Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Relief Urgently Needed for Innocent Man on Ohio's Death Row - Clemency For Kevin Keith

Petition Text:  The State of Ohio is poised to execute Kevin Keith on September 15, 2010, in spite of overwhelming evidence supporting what Mr. Keith has maintained from the time of his arrest – he is actually innocent, wrongfully convicted of a crime based on faulty eyewitness identification.

Mr. Keith has an alibi for the time of the crime supported by four witnesses.

The Ohio Innocence Project, the National Innocence Network, and a group of leading eyewitness and memory experts all support relief for Mr. Keith.

I urgently appeal to the Ohio Parole Board and Governor Ted Strickland to grant clemency to Kevin Keith to prevent the State of Ohio from doing the intolerable: putting a man to death for a crime he did not commit.

The primary evidence against Mr. Keith was the erroneous eyewitness identification of one of the surviving victims of the crime, who identified Mr. Keith in spite of initially telling at least four witnesses that he was unable to identify the perpetrator. This identification of Mr. Keith relied on the very procedures recognized to be unreliable and inaccurate by Governor Strickland and the Ohio Legislature when the State passed into law in April new requirements for eyewitness identification procedures.

New evidence recently uncovered by counsel for Mr. Keith further discredits the identification. Thirteen years after he was convicted, Mr. Keith discovered that one of the State’s supposed “witnesses” – who was critical to corroborating the legitimacy of the eyewitness identification – does not actually exist.

Additional new evidence also implicates an alternative suspect who told a police informant that he was paid to carry out the crime for which Mr. Keith stands to be executed.

No court has ever had the entirety of new evidence before it.

More information on the case can be found at: www.kevinkeith.org.

Mr. Keith has steadfastly maintained his innocence from the time of his arrest and throughout his 16 years on death row. The State of Ohio now risks putting to death an innocent man with no jury ever hearing the entirety of evidence of innocence.

I appeal to the Ohio Parole Board and Governor Strickland to grant clemency to Kevin Keith.

Petition can be found here.
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Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Training

The ICAC Training & Technical Assistance Program is federally funded through the Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). The Program’s course offerings are conducted under a cooperative agreement between Fox Valley Technical College and OJJDP under Grant #2005-MC-CX-K032.

The ICAC Training & Technical Assistance Program offers regional, specialized and technical assistance training to federal, state and local prosecutors, probation and parole officers and law enforcement investigators at locations throughout the country so that participants can take advantage of the valuable information conveyed during our Programs in the most cost-effective manner possible. As mandated by OJJDP, only Regional ICAC Task Force agency or Affiliate agency* members will be approved to participate in our training programs. Federal and International participants will receive consideration on a case by case basis. Please download our ICAC Training & Technical Assistance Program Guide to Training Programs to find out more about how to obtain training through our Program and how to request to host a training program.

Technical Assistance Training

Technical Assistance training may be provided in the form of any of the Regional Training Programs offered or in the form of other assistance to address specific problems or needs depending on available funding. Please call our office to discuss any customized training you would like to conduct.

Regional Training

Our Program offers the below listed courses as Regional Training Programs. Class dates and locations are selected each year based on the needs of the Task Force and available resources and funding.

ICAC Investigative Techniques Training Program (ICAC-IT)

The purpose of this 4-1/2 day training program is to provide state and local law enforcement investigators with a basic understanding of investigative techniques in the area of Internet crimes against children. These techniques have been developed by the ICAC Task Force and conform to a set of national standards. Max class size: 30

ICAC Child Sex Offender Accountability Training Program (ICAC-CSO)

This course is a 4-1/2 day technology training program for law enforcement investigators, probation/parole officers and prosecutors responsible for monitoring or investigating the activities of convicted child sex offenders. Max class size: 30

ICAC Undercover Chat Investigations Training Program (ICAC-UC)

An intensive 4-1/2 day training program for experienced ICAC investigators designed to provide them with the latest tools and techniques necessary to combat on-line child exploitation. Max class size: 30

