Common Sense from US DOJ on Crack Sentencing

The United States Department of Justice announced today that it supports the elimination of the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. Testimony is expected to be given to Congress in the coming weeks. For full press release from Families Against Mandatory Minimums, click here.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) hails today’s announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice that supports replacing the controversial 100:1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine with an even 1:1 ratio. DOJ’s announcement, included in testimony to be delivered on Capitol Hill by Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, marks the first time the Justice Department has publicly endorsed equalization of the penalties between crack and powder cocaine. This signals a significant shift in DOJ policy, which has previously supported the sentencing disparity that has been in place for more than 20 years.

“DOJ’s support of equalization of crack and powder cocaine penalties means a new day has dawned for fair and proportionate sentencing laws, “ said Mary Price, FAMM Vice President and General Counsel. “Two decades ago, little was known about crack cocaine. Flawed assumptions about the drug drove Congress to adopt a particularly harsh sentencing structure for crack cocaine when it established new mandatory minimums for a host of drug offenses. Now, those perceptions have been repeatedly disproven and discredited.”

U.S. Supreme Court Comes Through

The US Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Fourth Amendment is not a distant memory after all. In Arizona v. Gant (5-4, not the usual suspects) the Court ruled that a search incident for driving on a suspended license is improper because there is no evidence to be secreted for that offense. Chimel v. California, after 28 years, is finally returned to its roots. Belton is now limited to its facts and situation--search incident is no longer a license to search a car on the officer's whim, and there has to be possible evidence to be obtained. 

For the police perspective on the ruling, which I am sure that we will be seeing soon, check out policeone.com's perspective.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: Justice and Prison Reform

Fair and effective criminal justice systems which ensure respect for the human rights of all those involved are a prerequisite for combating crime and for building societies based on the rule of law. UNODC assists States in developing strategies to reform all the aspects of their criminal justice systems, with particular emphasis on vulnerable groups. Through its field office network, the Office has developed projects in the areas of juvenile justice, penal reform and support to victims. It has also prepared assessment tools and manuals in all areas of criminal justice reform, based on United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice. More information can be found here.

Polaris Project Action Center

Slavery still exists. In fact, it’s the second largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world, and it’s happening in our midst.

The Polaris Project Action Center is the place where you can do something about it right now. It’s a site for you to find out about the reality of human trafficking and modern-day slavery in the U.S., get up to date information about the issue, and find out how you can make a direct impact on the lives of victims and survivors.

We use our on-the-ground knowledge and experience working with victims of trafficking to ensure that the actions you take fill critical gaps in the anti-trafficking movement and bring about real change. We also give you the tools you need to take action in your local area and provide you with a steady stream of new ideas and ways to get involved.

Involvement of people like you on a local level is essential for bringing about change on a national – and worldwide – level.

Check out the Action Center to learn more about human trafficking and how you can get involved. Watch the videos on the site, read testimonies of trafficking survivors, and join the thousands of people across the country who are taking steps in their local areas to end modern slavery. Come back often to stay up to date on recent news and informed about ways you can help.

More information here.

Kootenai Medical Center - Record Request

Medical record requests can be sent to:

Kootenai Medical Center
2003 Kootenai Health Way
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho 83814

Main phone number:(208) 666-2000

Ex-DEA Agent: Treatment, Education Key in Drug War

From CNN:

As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues high-level talks with Mexico's leaders this week, her comments about responsibility in the U.S.-Mexico drug trade have struck a chord with officials familiar with U.S. anti-drug efforts.

Clinton said the United States' "inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border" was a major contributor in Mexican violence along the border. She went on to say that the United States has "a co-responsibility."

In an interview Wednesday on "American Morning" with CNN anchor John Roberts, former Drug Enforcement Agency special agent Robert Strang talked about the three-pronged approach needed to curb drug use in America and the need to bust distribution rings. Strang is also CEO of Investigative Management Group.

The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity:

John Roberts, CNN anchor: Everybody's blaming Mexico for [the U.S. drug trade], but the secretary of state yesterday said, 'Hey, the United States shares a lot of the blame because of the pent-up demand here, the insatiable demand for drugs.' Do you agree with her? Watch Clinton say, "We have to do a better job"

Robert Strang, former DEA special agent: Let's face it, the average first drug use is 12 years old in our country. That means kids that are in the sixth grade are trying drugs for the first time. Marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, all these drugs are coming across the border because we demand them. We have the cash to pay for them, and we really are pretty much the No. 1 consumer in the world for these drugs.

