Monday, September 29, 2008

Forensic Oversight: Reliability of Fingerprints, Tire Tracks, and Bite Marks Called Into ?


In light of the Detroit Crime Lab closing last week, here is something interesting to consider about the reliability of certain kinds of "forensic evidence".

From The New York Post and Five Borough Defense
A federal panel of experts looking into the reliability of CSI tests has heard damning evidence against some of the most common techniques used to convict killers, rapists and other criminals, The Post has learned.
The analysis of fingerprints, tire tracks and bite marks isn't nearly as reliable as researchers once believed, crime-scene specialists told the panel. Some even called it junk science.
Many said major changes would be necessary if crime labs want to continue using the evidence.
The National Academy of Sciences report isn't due out until December, but forensic expert Barry Scheck predicted the study could have blockbuster implications.
"The testimony before them was very compelling," the former O.J. Simpson "Dream Team" lawyer said.
"There were some serious questions raised about the reliability of certain disciplines - bite impressions, tire tracks and automatic fingerprint identification.
"I'm assuming they're going to make some big recommendations about how standards are set. A lot of people are anticipating a fairly far-reaching examination of forensic science."
Peter Neufeld, Scheck's partner at the Innocence Project, which works to clear the wrongfully convicted by using DNA evidence, was among dozens of experts who spoke before the panel, a blue-ribbon gathering of 17 evaluators who began their work in 2006.
The $1 million effort to assess forensic work is not final; the academy's report is undergoing a peer review now.
But it's already being viewed as a major potential challenge to the fundamentals of crime-scene investigation.

For more on Forensic Oversight in general check out The Innocence Project Crime Lab Oversight page.

ACLU Protesting New FBI Guidelines

From ACLU Press Release:
The ACLU is formally requesting the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigate current abuses of the attorney general guidelines. During testimony last week, Director Mueller insinuated that the FBI interpreted its authorities under the current guidelines to allow the use of intrusive investigative techniques even without any factual “predication.” A plain reading of the guidelines would not support this interpretation. The OIG investigation should examine whether the FBI has used prohibited investigative techniques to infiltrate groups engaged in non-violent protest activities or political demonstrations without a factual predicate indicating a possible violation of federal law. The investigation should particularly examine the manner in which the FBI uses race, religion, national origin or First Amendment protected activities in determining whether to initiate, expand or continue an investigation.

“What’s the point of revising the guidelines if the FBI isn’t even following the current ones? Since that very well may be the case, we’re asking the Inspector General to investigate what exactly has been going on at the bureau,” continued Fredrickson. “The FBI already has far too much authority — and far too grave a history of abusing that authority — for its investigative powers to have anything but clear, bright and easily understood boundaries.”


To read the ACLU’s letter to DOJ Inspector General Glenn Fine, click here.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications

The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) is the finding tool for federal publications that includes descriptive records for historical and current publications and provides direct links to those that are available online. Users can search by authoring agency, title, subject, and general key word, or click on "Advanced Search" for more options.

The catalog offers you the option to find a nearby Federal Depository Library that has a particular publication or that can provide expert assistance in finding and using related U.S. government information. Click on the title of interest from your search results list. Then click on the Locate in a Library link within the displayed record.

Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States

This web version of the Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States is based on a paper version with the same title compiled by Robert B. Matchette et al in 1995. This version incorporates descriptive information about federal records acquired by the National Archives after the 1995 paper edition went to press, and it is regularly updated to reflect new acquisitions of federal records.

While We're on the Topic of Democracy...Disenfranchisement By State


Image courtesy of CNN

The debates scheduled (?) for Friday Night September 26 brings to mind this interesting interactive map on The Sentencing Project site that has statistics, organized by state, of the number of incarcerated people, their race/ethnicity, and the total number of people disenfranchised aka unable to vote. For example, in Washington State, the total number of incarcerated is 29,225; for every 100,000 residents in Washington State, there are 393 white people incarcerated, 2,522 African-American people incarcerated, and 527 Hispanic people incarcerated. The total number of people who are disenfranchised from voting is 167,316 or 3.61% of the population...and of that number 23,364 are African-American or 27.225 percent. The numbers have probably gone up as the map was sourced from the Department of Justice and and a study entitled "Locked Out: Felony Disenfranchisement and American Democracy", by Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen a bit ago.

