Under Obama, Drug War Tactics Poised to Shift

From U.S. News & World Report:

President Obama couldn't have been clearer about his take on the so-called war on drugs. In 2004, he called decades of get-tough law enforcement "an utter failure." So it doesn't come as much of a surprise that the new attorney general, Eric Holder, hinted this month that the new administration will take a radically new approach to one drug issue in particular—medical marijuana. "What [President Obama] said during the campaign is now American policy," Holder told a news conference this week.

Despite Obama's well-known views, federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided a few pot dispensaries in California two days after his inauguration, despite a state law permitting limited use and sale of medical marijuana. The raid came before Holder's confirmation, and it seems that no one in the new administration told the DEA to stop raiding some of the state's storefront dispensaries. The DEA has hit a few dozen every year since they began appearing in 2003.

This time, the agency was continuing on autopilot under Michele Leonhart, a holdover from the Bush years who remains in charge of DEA until a successor is picked. The White House moved quickly to quiet the nervous uproar from the outraged left. "Federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws," says Nick Shapiro, an Obama spokesman. Holder's latest remarks appear to signal that the raids will end.

The approach to states' rights in this case, however, is a notable departure from the one used to desegregate schools, close military bases, prosecute civil rights abuses, and link a drinking age to federal highway funds. "Frankly, it's extremely rare for the federal government to allow the states to say that something is legal when the federal law says the opposite," says Paul Rothstein, a law professor at Georgetown University.

Not enforcing federal law in this instance is perhaps just a more politically palatable way of acknowledging how the political landscape of marijuana has changed in the past few years, says Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, which pushes for more lenient drug laws.

Full article here.

FBI Makes First Arrest in Stanford Fraud Case

The FBI made the first arrest in the Stanford Financial Group fraud investigation on Thursday, detaining Chief Investment Officer Laura Pendergest-Holt on federal obstruction charges.

The U.S. Justice Department said Pendergest-Holt was to make an initial court appearance before a U.S. magistrate in Houston on Friday after her arrest by FBI agents -- in a federal criminal probe that began in June 2008.

The department said Pendergest-Holt concealed her role in and familiarity with the investments of the Antigua-based Stanford International Bank from Securities and Exchange Commission investigators earlier in February.

U.S. securities regulators have filed civil charges against the financial group's chairman, Allen Stanford, along with Pendergest-Holt and Chief Financial Officer Jim Davis, accusing them of fraudulently marketing $8 billion in high-interest certificates of deposit issued by the Antigua bank.

Full story here.

Musical Monkey

Questionable Crime-Scene Science: U.S. Forensic Science is Inadequate, NRC says

From Chemical and Engineering News:

THE FORENSIC SCIENCE currently used by federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies has numerous deficiencies, according to a report released last week by the National Research Council, the research arm of the National Academies. It suffers from a lack of standards, insufficient oversight, and flaws in interpretations, the report says.

The congressionally mandated report, "Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward," recommends actions for improving forensic science through government oversight, research funding, and education. The report was sponsored by the National Institute of Justice, which is part of the Department of Justice. The agency says it is evaluating the report and considering how best to address its findings and recommendations.

The problems with forensic science have many roots, the report states. Most forensic techniques have evolved piecemeal and vary between labs and jurisdictions, explained Constantine A. Gatsonis, report committee cochair, at a press conference. Gatsonis, a professor of biostatistics at Brown University, added that these techniques are often administered by law enforcement agencies, which can introduce bias.

To address these problems, the report says, "Congress should establish and appropriate funds for an independent federal entity dedicated to forensic science," which Gatsonis said would be called the National Institute of Forensic Science. This entity should be charged with establishing and enforcing best practices; accrediting forensic science labs; certifying forensic scientists; and funding state and local forensic science agencies, independent research, and educational programs, he noted.

Forensic tools for examining things such as fingerprints, ballistics, DNA, controlled substances, fiber evidence, paints and coatings, and explosives were evaluated in the report. The study found that some of these analyses—including the interpretation and presentation of the scientific data—need to be improved.

"The chemistry is not that bad," says Jay A. Siegel, report committee member and a professor in the forensic and investigative sciences program at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. It is the standards and the variable interpretation of the data that are inadequate, he tells C&EN.

For example, despite the use of well-characterized analytical methods such as infrared microscopy or pyrolysis gas chromatography in fiber analysis, no criteria exist for determining a match or the significance of a match, the report states.

In such situations, experimental limits need to be clearly described and uncertainties in the data need to be acknowledged, the report points out. There is no absolute science, noted Gatsonis and his cochair, Harry T. Edwards, senior circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. They also suggest that the terms used by forensic scientists need to be clarified and standardized for the profession.

