By Paul Bieber
A ruling in California adds new impetus to the national movement to overturn wrongful arson convictions.
Read full entry »By Lisa Riordan Seville
After years of relative inaction, the government is stepping up prosecutions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Read full entry »As the U.S. Department of Education investigates whether Penn State University might have broken federal law in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal...
Read full entry »By Lisa Riordan Seville
Civil liberties activists say the Department of Homeland Security is undermining Congress’ efforts to apply the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) to immigrant detainees.
Read full entry »By Lisa Riordan Seville
What did the DEA learn from its battle with the Medellin and Cali cartels?
Read full entry »When Atchison, Ks., Police Sgt. David Enzbrenner was shot to death last week his homicide added to a grim year for law enforcement officers, says the Kansas City Star. Law enforcement fatalities in the line of duty are up 14 percent this year on top of a whopping 25 percent increase in 2010, says the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund in Washington, D.C.
Perhaps most troubling is that firearms-related fatalities are likely to outpace traffic-related deaths for the first time in 13 years, Memorial Fund officials said. The figure is disturbing for industry law enforcement advocates given that December — one of the deadliest months for sworn officers — is far from over. While officials try to determine what triggered the spike some wonder if the economy and an anti-government sentiment have played a role. “There is dissatisfaction with government and a lot of it is being taken out on law enforcement,” said Harry Herington of the non-profit agency Ride4Cops. “Law enforcement are the troops at home. And right now they are being gunned down on our own streets and not because they’re stopping somebody in the middle of a crime.” Another problem is that budget cuts mean some officers are being asked to do more with less, said Steve Groeninger of the Memorial Fund.
Read full entry »Corporate powerhouses like Motorola, DuPont, Verizon, and Panasonic have contributed millions of dollars to the $80 million National Law Enforcement Museum...
Read full entry »The nationwide Occupy movement is targeting Wall Street, but it's arguably municipal governments that have felt the biggest impact so far, NPR reports...
Read full entry »For centuries, the notion of mens rea, Latin for "guilty mind," has held that people must know they are doing something wrong before they can be found guilty. Latin for a "guilty mind." The Wall Street Journal says this legal protection is being eroded as the federal criminal code dramatically swells. In recent decades, Congress has repeatedly crafted laws that weaken or disregard the notion of criminal intent. Today not only are there thousands more criminal laws than before, but it is easier to fall afoul of them. What once might have been considered simply a mistake is now sometimes punishable by jail time.
In 1790, the first federal criminal code listed fewer than 20 federal crimes. Today there are an estimated 4,500 crimes in federal statutes, plus thousands more embedded in federal regulations. One controversial new law can hold animal-rights activists criminally responsible for protests that cause the target of their attention to be fearful, regardless of the protesters' intentions. More than 40 percent of nonviolent offenses created or amended during two recent Congresses had "weak" mens rea requirements at best, says the Heritage Foundation and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Rep James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), chairman of the House crime subcommittee, wants to clean up the definition of criminal intent as part of a broader revamp of the criminal code. "How the definition of mens rea is applied is going to be one of the more difficult areas to figure out a way to fix," he said.
Read full entry »Journalists usually learn more about a story than they can possibly get published or on the air. For some who cover courts, social media is the solution...
Read full entry »The Supreme Court ruled last year that it is cruel and unusual punishment to sentence a juvenile to life without parole when the crime is short of homicide. The sentence is no less severe when applied to adults, the New York Times says in an editorial. Yet life without parole is routinely used. From 1992 to 2008, the number in prison for life without parole tripled to 41,095, an increase much greater than the percentage rise in those serving life sentences.
Programs that provide free legal aid to the poor are laying off employees, cutting services and increasingly turning away people who need assistance, as slashed budgets face deeper cuts, reports USA Today. One expert calls it a "dire situation." Legal aid programs provide representation in civil cases related to domestic violence, foreclosures, child custody issues and similar matters. The Constitution guarantees legal representation if a person cannot afford to hire a lawyer in criminal cases, but in civil cases people are on their own.
Congress cut funding for the Legal Services Corp., an umbrella non-profit group that distributes grants to 136 programs on the state level, by $15.8 million, about 4% of the program's most recent budget, in the spring. The House Appropriations Committee has proposed slashing an additional $104 million for fiscal 2012, rolling back funding to $300 million — a level not seen since 1999. The number of people eligible, based on income levels, for LSC programs across the country has gone up 27% since 2007. About 64 million people qualify.
Read full entry »The Florida Department of Law Enforcement last week uploaded DNA from serial killer Ted Bundy into a national FBI database to see if it matches any unsolved crimes, reports the Associated Press. Investigators recently recovered a vial of Bundy's blood taken as evidence in 1978. Previous items, including hair and dental molds, had been examined without success. A tissue sample taken before he was executed resulted in only a partial profile.
A bulletin went out to law enforcement agencies nationwide after the full DNA profile was uploaded to the database Friday. David Coffman, chief of forensic services at the FDLE's crime lab, says finding full DNA profiles from before 1978 to compare it with could be a challenge. Bundy was executed in 1989 and confessed to killing 30 people, though there could be others.
Read full entry »New research from the National Institute of Justice provides guidance for the tough choices law enforcement agencies around the country are having to make as a result of budget cuts and the economic recession.
Read full entry »As Californians gear up for a likely 2012 referendum on the state’s controversial Three Strikes law, Sacramento is finding fewer offenders to prosecute under the measure.
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