Beyond the cool interactive statistics map, there is a report just released titled "Expanding the Vote: State Felony Disenfranchisement Reform, 1997-2008", summarized nicely by Sentencing Law and Policy.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Five Borough Defense-PD Blogging with Vision


Check out Five Borough Defense for the latest in the New York Public Defender community. Not just for New Yorkers and New York-a-philes, the site has some decidedly cool features and links listed including my personal favorite so far, Rate My Cop, which is an online forum for people to voice both praise and criticism of police officers. The site has listings for officers in police departments across the country and you can search by name, department, or state. Along a similar line is Bad Cops Police Oversight Portal which addresses police misconduct in a variety of tools including a law library, community action manuals for fighting police abuses, and suggested resources for building better communities that include police oversight. The Five Borough Defense states this in their about section:
Five Borough Defense is a meeting place for public defenders in New York City, and for anyone interested in public defense in New York City. “In New York City” and “public defense” are intended to be interpreted broadly.Happier people in engaged communities is the goal. Those ends cannot be met by even inconceivably ambitious new approaches to courtroom advocacy alone. So the topics on the site stray through trends in various outlets for social engineering.

It couldn't be said better. Our investigator community is an integral part of an engaged defense community wherever you may find yourself and social engineering fits right into our job description.

Guantanamo Prosecutor Quits-Cites Ethical Concerns

Saw this tidbit on Arbitrary and Capricious posted by the Washington Post:

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Sept. 25 -- A military prosecutor involved in war crimes cases here has quit his position, citing ethical concerns about his office's failure to turn over exculpatory material to attorneys for an Afghan detainee scheduled to go to trial in December.
"My ethical qualms about continuing to serve as a prosecutor relate primarily to the procedures for affording defense counsel discovery," wrote Vandeveld in his filing. "I am highly concerned, to the point that I believe I can no longer serve as a prosecutor at the Commissions, about the slipshod, uncertain 'procedure' for affording defense counsel discovery."
Vandeveld was prosecuting Mohammed Jawad, 24, who is accused of tossing a grenade into a military jeep at a bazaar in Kabul in 2002, injuring two U.S. troops and their Afghan interpreter.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Guantanamo Update-empty seats at the table

The Man Who Wasn’t There


Monday’s hearing in the Guantánamo Military Commission prosecution of the alleged 9/11 plotters was expected to address the now-familiar allegations of improper command influence by Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann, who has already been excluded from three other commission trials for politicizing his legal advice in favor of the prosecution. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned to expect about these military commissions, it’s that nothing goes according to plan. In that regard, Monday didn’t disappoint.

At 9 a.m., when proceedings were scheduled to begin, one seat was noticeably empty: Ramzi bin al-Shibh’s. The other four so-called "High-Value Detainees" were there, as were their military and civilian lawyers and advisors, the prosecutors, the many guards, and the unnamed and never-identified civilian contractors who control security. But bin al-Shibh was nowhere in sight.

For the next 90 minutes, the defendants spoke to their "co-counsel" (three of the detainees are representing themselves) and to each other. Then a recess was announced. There was no explanation.

Read more…

Troy Davis Execution Stay by US Supreme Court


A few weeks ago, we posted a plea for help from Amnesty International regarding the case of Troy Davis, who was scheduled to be executed in Georgia. He was supposed to be executed at 7:00 pm this evening; however, two hours before he was to be executed the United States Supreme Court issued a stay to allow appeals to continue in the case. Prosecutors have labeled the witness statements "suspect" and courts had previously refused requests for a new trial. Thanks to all those that sent in email requests. Keep watch on this most important case. The stay order (available at Scotus Blog) will be lifted automatically if the Court denies review; the Court will consider the petition for review at its conference next week. Mr. Davis has maintained his innocence from the beginning.

