Supreme Court Rules on Warrantless GPS Tracking

by admin on January 23, 2012

in Criminal Justice

Today the Supreme Court handed down a much awaited ruling regarding the use of GPS tracking devices attached to automobiles. The ruling may disappoint some, who don’t hold civil liberties in high regards, but is cause for celebration for others. The High Court voted unanimously that cops do need a warrant when tracking a vehicle via GPS. [click to continue…]

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Military Drones Used by Domestic Law Enforcement

by admin on January 20, 2012

in Criminal Justice

Unmanned military aircraft are being used by a very select group of local law enforcement agencies to conduct surveillance from overhead without being detected. Civil liberties groups are concerned about what this may mean for privacy, while police are enthusiastic about having an additional cost-effective, high-tech tool in their arsenal. [click to continue…]

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Should Criminal Histories Be Given an Expiration Date?

January 17, 2012

An op-ed in the New York Times this week makes an interesting proposal—that criminal histories should only be used against job applicants for a certain period of time. Alfred Blumstein, professor of urban systems and operations research at Carnegie Mellon University, and Kiminori Nakamura, associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of [...]

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Former Cop Speaks Out Against Bad Interrogation Practices

January 4, 2012

What would it take for you to confess to a crime that you didn’t commit? Would several hours in an interrogation room do it? For many, the acts of interrogating police officers push them to the edge, where they end up admitting to crimes they never committed. One former police officer is working to change [...]

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Criminal Histories and Flawed Background Checks

December 30, 2011

When you are convicted of a criminal offense, you carry that conviction with your indefinitely, sometimes for the rest of your life. But sometimes, people who have never even been arrested find themselves being disqualified from a job due to a criminal record. A lengthy report from the New York Times discusses why this happens [...]

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Crying in Criminal Court – Can it Help Your Case?

December 27, 2011

We’ve all seen a defendant break down in court. Well, most of us who have spent any time in a courtroom have witnessed this. But the New York Times this week looks at the crying defendant and asks what good does it do and is it ever planned.

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Some Prosecutors Unmoved By DNA Evidence

November 29, 2011

DNA exonerations occur when a person who had previously been found guilty or even pled guilty to a crime is cleared of the offense because of DNA evidence. This could be someone else’s DNA found on the crime scene, implicating another suspect, or an absence of the original suspect’s DNA. When it comes to evidence, [...]

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Obama Commutes Federal Sentence for Crack Cocaine Sale

November 23, 2011

President Barack Obama finally used his pardon power to commute the sentence of a federal inmate, the first such commutation he’s granted since taking office. This prisoner was a victim of the imbalanced crack-cocaine laws in place before the Fair Sentencing Act reduced the disparities between powdered cocaine and crack cocaine.

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An Argument to Repeal Mandatory Minimums

November 18, 2011

The New York Times published an editorial calling on lawmakers in Washington D.C. to do away with all federal mandatory minimum prison sentences. The editorial cited this report from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, one which many negative things to say about the sentencing practice.

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Senate Considers National Concealed Weapons Bill

November 16, 2011

The Senate today will be voting on the National Right to Carry Reciprocity Act (H.R. 822). This Act would make it lawful for people who have concealed carry permits to travel between states with their weapons as long as the states are those which allow for concealed weapons. As it stands, state laws vary so [...]

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