ICAC Trial Advocacy for Prosecutors Training Program (ICAC-TAP)

This 4-1/2 day training program is a trial advocacy course involving computer-facilitated crimes against children. It is for experienced prosecutors and is focused on examining the distinct phases of a trial and the relevant issues, challenges, tactics, strategies, and the law that enhance the skills and knowledge of prosecutors in these cases. Max class size: 30

ICAC Unit Supervisor Training Program (ICAC-US)

This 4-1/2 day course is for ICAC unit commanders and supervisors of ICAC Task Force and affiliated law enforcement agencies. This training program provides students with an overview of managerial, investigative and early intervention strategies to more effectively protect children in their area of responsibility. Experts in the field of Internet exploitation will review emerging technologies and update participants on current investigative and prosecutorial issues associated with supervising an ICAC unit. Max class size: 48

CyberTips Management Training Program

This 2-1/2 day class imparts the skills necessary to use the CyberTips software application developed for use with the NCMEC VPN. It has been designed to enhance the use of the NCMEC CyberTipline Program. Max class size: 30

ICAC Peer-to-Peer Investigations Training Program

For this 2-1/2 day class, the ICAC Training & Technical Assistance Program has partnered with the FBI in a collaborative effort to offer ICAC Task Force members training on this peer-to-peer network investigative tool. This product is yet another tool that can be added to the ICAC Task Force Program’s arsenal of peer-to-peer file sharing investigative tools. Max class size: 30

Project Safe Childhood Team Training

This 4-1/2 day class is designed to increase the level of investigative collaboration and cooperation among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and federal prosecutors. Class size varies by location.

Annual ICAC National Conference

Each year, the ICAC National Conference is designed to bring hundreds of federal, state and local law enforcement investigators, forensic experts and prosecutors together to participate in workshops and lectures to further their knowledge while providing them with the tools necessary to combat the online exploitation of children. Past conference evaluations support our belief that this event provides an unrivaled opportunity to further the education of participants while enhancing their skills to protect America's children.

Annual Crimes Against Children National Conference

The 21st annual Crimes against Children Conference, co-sponsored by the Dallas Police Department and the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center (DCAC), will be held in Dallas, TX at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on August 17-20, 2009.

Other Training

The ICAC Task Force Training and Technical Assistance Program is pleased to list training here that is being offered by Task Force agencies or other ICAC related programs.

More information can be found here.
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Monday, July 26, 2010

Homeboy Industries

The motto of Homeboy Industries is "nothing stops a bullet like a job." Their mission statement: "Jobs not Jails: Homeboy Industries assists at-risk and formerly gang-involved youth to become positive and contributing members of society through job placement, training and education." The organization, run by Father Greg Boyle, S.J., assists former gang members with community reentry from prison, tattoo removal, mental health counseling, drug counseling, employment services, legal assistance, and a number of other services. They run businesses in the Los Angeles area including a screen print shop, a cafe, a bakery and training schools. In these tough economic times, Homeboy Industries is hurting for cash so they are doing a virtual car-wash. Here, you can donate ten dollars to support this most worthy cause. For more information, these documentary clips are a good overview:



Friday, July 23, 2010

Rental Car Databases

Enterprise and Hertz rental car agencies have added a feature to their websites that allows clients to retrieve up to six months of rental records by inserting their last name and driver’s license number into a search field. While intended for business travelers who need to print receipts for expense reports, it could be a useful investigative tool for those in possession of a suspect’s name and driver’s license number. However, officers should also be aware that it could pose a threat to undercover police operations.

Avis has a similar feature that requires a confirmation number. Alamo, Budget, and National do not currently offer any similar features.

Information on this can be found here.
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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

"Redefining Public Defense: How Holistic Advocacy Leads to Better Lawyers... and Better Outcomes"

Robin Steinberg, Director of The Bronx Defenders, gave a talk on April 26, 2010 about how we redefine public defense. The audio file is available for download here or you can listen without downloading here.