Full Story at The Innocence Project Blog

Friday, September 19, 2008

Please Stand By Our Democracy is Having Technical Difficulties 2


In a related post to one earlier in the week discussing the new FBI guidelines, FBI Director Robert Mueller, III, testified before the US House of Representatives Committed on the Judiciary regarding the new technology the FBI proposes to use along with the new expansive guidelines to keep track of its citizenry. The focus of the testimony was on the new guidelines and on the Next Generation Identification System which is "advanced biometrics". A highlight from the statement (full statement/ testimony here):
We are also in the midst of developing the Next Generation Identification (NGI) system. NGI will expand the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) beyond fingerprints to advanced biometrics. It will also produce faster returns of information, enabling law enforcement and counterterrorism officials to make tactical decisions in the field. Criminals ranging from identity thieves to document forgers to terrorists are taking advantage of modern technology to shield their identities and activities. This trend will only accelerate. And so our new system will include not just fingerprints, but additional biometric data from criminals and terrorists. It will give us—and all our law enforcement and intelligence partners—bigger, better, and faster capabilities as we move forward.

It is ironic, then, that Fourth Amendment.com brought this piece of news my way: New York State started two days ago issuing RFID (radio frequency ID) chip enhanced driver's licenses (EDL). The licenses are meant to be able to track people crossing into Canada and Mexico. Big brother may indeed be watching.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

DOJ Crime Statistics in a 'Gif'


The Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics' website has a section entitled "Key Crime & Justice Facts at a Glance". The site contains charts and brief statements of findings with links to full size charts, additional information about the charts and findings, and the data that support the chart. The charts can be clicked on for additional links. The chart shown above, for example, shows that drug arrests are increasing: in 1970 there were 322,000 arrests; in 2006, that number was 1,693,100(!) According to the site, there are trend charts suitable for overheads and handouts available from the DOJ.

These statistics can be used in several ways in criminal defense investigations including: legislation, tracking policy changes, sentencing mitigation, and in advocacy for finding alternatives to incarceration. At the rate the chart is increasing, the alternatives are worth looking for.

Justice Department Review of TASER-related Deaths

From Amnesty International

(Washington, DC) -- Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) applauds the U.S. Department of Justice for its decision to review the deaths of up to 180 people who died after law enforcement officials shot them with TASERs.

"This is an important acknowledgement that there is a serious problem with the widespread use of TASERs," said Dalia Hashad, Director of AIUSA's U.S. Human Rights program. "People are dying needlessly. It's important that the federal government is taking this seriously."

According to news reports, the Justice Department review will initially focus on 30 deaths, including one from two decades ago. The review, which could take up to two years, will enlist the help of the National Association of Medical Examiners, the American College of Pathologists, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The Justice Department review is a good first step," said Hashad. "Following a thorough review, the next step should be for the federal government to issue comprehensive federal regulations and guidelines on the use of TASERs."

Amnesty International (AI) has identified more than 150 TASER-related deaths in the United States since June 2001. The organization has repeatedly called for a thorough and independent investigation into the effects of the devices. Studies conducted over the last year have not met the organization's criteria for an independent, impartial and comprehensive study, as they have been limited in scope and methodology and have relied mostly on data provided by a primary manufacturer of the weapons -- Taser International -- and police departments themselves.

Most of those who died after being shocked had pre-existing medical conditions, were under the influence of drugs or medication, and/or were subjected to multiple or prolonged electro-shocks. Amnesty International calls on police departments to suspend purchase and use of TASERs pending the outcome of independent safety research. Where law enforcement agencies refuse to suspend their use, AI recommends that TASERs be employed solely in situations in which the only alternative is the use of deadly force.

TASERs are powerful electro-shock weapons in use in more than 7,000 of the 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States. They are designed to incapacitate by conducting 50,000 volts of electricity into an individual's body. The electrical pulses induce skeletal muscle spasms that immobilize and incapacitate the individual, causing him to fall to the ground.
For more information or for AI's reports on TASERs, please visit www.amnestyusa.org/us/.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Maine Bureau of Identification - Records Request

Record requests can be sent to:

Bureau of Identification
State House Station 42
36 Hospital Street 
Augusta, Maine 04330

Phone:  (207) 624-7009.

Believe Me, It’s Torture

From Vanity Fair :

“What more can be added to the debate over U.S. interrogation methods, and whether waterboarding is torture? Try firsthand experience. The author, Christopher Hitchens, undergoes the controversial drowning technique, at the hands of men who once trained American soldiers to resist—not inflict—it.

Here is the most chilling way I can find of stating the matter. Until recently, “waterboarding” was something that Americans did to other Americans. It was inflicted, and endured, by those members of the Special Forces who underwent the advanced form of training known as sere (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape). In these harsh exercises, brave men and women were introduced to the sorts of barbarism that they might expect to meet at the hands of a lawless foe who disregarded the Geneva Conventions. But it was something that Americans were being trained to resist, not to inflict.

Exploring this narrow but deep distinction, on a gorgeous day last May I found myself deep in the hill country of western North Carolina, preparing to be surprised by a team of extremely hardened veterans who had confronted their country’s enemies in highly arduous terrain all over the world. They knew about everything from unarmed combat to enhanced interrogation and, in exchange for anonymity, were going to show me as nearly as possible what real waterboarding might be like.”

The full article can be read here.

This article came to my attention again this month reading the Letters to the Editor section in this months VF complaining about the liberal media bias and the pros and cons of using torture to gain information. First, let me say that if torture would have be a reliable way to gain information about 9/11 before it happened then so be it. However, well trained interrogators in the military, the FBI, and the police have testified that torture does not work because it produces unreliable information. Worse, torture is not just used on the guilty. A Red Cross estimate is that between 70% and 90% of those imprisoned at Abu Ghraib should never have been imprisoned in the first place. Is this really the way we should be fighting the war on terror?

Monday, September 15, 2008

Wiretaps: How to Fix FISA


"A bipartisan congressional consensus seems to be emerging: First, the Bush administration's eavesdropping program (or something like it) should be continued to try to avert Al Qaeda attacks. Second, such spying should be subjected to oversight by Congress and the courts, regardless of whether President Bush wants it to be.

What kind of oversight? And how should Congress update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to deal with the unprecedented magnitude of the internal security threat posed by jihadists who covet doomsday weapons? If we get the answers wrong, we will end up with weaker defenses against terrorism, insufficient protections against the abuse of civil liberties, or both."

Full story here.

Minnesota Department of Public Safety Records Request

Send record requests along with $4 to:

Bureau of Criminal Apprehension 
246 University Avenue 
St. Paul, Minnesota 55104-4197

Phone: (651) 642-0670. $4.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

FBI Releases New Guidelines, or Our Democracy is Experiencing Technical Difficulties...


On September 13, 2008, the FBI and the Department of Justice announced new guidelines that would lower standards for beginning "assessments" (precursors to investigations), conducting surveillance and gathering evidence, and would replace existing guidelines for five types of existing guidelines: general criminal, national security, foreign intelligence, civil disorders and demonstrations. A transcript from a meeting between Department of Justice officials appeared for release on the DOJ website, although the guidelines themselves have not yet been released.

Starting October 1, 2008, the FBI would be able to begin surveillance, begin harvesting informants, and conduct undercover interviews all with little or no evidence. The guidelines would also permit race or ethnicity to be a factor that can be considered in starting an investigation.

The ACLU and various other groups met with the FBI to go over the guidelines which will govern investigations into, among other things, national security, civil disorders and demonstrations. The ACLU and other civil rights groups expressed concern with the new guidelines. Read the release for the details.
"Issuing guidelines that permit racial profiling the day after the 9/11 anniversary and in the midst of an historic presidential campaign is typical Bush administration stagecraft designed to exploit legitimate security concerns for partisan political purposes. Racial profiling by any other name is still unconstitutional," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "The new guidelines offer no specifics on how the FBI will ensure that race and religion are not used improperly as proxies for suspicion, nor do they sufficiently limit the extent to which government agents can infiltrate groups exercising their First Amendment rights. The Bush administration's message once again is 'trust us.' After eight years of historic civil liberties abuses, the American people know better. From the U.S. attorney purges to the abuse of national security letters, the Department of Justice and the FBI have repeatedly shown that they are incapable of policing themselves."