The report does not offer any guidance for reassessing past convictions or pending cases, but its recommendations are expected to have an impact on examining forensic evidence. The report committee has briefed Congress and is anticipating talking with them again, according to Edwards.

Full article here.

1987 Tape May Hold Clue to Serial Killer

From the L.A. Times:

In the more than two decades since Los Angeles police detectives began the search for a serial killer stalking young prostitutes in South L.A., they have had few breaks. One night in 1987, however, offered a tantalizing, agonizing clue.

Shortly after midnight on Jan. 10, a man called police from a pay phone to report that he had seen someone dump a woman's body out of the back of a van and leave it in an alley. He gave the address, a description of the van and its license plate number: 1PZP746.

"Is that T like Tom?" the dispatcher asked, according to several Los Angeles Police Department detectives who have heard a recording of the call.

"No, P like puppy," the man said, speaking in a raspy, deep voice.

The call lasted no more than 30 seconds. At the end, the dispatcher asked for the man's name.
He chuckled nervously at the question. "I know too many people. OK, then, bye-bye," he said, hanging up the phone.

Twenty years later, with little else to go on, detectives are hopeful that the call may still hold the key to identifying the elusive killer who has claimed at least 11 victims. Today, police plan to release a recording of the call to the public, along with details of the van and the church that owned it on the chance that someone will come forward with information.

"There has got to be something to this. There is just too much information here for there not to be something of value for us," said Det. Dennis Kilcoyne, who heads a task force charged with catching the killer. "We're hoping somebody out there will be able to help us make the connection between this body, the van and the caller."

The search for the serial killer has been a frustrating, uneven one. Long stretches of time between known killings and a disjointed, often dormant investigation that spanned different generations of detectives left police unclear for years that one man was behind the slayings.

Last summer, police acknowledged that they had linked the same man to the 11 killings through ballistic and DNA evidence. His last known victim was killed in May 2007.

Formed after the most recent killing, the LAPD task force has struggled to make progress. The killer's genetic profile, known from DNA evidence left on several of his victims, failed to match any of the millions stored in state felon databases. Efforts to find and tease information from relatives or others have been hamstrung by faltering memories and the dramatic demographic shifts South Los Angeles has experienced since the killings began.

Full article here.
Video of story here.

Operation Green Reaper Strikes Again

From the DEA.com:

On Monday February 23, 2009, federal agents and local authorities executed 8 federal search warrants involving indoor marijuana grow operations in Thurston and Pierce Counties. The collaborative effort by law enforcement was part of ‘Operation Green Reaper’, targeting the command and control components of the Puget Sound’s indoor marijuana grow organizations and was investigated by law enforcement officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration and Tahoma Narcotics Enforcement Team (TNET), which is comprised of the Washington State Patrol, Washington Department of Corrections, Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, and the Tacoma, Puyallup, Bonney Lake, and Auburn Police Departments.

Full article here.

Cartel Operation Leads to Indictments in Arizona

From the Arizona Republic:

A nationwide crackdown on a Mexican drug cartel included dozens of indictments in two major Arizona investigations, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced Wednesday that the probe known as Operation Xcellerator tallied more than 750 arrests and the seizure of 23 tons of narcotics from the Mexican border to Canada, and from Arizona to Maryland.

Special agent Ramona Sanchez of the DEA in Phoenix said the two Maricopa County investigations broke last year and involved a total of 144 indicted suspects.

Sanchez said one of the probes involved a methamphetamine operation that stretched from Tempe to Sinaloa. "We went from the small dealer to the mid-supplier all the way back to the drug-trafficking organization in Mexico," she said.

In all, the Justice Department reported seizures of $59 million in cash, 12,000 kilograms of cocaine, 1,200 pounds of methamphetamine, and 16,000 pounds of marijuana. Holder described the Mexican narcotics syndicates as "a sustained, serious threat to the safety and security of our communities."

Michele Leonhart DEA's acting administrator, said the 21-month probe represents the "largest and hardest-hitting operation to ever target the very violent and dangerously powerful Sinaloa cartel. From Washington to Maine, we have disrupted this cartel's domestic operations."

Charges in the Xcellerator case include drug trafficking, money laundering and operating a criminal enterprise.

Full article here.

Citing Cost, States Consider End to Death Penalty

When Gov. Martin O’Malley appeared before the Maryland Senate last week, he made an unconventional argument that is becoming increasingly popular in cash-strapped states: abolish the death penalty to cut costs.

Mr. O’Malley, a Democrat and a Roman Catholic who has cited religious opposition to the death penalty in the past, is now arguing that capital cases cost three times as much as homicide cases where the death penalty is not sought. “And we can’t afford that,” he said, “when there are better and cheaper ways to reduce crime.”

Lawmakers in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and New Hampshire have made the same argument in recent months as they push bills seeking to repeal the death penalty, and experts say such bills have a good chance of passing in Maryland, