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Criminal Law

CrimProf Blog

Criminal law resources, information, and news for the academic community.

Post Frequency: 25.9/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 16:40:00

Man's Confession Is Impossible

Posted on June 19, 2008
An inmate who confessed a 14-year-old Knoxville slaying was in a mental health facility at the time of the killing, according to records unearthed by a defense attorney.Ronald E. Greene faces a second-degree murder charge for a 1994 slaying committed...

DNA sample identifies attacker from 1985 rape case

Posted on June 19, 2008
DALLAS ? A DNA sample that freed a wrongly convicted man who spent nearly 23 years behind bars implicated another man already in prison who has confessed to the crime, Dallas County prosecutors said Tuesday.DNA evidence collected after the 1985...

CSI: Anchorage -- great expectations

Posted on June 19, 2008
Police, frustrated by an uncooperative suspect, get a court order for his DNA. They throw on a pot of coffee, and, before the first cup is gone, the lab has results: a perfect match to the atom-sized sample collected at...

CrimProf Hashimoto Cited in Indiana v. Edwards

Posted on June 19, 2008
Georgia Law Professor Erica Hashimoto's article Defending the Right of Self-Representation: An Empirical Look at the Pro Se Felony Defendant, 85 N.C. L. Rev. 423 (2007), is cited on p.13 of today's slip op. in Indiana v. Edwards. Kudos!

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SCOTUS Decides Indiana v. Edwards

Posted on June 19, 2008
The Supreme Court decided Indiana v. Edwards today. In a 7-2 decision, the Court held that the standard for competency to stand trial is not the same as the standard for competency to waive counsel and go to trial pro...

State needs to preserve trial evidence

Posted on June 18, 2008
The defense said it wanted to do more extensive testing than that performed by the prosecution. It couldn't. The blood evidence had already been discarded by doctors at the Medical University of South Carolina. It had been stored for about...

The rights of the accused after killing the accuser

Posted on June 18, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Can a man who admitted killing his girlfriend, but who claims he did so in self-defense, prevent a jury from hearing her prior reports to the police that she feared for her life? The Supreme Court is due...

Courts Putting Hot-Button Words on Ice

Posted on June 18, 2008
Call it the age of the Loaded Word. A steadily increasing number of courts across the United States are prohibiting witnesses and victims from uttering certain words in front of a jury, banning everything from the words "rape" to "victim"...

Rare Form of Grand Jury Used to Investigate Abortion Providers

Posted on June 17, 2008
From N.Y. Times.com: WICHITA, Kan. ? Opponents of Dr. George Tiller and his clinic here, one of the nation?s few providers of late-term abortions, have tried many ways to stop him over three decades. They have held protests, lobbied lawmakers...

Ending a cycle of crime: Ex-cons get a helping hand

Posted on June 17, 2008
A new approach to parole in Arizona began with thousands of colored pushpins and a large state map. In 2003, prison officials set out to find new ways to keep released inmates from going back behind bars. So they began...

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of the Use of DNA in the Investigation of High-Volume Crimes

Posted on June 17, 2008
The study compared traditional crime solving to biological evidence techniques in hundreds of cases where biological evidence was available. When conventional investigative techniques were used, a suspect was identified 12 percent of the time, compared to 31 percent of the...

Cops use force - from restraint to drawn guns - in 20% of stops, data show

Posted on June 17, 2008
One in five New Yorkers stopped by police in 2006 encountered some use of force, from simple restraint to facing a drawn service weapon, a Daily News analysis of new data found. In 102,000 of the more than 500,000 police...

This time, parolee has a plan -- a halfway house to help him stay out of prison

Posted on June 16, 2008
Ronald Eugene Williams, 44, signs forms for his release from San Quentin Prison last weekend as correctional officer Luis Med ina counts out $200 ? the gate money given to all parolees as they leave.

Facing 'Crisis,' Public Defenders May Refuse Cases

Posted on June 16, 2008
Faced with what they call severe budget shortfalls, several public defender offices across the country say they may soon begin turning away thousands of poor criminal defendants. Statewide public defenders in Kentucky and Minnesota and local offices in cities such...

Bratton and Baca disagree on role of race in gang violence

Posted on June 16, 2008
Baca sees major link with racial hatred, Bratton urges perspective. Los Angeles' two top lawmen are increasingly at odds over the extent to which gang violence is being fueled by racial hatred. Police Chief William J. Bratton and his top...

ACLU Challenges Texas Juvenile Inmate Conditions

Posted on June 16, 2008
From Jurist (with links): The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a class action lawsuit [complaint, PDF; press release] Thursday against the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) [official website], alleging that five girls imprisoned at the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional...

Frank Easterbrook

Posted on June 15, 2008
Frank Easterbrook graduated from the Law School in 1973. He was an editor of the Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. Before coming to Chicago, he attended Swarthmore College, from which he received a degree...

Juvenile courts unsure how to deal with dangerous teens incompetent for trial

Posted on June 14, 2008
The 17-year-old with a slash of a scar between his eyebrows frustrates Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court Judge Thomas F. O'Malley. The teen leveled a silver handgun, robbing a woman gardening in her yard and drivers delivering milk and chips, police...

Scheck speaks, raises funds for Innocence Project

Posted on June 13, 2008
Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck said in a speech last night that West Virginia ? and dozens of other states ? were ready for bipartisan criminal justice reforms to prevent future wrongful convictions. Scheck spoke at an Innocence Project fundraiser...

Despite Concerns Local police departments look to increase use of Taser

Posted on June 13, 2008
While the investigation continues into the death of drug suspect Tony Curtis Bradway hours after Town of Southampton police shocked him with a Taser, Long Island and the New York Police Department are following a national trend that could one...

Killer put to death in Texas' 1st execution in 9 months

Posted on June 13, 2008
A remorseful convicted killer was executed Wednesday night for the rape and slaying of a woman in Dallas 17 years ago, the first Texas prisoner in nearly nine months put to death in the nation's most active capital punishment state....

Ohio lethal injection executions unconstitutional, Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge rules

Posted on June 12, 2008
Ohio's lethal injection process is unconstitutional because it could cause pain and the state mandates that an inmate's death be painless, Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge ruled Tuesday. He ordered the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to...

US: Improve Prison Conditions at Guantanamo

Posted on June 12, 2008
More than two-thirds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, including many cleared for release or transfer, are being housed in inhumane conditions that are reportedly having a damaging effect on their mental health, Human Rights Watch said in a new report....

Pittsburgh shows slight drop in major crimes in '07

Posted on June 12, 2008
Crime in Pittsburgh dropped in most major categories last year, mirroring nationwide declines in both violent and property offenses, according to FBI statistics released this week.The FBI's preliminary Uniform Crime Report shows 3,455 violent crimes -- murder, rape, robbery and...

Plea Bargaining's Survival: Financial Crimes Plea Bargaining, a Continued Triumph in a Post-Enron World

Posted on June 12, 2008
This article examines the war on financial crimes that began after the collapse of Enron in 2001. Although many believed that the reforms implemented following this scandal led to greater prosecutorial focus on financial crimes and longer prison sentences, an...

OK'd for transfer, but going nowhere

Posted on June 11, 2008
Mike Meyer says that in his 13 years locked inside Minnesota Sex Offender Program facilities, he's gained insight into why he molested 36 children and young adults, and how to stop himself from doing it again. "When I was offending...

Alternative courts gain ground for petty criminals

Posted on June 11, 2008
Cities and counties increasingly are creating innovative community courts to deal with the growing number of habitual petty criminals that police call "frequent fliers."Criminals who are arrested repeatedly for crimes such as public drunkenness, trespassing and panhandling are crowding jails...

Current and Former ADAs Who Helped Convict Exonerated Men Reflect

Posted on June 11, 2008
In fewer than two years in office, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins has become a star for who he is not ? namely legendary DA Henry Wade. Watkins has embraced the help of the Innocence Project and has worked...

Ohio Court Rules Lethal Injection Protocol Violates State Statute

Posted on June 11, 2008
From nytimes.com: "Ohio must stop using a common combination of three chemicals to execute condemned inmates because they may produce excruciating pain, a state court judge there ruled Tuesday. "Then, in what legal experts said was a first, the judge...

Asking the Right Questions on the Crime Beat

Posted on June 10, 2008
Crime happens every day. And as crime reporters, we often spend our time running from one heartwrenching crime scene to another, scanning arrest report after arrest report, churning out well-intended stories that state the news, but that too often ignore...

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