Roberts: Is the United States doing enough to try to curb demand? The Office of National Drug Control Policy, I don't remember much coming out of it during the Bush administration, and I haven't seen anything come out of it in the Obama administration.

Strang: We're trying all the time. I'm on the board for D.A.R.E. America, and that is teaching kids about the dangers of drugs and violence in schools. And constantly, we're trying to get money federally for this program and police officers go into the school. They teach the kids. It's a wonderful program in those trouble years, the fourth, fifth and sixth grade especially, and we need to have a little bit more money in this area.

There's three things, John: It's treatment, it's enforcement and it's education. And it's like a three-legged stool. If all three things don't work, it's going to fall down. So, we can send all of the agents in the world down to the border. We can seize all the coke, heroin, methamphetamine that we want. If we don't have treatment on demand, and if we're not educating our kids in our country about the dangers of drugs, the problem's going to grow.

Roberts: When you see the Department of Homeland Security prepared to spend these hundreds of millions of dollars on border security, what do you think?

Strang: I'm happy that they're doing something. This is a small piece of the enforcement operation. The best thing to do is like the case that we saw three weeks ago, when the DEA announced 750 arrests involving 250 cities between Mexico and the United States, mostly in the U.S., this huge distribution network.

Because when you dismantle those networks that constantly are putting drugs from the cartels to the street, when you can put those guys in jail, when you take their assets, then you have an impact.

Full article here.

Mexico Drug Spy Allegedly Leaked DEA Info

From the AP:

A major drug cartel has infiltrated the Mexican attorney general's office, and one cartel worker says he even spied on DEA operations from inside U.S. Embassy, Mexican prosecutors said Monday.

Five officials of the Attorney General's Organized Crime unit were arrested on allegations they served as informants for the Beltran-Leyva Cartel, Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said, adding there are indications that other spies still work inside his agency.

The Embassy employee, who also worked for Interpol at the Mexico City airport, is a protected witness after telling Mexican officials in Washington that he leaked details of Drug Enforcement Administration operations, an attorney general's official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. He said he was not authorized to speak on the record.

U.S. Embassy officials had no immediate comment, saying they generally avoid discussing internal operating or security issues.

Separately, a U.S. official announced Monday that a high-ranking Mexican immigration official had been caught in Arizona with 170 pounds of marijuana in his vehicle.

The revelations of corruption inside the control centers of the U.S.-Mexican anti-drug effort were a major blow to President Felipe Calderon's anti-drug campaign, in which he has sent tens of thousands of troops and federal police across Mexico to combat violent cartels.

Calderon himself has long acknowledged corruption is widespread in police forces. Monday's case represents the most serious known infiltration of anti-crime agencies since the 1997 arrest of Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, then head of Mexico's anti-drug agency. Gutierrez Rebollo was later convicted of aiding drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes.

Despite the corruption, Mexico continues to arrest top smugglers. The latest victory came Saturday with the arrest of Eduardo Arellano Felix after a shootout in Tijuana, across the border from San Diego. He had allegedly been running the Arellano Felix cartel with his sister since several brothers were arrested or killed.

Assistant Attorney General Marisela Morales said two top employees of her organized-crime unit and at least three federal police agents assigned to it may have been passing information on surveillance targets and potential raids for at least four years.

One of the officials was an assistant intelligence director and the other served as a liaison in requesting searches and assigning officers to carry them out.

All but one of the officials were arrested weeks ago.

The agents and officials each received payments of between $150,000 and $450,000 per month for the information, Morales said.

The Embassy infiltrator gave details of his involvement to Mexican officials in Washington, the prosecutors official said, but it is unclear if he is under Mexican or U.S. protection. The official did not give details of the information he allegedly passed on to the cartel.

CIA Documents Shed Light On Air America

From the AP:

Former naval aviator Don Boecker isn't too proud to say he was "scared out of my wits" on that July 1965 day in Laos when he dangled by one arm from a helicopter while enemy soldiers took aim below.

Boecker had spent the longest night of his life in the thick jungle, evading capture and certain execution while awaiting rescue. The Navy aviator had ejected after a bomb he intended to drop on the Ho Chi Minh trail exploded prematurely.

His rescuers that day, however, weren't from the American military, who couldn't be caught conducting a secret bombing campaign in Laos.

They were civilian employees of Air America, an ostensibly private airline essentially owned and operated by the CIA.

Boecker, now a 71-year-old retired rear admiral, plans to tell the story on Saturday at a symposium intended to give a fuller account of an important outfit that alumni say is still misunderstood by the American public.

The University of Texas at Dallas event coincides with the CIA's release of about 10,000 previously classified Air America records, which will be turned over to the school's aviation collection.

Paul Oelkrug, a coordinator at UT-Dallas' special collections department, said the documents speak to "the covert side of the Cold War."

"These Air America documents are essential to understanding a large untold history of America's involvement in Southeast Asia," Oelkrug said.

The records consist mainly of firsthand accounts of Air America missions and commendation letters from government officials, said Timothy N. Castle, a historian who works at the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence.

Included are accounts of the chaotic evacuation of personnel in 1975 after the fall of Saigon, the investigation into a mysterious 1964 plane crash apparently caused by sabotage and a letter from President Richard Nixon commending employees for their bravery in Laos.

More documents detail the rescue of wounded airmen from a mountainous Air Force radar station in Laos known as Lima Site 85, where a North Vietnamese raid in 1968 killed 11 Americans. It was the largest single loss of Air Force personnel on the ground during the Vietnam War, Castle said. The survivors were rescued by Air America.

Such operations were the norm for Air America pilots, and the inspiration for the title of the symposium: "Air America: Upholding the Airmen's Bond." Between 1964-65, Air America personnel rescued 21 downed American pilots. Strict records weren't kept after that, but if you "extrapolate and anecdotally, we know there were scores and scores more through the years," Castle said.

"That's the airman's bond. There is another airman who is down. Everything stops until you try to rescue them, because if it were you, you knew they would do it for you, too."

Air America's public face was that of a passenger and cargo airline that operated in sometimes dangerous places. It formed after World War II under the name Civil Air Transport, and did contract work for the Chinese Nationalists.

Control of Air America eventually shifted to the CIA, which set up shell companies to disguise its true ownership. Planes kept flying scheduled passenger flights out of Taiwan, but they also began flying covert missions in Laos and South Vietnam to supply anti-communist forces. Air America also had numerous government contracts, and was involved in humanitarian work though a deal with the State Department.

Prosecutorial Accountability: The Justice Project Releases New Report

The Justice Project just released a policy review exploring the systemic causes of prosecutorial misconduct by using recent research, studies, and commission reports on the issue. The report, Improving Prosecutorial Accountability: A Policy Review, details abuses and profiles cases of injustice as well as offers offers solutions to the systemic problems that lead to prosecutorial misconduct. The recommendations include increasing transparency and improving the accountability of prosecutors nationwide. A good summary with an email and further links is posted at Grits for Breakfast.

Breaking News...US Attorneys Job is to Do Justice

United States Attorney General Eric Holder (full article here):

"Your job as assistant US attorneys is not to convict people," Holder said. "Your job is not to win cases. Your job is to do justice. Your job is in every case, every decision that you make, to do the right thing. Anybody who asks you to do something other than that is to be ignored. Any policy that is at tension with that is to be questioned and brought to my attention. And I mean that."

A novel concept? Maybe the times are changing.

See-Thru Body Scanner the Norm By Summer

This alarming news reported from the ACLU Blog of Rights regarding the "Naked Scanner" that will be standard in US airports by summer:

Yesterday, Slate’s William Saletan wrote about the TSA’s new policy towards body scanner —a.k.a. "naked"—machines. Saletan points out that two years ago, the naked machines were offered as an alternative to physical pat-down searches to passengers who set off the metal detectors or were flagged for a secondary screening. Naked machines were considered less invasive than the grope-and-grab.

Well, the alternative will soon become the norm this summer, when the strip-search machines will replace the metal detectors in several U.S. airports. That’s right: this summer, you will no longer have a choice of whether to enter the naked machine or not. As Saletan puts it, the choice is "Show us your body, or we’ll feel you up."

42 Million Dollar Judgment Upheld in Inmate Death in Texas

This from Grits for Breakfast:

Everybody from Texas Prison Bidness to the New York Times is oohing and aahing that the 13th Texas Court of Appeals approved a $42.5 million judgment against the Geo Group (formerly Wackenhut), a private prison contractor over a murder in a South Texas Prison, for failing to protect inmates under their care. According to the opinion (pdf):

This case involves the horrific and gruesome death of Gregorio de la Rosa, Jr. (“Gregorio”). Gregorio, an honorably discharged former National Guardsman, was serving a six-month sentence at a prison operated by Wackenhut Corrections Corporation for possession of less than 1/4 grams of cocaine. A few days before his expected release, Gregorio was beaten to death by two other inmates using a lock tied to a sock, while Wackenhut’s officers stood by and watched and Wackenhut’s wardens smirked and laughed.

With Exoneration, Police Resume Hunt for Simon Murderer

From the Post-Standard:

Steven Barnes stood, free of handcuffs and out of state custody for the first time in nearly 20 years, and embraced his mother and sister. A man's voiced boomed from the back of the courtroom: "Barnes you're home where you belong, buddy!"

Barnes had spent nearly two decades in prison for a murder he didn't commit. It took a judge just six minutes Tuesday to set him free. "Mr. Barnes, I rule that you be released immediately," Oneida County Court Judge Michael Dwyer told Barnes, who had been in state prison since 1989 for the murder of a 16-year-old girl. Friends and family who had jammed the courtroom in Utica erupted into applause. Barnes was convicted of rape and second-degree murder in the strangling death of a Whitesboro High School student. Tests concluded last week showed that Barnes' DNA matched none of four samples found on Kimberly Simon's body and clothing. Barnes' lawyers from the Innocence Project, in New York City, and Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara jointly asked for Barnes' release.

At a news conference shortly after the court hearing, Barnes answered questions for about 20 minutes in a soft voice with short sentences."I never gave up hope," said Barnes, his sandy brown hair flecked with gray at the temples. "I waited 20 years for this. It's the happiest day of my life." Barnes said he doesn't know what the Internet is or how to use a cell phone. His mother, Sylvia Barnes Bouchard, said her son didn't believe her when she told him how caller ID works. Barnes' years behind bars did not steal his sense of humor. After noting he had spent most of his 20s and all of his 30s in prison, Barnes said: "Life begins at 40, they say." Family and friends who came to Utica Tuesday morning said they always knew he was innocent. "In my heart, I knew this would happen," said his sister, Michelle Weiler, of Rochester. Many of the people in the courtroom Tuesday had testified on Barnes' behalf at the trial 19 years ago. Steve Lewandrowski said on the stand in 1989 that the night of the murder Barnes had been drinking with him in the Marcy bowling alley that Lewandrowski owned. "They were just looking for a conviction," Lewandrowski said. "Steve was in the wrong place at the wrong time." McNamara said he didn't believe prosecutors engaged in misconduct. If current DNA technology had existed in 1985, he said, Barnes would never have been arrested. The Innocence Project asked for DNA tests when it got involved in Barnes' case in 1996, but the samples had deteriorated too much for the results to be conclusive. Earlier this year, at the urging of Barnes' brother, Shawn, project lawyers asked for new tests using techniques developed in the past few years.

Full story here.

Steven Barnes

Tech Tips for Trial Practice

Need to know how to stretch your research dollars? Want to get a walk through of dealing with discovery in the electronic age? Need help effectively implementing scanning? Look no further than the Trial Practice Blog which posted some great articles from the ABA magazine this month.

Federal Judge Enjoins Penn "Sexting" Prosecution

A Federal Judge on Monday barred a Pennsylvania Prosecutor from filing charges of child pornography against three teenage girls that were caught with explicit pictures of themselves. The ACLU filed a lawsuit on the girls' behalf, arguing that the proposed prosecution violated freedom of speech and parental rights. More details from Reuters article:

By Jon Hurdle

PHILADELPHIA, March 30 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday barred a Pennsylvania prosecutor from filing child pornography charges against three teenage girls caught with sexually suggestive pictures of themselves on their cell phones.

U.S. District Judge James Munley said he was issuing a restraining order on Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick because his proposed action would violate freedom of speech and parental rights.

The ruling came after the American Civil Liberties Union sued Skumanick on behalf of the girls and their families.

"The court agrees with the plaintiffs that the public interest would be served by issuing a TRO (temporary restraining order) in this matter as the public interest is on the side of protecting constitutional rights," the judge said.

The case has attracted national attention and revolves around the growing practice among teens of "sexting," a play on the term texting, in which nude or semi-nude photos are sent on cell phones or posted on the Internet.

T.I. Sentenced to One Year and A Day

From Atlanta Journal-Constitution, full article here

Federal weapons charges, with their accompanying harsh sentences, are enough to take down anyone.

Yet since his guilty plea a year ago, Atlanta rapper T.I. has enjoyed the greatest success of his career.

But one of the world’s best-known rap artists is due to take a one-year hiatus at a federal detention facility.

According to the plea agreement, T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris Jr., will be sentenced today to one year and a day.

The extra day means T.I. can carve 15 percent off his sentence with good behavior. Under U.S. Bureau of Prison rules, inmates can earn such credit only if they are sentenced to longer than a year in prison. T.I. should serve an estimated 298 days —- or a little less than 10 months. He is expected to get credit for the two weeks he sat in jail after his arrest and before posting a $3 million bond.