One Senior FBI official explained it as a power they always had, now consolidated:
"Just one -- there’s been some sense that -- and I can envision how this might be played is that these AG guidelines are giving the FBI sweeping new powers. We’re not getting any new power. This is power. I mean surveillance -- you all do surveillance. There’s no new power there. You’re just watching people. We’re not talking about a wiretap here. We’re talking about physically watching someone. There’s no pretext interview, which is not being completely candid about the purpose of the interview. That’s not a new power. We could always do that. It’s just moving it or allowing it to be used as a matter of AG policy in a different area, but there’s not -- this is not a new power that the FBI has been given by virtue of the AG guidelines, the consolidated AG Guidelines, that we didn’t previously have."

While they may be "just watching people", keep in mind that most likely the FBI agents have already been trained in these new investigative techniques. This week, FBI Director Mueller will be testifying/explaining himself before both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. More information should be forthcoming in the next week as the public learns more about these techniques. Keep vigilant to look for these new guidelines; they should be available in discovery or as a Freedom of Information Request as the FBI puts them to use.
For more information and possible live blogging this week from ACLU, click here.

All a Twitter

Twitter is a social networking and “mircoblogging” site that allows its users to send and read other users' updates, also known as tweets.  Twitter is becoming a popular medium to share information in a similar, but more concise, manner as MySpace and Facebook. 

An interesting example of how Twitter is becoming a social justice tool, in April of this year, James Buck, a graduate journalism student at the University of California at Berkeley, and his translator were arrested in Egypt for photographing an anti-government protest. After being arrested and on the way to the police station, Mr. Buck used his phone to send the message “Arrested” to his followers on Twitter. Those contacted the university, the United States Embassy and a number of press organizations on his behalf. While being detained, Mr. Buck was able to send updates about his condition to his "followers". As a result of the message and the efforts of his Twitter friends, he was released the next day from jail after the university hired a lawyer for him.

Twitter is another resource that can be used in an investigation to gather information about individuals and their social networks.

Coeur d'Alene Police Department - Records Division

To obtain records for the Coeur d'Alene Police Department mail the request to:

Coeur d'Alene Police Department
Records Division
3818 Schreiber Way
Coeur d'Alene, ID 83815

Phone:(208)769-2318
Fax: (208)769-2307
records@cdaid.org

Shi Tao - in prison for sending an email

Friday, September 12, 2008

Click to Save a Life


Since we have been posting on the failures of Eyewitness Identification and how it can lead to wrongful convictions, this posting is an urgent cry for help. Mr. Davis was convicted of the murder of an off-duty police officer: eyewitnesses have recanted and and no physical evidence links him to the crime. His execution is currently scheduled for September 23, 2008. The ACLU has organized an effort to try to commute his death sentence. Read the below information and act fast.
Subject: Subject: Help save a life!

A man who is almost certainly innocent needs your help, and fast.

On Friday, the Georgia Department of Pardons and Paroles is going to meet and decide if he should be executed.

They will either take into account compelling evidence challenging his guilt, or they will choose to ignore that evidence and allow his sentence to stand. They have to power to stop this indefensible execution and we must implore them to make the right decision.

Troy Anthony Davis was convicted of the murder of off-duty Savannah Police Officer Mark MacPhail in 1991. No physical evidence links him to the crime, and he has steadfastly maintained his innocence. His conviction was based solely on the testimony of witnesses. There was no other evidence against him. Since his trial, seven people who had previously testified against Troy changed the story they had told in court.

Some witnesses say they were coerced by police. Others have even signed affidavits implicating one of the remaining two witnesses as the actual killer. But due to an increasingly restrictive appeals process, none of this new evidence has ever been heard in court.

Can you take 30 seconds and help save the life of a man who is almost certainly innocent? You can learn more and take action here:

http://action.aclu.org/savetroy

Immigration "By the Numbers"


The Department of Homeland Security released a "By the Numbers" update on their website on September 10th. Here are a few of those numbers...

* 338 miles of border fence built
* 16,873 border patrol agents
* 85,000 employers enrolled in e-Verify
* 6.03 million employees checked using e-Verify
* 1,113 new worksite enforcement investigations
* Nearly 4,500 worksite enforcement administrative arrests

After a few days spent in grape vines earlier this week during an investigation, I have a new appreciation for that box of raisins and the people that have worked hard to bring it to us.

