manner. However, more than 100 million personally-identifiable, customer records have been breached in the US over the past two years[1]. Many of these breaches involved credit card information. Continued use of credits cards requires confidence by consumers that their transaction and credit card information are secure. The following provides information as to how the credit card industry has responded to security issues and steps you can take to protect your information.