The focus of the talk is how public defenders traditionally focus on the fight and how we can focus on the bigger picture of how to improve our client's lives. By expanding our focus from the criminal case to the so called "collateral consequences" like immigration, student loans, housing, child welfare, mental health issues, addiction, we can do more to address the broad effects of the criminal justice system. Holistic defense centers around the client and the client's needs using an interdisciplinary approach to address the client's case as well as the client's life goals.
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

San Francisco Public Defender's Office Releases Public Service Videos

The San Francisco Public Defender, Jeff Adatchi, introduces a new video campaign designed to look at bias in the justice system. Here is the introduction and the first segment. Stay tuned as the San Francisco PD continues to raise the bar.



Monday, July 19, 2010

Rat Fucked or Simply the Sneaky Hate Spiral?

hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com
After a long day of beating your head against a wall invariably leads even the most rational of people to ponder if the work ladder they have been climbing is up against the wrong wall. Is is possible that you have simply rat fucked your life or can you chalk it up to the Sneaky Hate Spiral that started and helped shit on the rest of your day?

Only Coors Light has the answer.
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Are You “Suspicious”? Your Government May Think So.

From the Washington State ACLU:

Have you ever taken a picture of a building? Have you ever jotted down a note while walking? Attended a political event? If so, your information may be in a government file, because the government may consider these activites to be suspicious. Learn more about what the government is learning about you.

The ACLU is working to uncover the extent of government surveillance in Washington State. To hold those who abuse this power accountable, we need your help. Take the quiz to get informed and get involved in the fight.
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The Washington Post Reveals 'Top Secret America'

By Max Fisher from The Atlantic:

The Washington Post has unveiled its comprehensive, alarming, and much-anticipated report on "Top Secret America." The dedicated site details the billions of dollars in private, for-profit intelligence operations that have emerged since Sept. 11, 2001, which the Post calls our "fourth branch" of government. Led by reporters William Arkin and Pulitzer Prize-winner Dana Priest, the investigation was two years in the making and shook up the vast U.S. intelligence community even before it was released. The "Top Secret America" website includes articles, videos, interactive features, and maps all begging to be explored. But here's the executive summary.

The Intelligence-Industrial Complex Priest and Arkin write, "This is not exactly President Dwight D. Eisenhower's 'military-industrial complex,' which emerged with the Cold War and centered on building nuclear weapons to deter the Soviet Union. This is a national security enterprise with a more amorphous mission: defeating transnational violent extremists. Much of the information about this mission is classified. That is the reason it is so difficult to gauge the success and identify the problems of Top Secret America, including whether money is being spent wisely. ... the Bush administration and Congress gave agencies more money than they were capable of responsibly spending. ... In all, at least 263 organizations have been created or reorganized as a response to 9/11. Each has required more people, and those people have required more administrative and logistic support. ... With so many more employees, units and organizations, the lines of responsibility began to blur."

Our Fourth Branch The introductory video states, "In response to 9/11, a fourth branch has emerged. It is protected from public scrutiny by overwhelming secrecy. ... It has become so big, and the lines of responsibility so blurred, that even our nation's leaders don't have a handle on it. Where is it? It's being built from coast to coast, hidden within some of America's most familiar cities and neighborhoods. In Colorado, in Nebraska, in Texas, in Florida, in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Top Secret America includes hundreds of federal departments and agencies operating out of 1300 facilities around this country. They contract of nearly 2,000 companies. In all, more people than live in our nation's capital have top secret security clearance." The screen flashes "850,000 Americans with top secret clearance."

Why This Is Dangerous The Post's editors write in an introductory note, "When it comes to national security, all too often no expense is spared and few questions are asked - with the result an enterprise so massive that nobody in government has a full understanding of it. It is, as Dana Priest and William M. Arkin have found, ubiquitous, often inefficient and mostly invisible to the people it is meant to protect and who fund it. ... Within a responsible framework, our objective is to provide as much information as possible, so readers gain a real, granular understanding of the scale and breadth of the top-secret world we are describing."