Spectacular Sentencing Supplement!

Professor Berman has posted a link to download the new Supplement to the Sentencing Law and Policy Casebook. The 2008 Supplement includes edited versions of the big sentencing cases from the US Supreme Court, Kimbrough and Gall, as well as lots of notes covering various major sentencing developments from the past year. The Supplement can be downloaded for free and the book can be purchased from Aspen Publishers


The Sentencing Law and Policy Casebook is a must read for the criminal defense practitioner. It covers topics from three distinct sentencing worlds: guideline-determinate, indeterminate, and capital.

Completely updated, the Second Edition features:

* complete coverage of Blakely v. Washington and United States v. Booker
* new materials on sentencing procedures including Sixth Amendment jury rights
* stronger integration of substantive criminal law and the law of sentencing
* materials on the role of sentencing as part of a larger social response to crime

Part of good investigation is knowing how to best fit our clients stories into the world of sentencing law. Understanding the law of sentencing is an important first step in a successful sentencing investigation...sometimes the most important investigation one will do on a case involves records searches that the attorney can fit into the new body of caselaw on sentencing. Additionally, with the United States Sentencing Guidelines now being advisory, the door is wide open as to what the court can consider in sentencing and should drive us all in creative new directions in our investigations. This book is a good start that gives the reader a reference book that actually makes it off the shelf!

Washington State Department of Corrections Portal

A relatively new feature on the Washington State Department of Corrections Portal is an inmate search feature. One can look up an inmate by last name or by Department of Corrections Inmate Number. The name of the "offender", aka person, along with their inmate number and location are available. There is also a list of facilities with the contact information for each facility. Additionally, an interesting read is the "Life as an Offender" section that contains information regarding varied topics such as cell assignments, chemical dependency treatment, food, grievances, health service, recreation, religious programs, work assignments, and most importantly, release. We have listed this on our growing list of locater sites. Also, an interesting tidbit is that the Washington State Department of Corrections is recycling sneakers.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Remembering 9/11-Remembering Freedom


For most of us, it is hard to wake up on September 11th without remembering the tragedy of that day. Seven years later, we are still living with all the actions and reactions that have stemmed from those disturbing and tragic events. With the flags raised at half mast today, it is a good time to remember the attacks; however, it is also a good time for us to remember the freedoms and civil liberties that form the backbone of this nation. Look at Safe and Free for updates on protecting our civil liberties in the challenging times we find ourselves in.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Reform Informant System


Anyone who has every worked a drug case knows about the informant, aka the snitch, and the myriad of frustrations that present themselves in the informant case: secret identity, testifying in exchange for cash or leniency in their own crimes, trampling privacy with wiretaps, sneaking into homes as an agent of the police etc. The ACLU posted an article today indicating that up to 80 percent of all drug cases in America may be based on information provided by an informant and covering some encouraging developments for those advocating reform in the ways law enforcement works with informants. Full story here.

* NPR’s Morning Edition ran a three-part series about problems with the FBI’s use of informants. The third story is about a bill that Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.) plans to introduce “that would essentially hold FBI agents criminally responsible if they fail to share criminal activity of a confidential informant with other law enforcement agencies.”

Last summer, in the wake of the Kathryn Johnston scandal, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on law enforcement’s use of drug informants. Perhaps the most revealing exchange of the hearing occurred when Assistant Director of the FBI Directorate of Intelligence Wayne M. Murphy refused to reassure Congress that the FBI does not tolerate “serious violent felonies” by their informants. Murphy also could not ensure that local authorities would be notified when informants commit serious crimes.

To get an idea just how unaccountable the FBI’s use of informants really is, consider this 2005 report by the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice, finding that the FBI violated its own rules for handling informants in 87 percent of cases.

The FBI handles only a small fraction of all drug cases in the U.S. — the vast majority are handled by state and local agencies — so this is undoubtedly just the tip of the iceberg.

Delahunt’s bill is a good sign, although more broad reforms will be necessary to address the root causes that lead to police work being placed in the hands of unreliable informants in the first place.

* Also this week, the Montana Supreme Court issued an excellent opinion in a case about the use of informants. The Court held that the Montana state constitution’s right to privacy prohibits the police from “wiring” informants and recording their conversations with suspects without a warrant. The Court said that a district judge should have suppressed evidence in two cases involving informants wired with secret microphones, one in a suspect’s home and another in an automobile.

* Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering informant issues in two separate cases. Pearson v. Callahan presents the question of whether the Fourth Amendment is violated when police enter a home without a warrant after an informant inside signals to police that a crime, usually a drug deal, is taking place. Some lower courts have allowed this practice based on a legal fiction coined “consent once removed,” which holds that a person who unwittingly consents to an undercover police officer or informant entering is also deemed to have consented to other police officers coming in later to search or arrest. The ACLU submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in the Pearson case arguing that whatever the rationale for applying the “consent once removed” doctrine to undercover officers, it certainly should not be applied to informants who are not even police officers.

* The second informant case pending before the Court is Van de Camp v. Goldstein, in which Thomas Goldstein sued former Los Angeles County District Attorney John Van de Kamp for the role he played in Goldstein’s wrongful conviction and 24-year incarceration. Goldstein was convicted of murder based on the word of a jailhouse informant named Edward Fink who falsely testified that Goldstein had confessed the murder to him. Fink’s perjury was possible only because the Deputy District Attorney prosecuting the case had no way of knowing about Fink’s history of deception in other cases, nor about the sweet deal Fink obtained in his own burglary cases in exchange for lying about Goldstein. The lawsuit alleges this information was unknown at trial because Van de Kamp had deliberately refused to put into place any information management system that would have enabled Deputy District Attorneys to access this type of information about jailhouse informants in their cases. The ACLU’s friend-of-the-court brief in the case describes the pervasive undocumented, unregulated use of informants today and the serious threat they pose to the fairness and integrity of the criminal justice system.

By implementing basic safeguards and regulations that ensure ample oversight and corroboration of informant testimony, we can begin to rebuild the broken trust between police and the communities they aspire to serve and protect. To learn more about the ACLU’s work to reform America’s informant system, please visit www.aclu.org/unnecessaryevil.


When dealing with an informant case, remember to get a complete criminal history and move for any discovery that you can get in your jurisdiction to determine what the informant received in compensation, what type of criminal history the informant has, and anything that has been "overlooked" by law enforcement in using the informant. Look carefully at search warrants that involve informants and wiretap cases for legal issues. In Federal Court, a defendant is entitled to know what compensation an informant is receiving for their cooperation and to know what criminal history an informant has. Investigate and litigate vigorously in informant cases!

To listen to the three part series on NPR Morning Edition Report and read the associated articles click here.

Public Records Online Portal

Search Billions of public records through tens of thousands of government and public record links.Check out Public Record Center, the most updated and largest online public records portal (or so they say). The Public Record Center does seem to deliver a large gathering place for free public records searches including birth records, directories, even criminal records and sex offender registration. The Public Record Center also has information gathered by state. You can also enter searches and pay for reports ranging from $.99 to $49.95 for complete background checks, not exactly free but useful nonetheless.

FBI's Civil Rights Initiative: No Trials Yet

From the Associated Press & New York Times:

"Flanked by officials from the NAACP and the Southern Poverty Law Center, FBI Director  Robert Mueller last year announced with considerable fanfare a new partnership between his agency and civil rights organizations.

The goal: To bring justice in long-ignored murders from the civil rights era.

The outcome: Not one case has been prosecuted under the FBI's Cold Case Initiative, which actually began two years ago with no fanfare at all.

The civil rights leaders present at Mueller's February 2007 news conference -- John Jackson of the NAACP, who now works for a private firm, and Richard Cohen, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center -- have come to question the government's motives.

''I've been disappointed that more cases have not been brought,'' Cohen said. ''I worried that too many people would get their hopes up. I don't want to be part of a show.''"

Full story here.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Oregon State Police Reports

Record requests from the Oregon State Police can be sent to:


Oregon State Police  

Criminal Investigation Division 

Attn:  Police Reports, 4th floor 

255 Capitol Street, NE  

Salem, Oregon 97310 


Copies of the request form can be found here.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Nebraska State Patrol Criminal History Reports

The public may request a record of Arrest and Prosecution (RAP) sheet for individuals. The RAP sheet includes arrests and resulting dispositions. Dispositions are the result of the adjudication process and may include convictions, null pros, acquittals and nullified convictions through set-asides and pardons.

There is a $15.00 processing fee (cashiers check, personal check, money order or cash) charged to the customer making the request for each individual.
Nebraska State Patrol
Criminal Identification Division
P.O. Box 94907
Lincoln, Nebraska 68509
Call (402) 471-4545 for further information.

The request must include the following information about the individual:
- Last Name
- First Name
- Middle Initial
- Date of Birth
- Social Security Number
- Alias
- Maiden names and all previous married names of females should be entered if known.)

Please include the return address where you would like the response to be mailed.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Thrills & Skills

The Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington and Idaho will be hosting their annual Thrills & Skills seminar; it will be held on Friday, September 19th at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane. My co-contributor and I will be speaking on investigation and the internet.

For registration materials, click here. The cost is $40 for CJA/private counsel, $25 for public defenders/law students if you register by September 15. Late registration is an extra $10. Contact Lisa Werner in the Spokane office, (509) 624-7606, for more information.

The Exonerated

Culled from interviews, letters, transcripts, case files, and the public record, The Exonerated tells the true stories of six people sent to Death Row for crimes they did not commit. In this 90 minute, intermissionless play, we meet Kerry, a sensitive Texan brutalized on Texas' death row for 22 years before being freed by DNA evidence; and Gary, a Midwestern organic farmer condemned for the murder of his own parents and later exonerated when two motorcycle gang members confess to the crime. We are introduced to Robert, an African-American horse groomer who spent seven years on Florida's death row for the murder of a white woman before evidence emerged that the victim was found clutching hair from a Caucasian attacker. We hear from David, a shy man with aspirations to the ministry, bullied into confessing at 18 to a robbery/murder he had nothing to do with, scarred from a youth spent in prison and struggling to regain his faith; and from Sunny, a bright-spirited hippie who spent 17 years in prison, along with her husband, for the murder of two police officers while another suspect had written a confession that was repeatedly discounted by authorities. And we meet Delbert, a poet who serves as the play's center, convicted of a rape/murder in the Deep South of the 1970s and later freed when evidence surfaced suggesting that he was not even in the state when the crime occurred. Moving between first-person monologues and scenes set in courtrooms and prisons, the six interwoven stories paint a picture of an American criminal justice system gone horribly wrong and of six brave souls who persevered to survive it.

In spring of 2002, "The Exonerated" authors Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen co-directed a critically acclaimed production of The Exonerated at the Los Angeles Actors' Gang Theater under the Artistic Direction of Tim Robbins. Under Bob Balaban's direction, The Exonerated played Off-Broadway (over 600 performances) and toured for 27 weeks across the country. The Exonerated has also been performed at the United Nations and for Washington audiences including Senator Patrick Leahy, Former Atty. General Janet Reno, Former U.S. Atty. Mary Jo White, Supreme Court Justice David Souter, and several members of the Justice Department.

In 2002, Blank and Jensen were invited to present The Exonerated for Governor George Ryan of Illinois, as he was considering whether to commute the sentences of over 140 Illinois death row inmates. That performance took place at the 2002 National Gathering of the Death Row Exonerated, for an audience including over 40 exonerated death row inmates, Governor Ryan, and several members of the Illinois State Legislature, as well as major religious leaders.

The Spokane Civic Theater will be presenting this staged reading on September 5th and 6th at 7:30 pm. Ticket information can be found here.

Omaha Police Department Criminal History

A Criminal History obtained from the Omaha Police Department will reveal criminal convictions for Douglas County only. The payment of a fee is required and there are no waivers or exceptions to this requirement.

Send the full name of the subject person, including any other names the person may go by. Provide the subject's date of birth and Social Security Number if it is available. Enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope and a check for $7.00 made payable to the City of Omaha.
Send to:

The Records Manager Omaha Police Department 505 South 15th Street Omaha, NE 68102
You should receive the requested information within seven business days.

Nebraska Department of Corrections - Inmate Finder

The Nebraska Department of Corrections now has an online inmate locator. Click here for more information.