5 Points on the Private Spy Industry's Huge Size
Priest and Arkin write, "(1) Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States. (2) An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances. (3) In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings - about 17 million square feet of space. (4) Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work, creating redundancy and waste. For example, 51 federal organizations and military commands, operating in 15 U.S. cities, track the flow of money to and from terrorist networks. (5) Analysts who make sense of documents and conversations obtained by foreign and domestic spying share their judgment by publishing 50,000 intelligence reports each year - a volume so large that many are routinely ignored."

How This Size Makes National Security Impossible Priest and Arkin explain:
Underscoring the seriousness of these issues are the conclusions of retired Army Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, who was asked last year to review the method for tracking the Defense Department's most sensitive programs. Vines, who once commanded 145,000 troops in Iraq and is familiar with complex problems, was stunned by what he discovered.

"I'm not aware of any agency with the authority, responsibility or a process in place to coordinate all these interagency and commercial activities," he said in an interview. "The complexity of this system defies description."

The result, he added, is that it's impossible to tell whether the country is safer because of all this spending and all these activities. "Because it lacks a synchronizing process, it inevitably results in message dissonance, reduced effectiveness and waste," Vines said. "We consequently can't effectively assess whether it is making us more safe."

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Roman Polanski: Lolita Lives

In a shocking ruling Monday, a Swiss Court ruled that Roman Polanski would not have to return to the United States and that he would no longer be detained on house arrest. In a stunning ruling, Swiss authorities rejected a United States' request for his extradition to return to answer for a warrant on a 32-year-old sex conviction. Full story here.

In justifying the decision, Switzerland also invoked what it called the “public order” — a lofty notion meaning that governments should ensure their citizens are safe from arbitrary abuse of the law.
The Justice Ministry cited the fact that U.S. authorities hadn’t pursued Polanski in Switzerland previously, even though he’s often visited the country and bought a house here in 2006. It also stressed that the victim, Samantha Geimer, who long ago publicly identified herself, has joined in Polanski’s bid for dismissal.
The acclaimed director of “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Chinatown” and “The Pianist” was accused of plying his victim with champagne and part of a Quaalude during a 1977 modeling shoot and raping her. He was initially indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molesting and sodomy, but pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse.
In exchange, the judge agreed to drop the remaining charges and sentence him to prison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation. However, he was released after 42 days by an evaluator who deemed him mentally sound and unlikely to offend again.
The judge responded by saying he was going to send Polanski back to jail for the remainder of the 90 days and that afterward he would ask Polanski to agree to a “voluntary deportation.” Polanski then fled the country on the eve of his Feb. 1, 1978, sentencing.

Florida Sheriff States He Will Record Inmate Calls To Public Defender


The warnings that we so often give clients..."Don't say too much on the phone" has taken a dangerous turn with this story from Florida. The Polk County Sheriff stated that he intended to incorporate a policy change based upon a case from the Florida Supreme Court that held that an inmate does not have an expectation of privacy if there is a warning that the call might be recorded. Full story here

The Sheriff's Office had exempted lawyer-client calls from its general policy of monitoring and recording jail telephone calls. Lawyers could register their telephone numbers so the calls wouldn't be monitored.
But Sheriff Grady Judd said a recent decision of the Florida Supreme Court stated inmates have no reasonable expectation of privacy if they're warned that the calls are being recorded.
"The bottom line is this is the law," Judd said. "We are enforcing the law. We didn't make this law. The courts have decided it."
A letter dated May 27 was sent to explain the agency's policy change.
"I could have done it immediately, but I gave them 30 days' notice so they could prepare for this," he said.
Judd said he was seizing another avenue to gather evidence to use against defendants.
"I am going to send the best information I can to the state attorney for us to prosecute criminals that are in our jail system," he said.


The Public Defender for the County noted the added costs to an already burdened system with the policy given that public defenders would no longer be able to discuss a client's case over the phone, increasing trips to the jail:
Public Defender J. Marion Moorman....[said] the policy change will waste precious resources and puts further demands on a burdened criminal justice system.
"Every year, it seems like there is just one more hurdle placed in the way of getting our job done efficiently and effectively," he said. "This, I feel, is just totally ridiculous."
Moorman said his office is still analyzing what it might cost to stop accepting telephone calls from the jail.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Internet Archive Wayback Machine

The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, they provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public. The Internet Archive Wayback Machine is a service that allows people to visit archived versions of Web sites. Visitors to the Wayback Machine can type in a URL, select a date range, and then begin surfing on an archived version of the Web. Imagine surfing circa 1999 and looking at all the Y2K hype, or revisiting an older version of your favorite Web site. The Internet Archive Wayback Machine can make all of this possible.

The Website that Reveals State Secrets

By John D. Sutter, CNN:

In the early 1970s, when Daniel Ellsberg wanted to get top-secret information about the Vietnam War to the public, he leaked the bombshell Pentagon Papers to elected officials and national newspapers.

But if Ellsberg, a former U.S. military analyst, wanted to leak secret documents today, he probably would send them to a powerful and controversial new venue for whistle-blowing: a website called WikiLeaks.org.

"People should definitely think of WikiLeaks as the way to go" when other methods of leaking information fail, he said recently.

WikiLeaks, a nonprofit site run by a loose band of tech-savvy volunteers, is quickly becoming one of the internet's go-to locations for government whistle-blowers, replacing, or at least supplementing, older methods of making sensitive government information public.

Some have praised the site as a beacon of free speech, while others have criticized it as a threat to national security.

The site gained international attention in April when it posted a 2007 video said to show a U.S. helicopter attack in Iraq killing a dozen civilians, including two unarmed Reuters journalists.

At the time, Maj. Shawn Turner, a U.S. military spokesman, said that "all evidence available supported the conclusion by those forces that they were engaging armed insurgents and not civilians."

Pfc. Bradley Manning, 22, has been charged by the U.S. military with eight violations of the U.S. Criminal Code for transferring classified data, according to a charge sheet released by the military this week.

Manning's military defense attorney, Capt. Paul Bouchard, is not speaking with the media about the charges, said U.S. Army Col. Tom Collins. Bouchard did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment. WikiLeaks may also offer an attorney for Manning, according to Wired.com.

The high-profile video has led some observers to say that WikiLeaks is forcing a new era of government transparency.

"It's a whole new world of how stories get out," Columbia University journalism professor Sree Sreenivasan told British newspaper The Independent in April.

Others have said the website may be a threat to society and the rule of law.

A 2008 U.S. Army Counterintelligence Center report (PDF), which was classified until it was uploaded to WikiLeaks in March, says that information posted to WikiLeaks.org could "aid enemy forces in planning terrorist attacks."

The report "is authentic, and it speaks for itself," Collins said.

What is WikiLeaks?

The premise of the WikiLeaks, which has been operating largely out of the public spotlight since 2007, is simple: Anyone can leak documents, videos or photographs, and they can do so while remaining anonymous.

The site says that none of its whistle-blowers has been outed because of WikiLeaks.

Visitors to the site will notice a large link that simply says "submit documents." Reports, photographs and videos given to the site are reviewed by a global network of editors and then, if deemed to be important and real, are posted online.

"Every submitted article and change is reviewed by our editorial team of professional journalists and anti-corruption analysts," WikiLeaks says on its website. "Articles that are not of high standard are rejected and non-editorial articles are fully attributed."

But the site does differ from traditional media outlets..

In The New Yorker, Raffi Khatchadourian wrote that WikiLeaks is "not quite an organization; it is better described as a media insurgency."

In part, this is because of the technology employed by the site.

The site's documents and other leaks are backed up on computer servers in several countries. WikiLeaks also maintains several Web addresses to make it difficult -- the site claims impossible -- to remove the secret documents from the internet once they are posted on WikiLeaks.

The website is run by an organization called Sunshine Press, which takes public donations. Time.com reported that WikiLeaks has a $600,000 annual budget.

Who manages the site?

WikiLeaks' elusive editor and co-founder is an Australian named Julian Assange. In profiles, writers describe him as an eccentric who wanders the globe, carries all of his belongings and keeps semi-residences in Kenya, Iceland and Sweden, where the site's Web servers are reportedly located.

"In my role as WikiLeaks editor, I've been involved in fighting off many legal attacks," Assange told BBC News. "To do that, and keep our sources safe, we have had to spread assets, encrypt everything and move telecommunications and people around the world to activate protective laws in different national jurisdictions."

Lately, Assange is reported to be living in Iceland, which recently passed laws to protect anonymous speech like that promoted by WikiLeaks.

Assange -- who has stark white hair and a deep voice, and appears only occasionally in YouTube videos and in media interviews -- tells reporters that the aim of WikiLeaks is to promote a more open democracy, where government officials and bureaucrats can't keep dark secrets from the public.

"We have a mission to promote political reforms by releasing suppressed information," he said in April .

Assange did not respond to an e-mail about this story.

Site causes controversy

In its attempts to unearth and publicize this hidden information, however, the site has stirred a number of controversies.

WikiLeaks has published information as varied as former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's personal e-mails; manuals from the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; e-mails that spawned the "Climategate" global-warming controversy late last year; and documents that Assange reportedly says altered the outcome of the 2007 presidential election in Kenya.

'Climategate' review clears scientists of dishonesty

Ari Schwartz, vice president and chief executive officer of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said it's unclear what WikiLeaks' lasting impact will be. If the site publishes state secrets without cause, a public backlash could quickly kill the following the site is trying to build.

"If they're publishing just to publish ... the public reaction against that information is going to be so negative," he said.

Schwartz said his group has benefited from WikiLeaks, which was able to obtain some congressional public records his organization could not.

"They are effective in terms of getting to documents that people have trouble accessing in other ways," he said.

Ellsberg , the former U.S. Department of Defense official who leaked the Pentagon Papers in the '70s and who now donates to WikiLeaks, said the site has the potential to change the way the world's governments operate.

He says the site will make leaders more accountable to the public.

The recently released military videos are "a very small door, so far, into the huge library of broadly withheld information," he said.

He called Assange a hero for trying to shed light on those hidden catalogues.

Never Agree to be Interviewed by the Police

An law school professor and former criminal defense attorney along with a former police officer tells you why you should never agree to be interviewed by the police.



This American Life


"This American Life", hosted by Ira Glass, appears on Showtime and may be heard on NPR. The show contains a series of true stories told by those who have experienced them. The show lasts approximately one hour and usually contain a prologue and three acts. Below are a few shows concerning crime, crime scenes, crime stories, and DNA evidence, which may be of interest. They may also be found in the "This American Life" archives.

135: Allure of Crime: We think of crime as a monolithic, menacing presence...Today, we hear from three different criminals and three different crimes.

164: Crime Scenes: Every crime scene hides a story. In this week's show, we hear about crime scenes and the stories they tell.

210: Perfect Evidence: After a decade in which DNA evidence has cleared over 100 people nationwide, it's become clear that DNA evidence isn't just proving wrongdoing by criminals, it's proving wrongdoing by police and prosecutors. In this show, we look at what DNA has revealed to us.

257: What I should have said: People return to the scene of a crime where they should have spoken clearly, plainly, and forcefully...to review what...went wrong, and in a few cases, to fix it. Jonathan Goldstein tries to stop time.

Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation - Records Request

The fee for each request is $13.00 per surname for every mail-in/mail-back request and $15.00 for every fax-in/fax-back request. A fax back request requires a credit/debit card as the method of payment. This is for an Iowa check only, and is based on name and date of birth. Without fingerprints, a positive identification cannot be assured. No other state or federal agency records are included in this record check. Only the Division of Criminal Investigation can perform a statewide criminal history records check and release results to non-criminal justice agencies. For further information, contact:

Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation
Bureau of Identification
1st Floor
215 E 7th Street
Des Moines, IA 50319
(515) 725-6066
(515) 725-6080 (fax)

The request form can be found here.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Data on Recent Trends and Circuit Specifics for Federal Child Porn Sentences

From Douglas Berman's "Sentencing Law and Policy" blog:

A few weeks ago, US District Judge Gregory Presnell asked whether I had any detailed or circuit-specific data regarding federal sentences for child porn offenses. I responded that the US Sentencing Commission would be the place to get such data, and Judge Presnell inquired of the Commission. And now I am happy to report that Judge Presnell has provided me with the information that was provided to him, and he has even written up this helpful summary of what the Commission data shows:

Pursuant to my request, the USSC sent me data related to sentences imposed under U.S.S.G. 2G2.2 for the fiscal years 2007-2009. That data is presented in the attached tables.

Nationwide, from 2007 to 2009, the number of sentences imposed under this guideline almost doubled, from 853 to 1,546, and the percentage of below-guideline sentences increased from 30.8% to 51.6%. Similarly, the average percentage reduction increased from 36.3% in 2007 to 40.3% in 2009. Thus, during the last fiscal year more than half of all child porn sentences were below the minimum guideline sentence, and the average reduction was approximately 40%.

Excluding the First Circuit and DC Circuit (whose case loads are too small to draw meaningful data), the percentage of sentences below the guideline range from a high of 65% in the Third Circuit to a low of 30% in the Fifth Circuit. The average percentage reduction is highest in the Second Circuit at 47% and the lowest is the Seventh Circuit at 30%. Overall, there is not great disparity among the Circuits.

Compared with the Circuit Court data, the Middle District of Florida had a high percentage of below-guideline sentences -- 70.6%, but the average percentage reduction was 38.8%, near the national average in fiscal year 2009. During that same period, the Eleventh Circuit was right at the national average with 51.4% of sentences below the guideline and an average reduction of 39%.


I suspect that any and everyone dealing with the always challenging issues surrounding the sentencing of child pornography offenses will be interested in the data that can be found in the charts available for downloading here: Download Circuit data on USSG 2G2.2 with tables.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Computer Forensics: A Legal Primer

Here is a link to an excellent post by a law professor and a follow up post from a Ex Forensis: Forensic File Formats – A Primer for Attorneys">computer forensic expert that contains a primer of all the terms that are important when dealing with computers as evidence on a case. The article discusses as background the case of State v. Dingman, 149 Wash.App. 648, 202 P.3d 388 (Washington Court of Appeals 2009), in which one of the defendant's claims was that neither he nor the expert hired by the defense had access to the Encase program in order to conduct forensic analysis. The Washington Court of Appeals held that the trial court “erred by requiring that the State provide only an EnCase mirror image of Dingman’s hard drives to the defense. The Court vacated the conviction and remanded for a new trial.

Here is an excerpt from the Primer, written by Larry Daniel, a computer forensic expert available for hire as a defense expert:
Here are the different kinds of formats you can expect to see in cases and how to deal with them.

1. Encase format or as it is also known, Expert Witness format or E01 format. Encase by Guidance Software, Inc.
1. This is the “native” format for creating copies of digital evidence when the copies are made using Encase Forensic software. The file extension for these files begin with .e01 and are numbered .e02, .e03 and so on.
2. FTK format. FTK, which stands for Forensic Tool Kit, is a forensic software by Access Data Corporation. It is the second most popular forensic software in use by law enforcement in the US.
3. DD aka RAW format. DD format can be created by several different programs and hardware devices used to create forensic copies of hard drives and other digital media. It is an open source format and is commonly created using the Linux dd command.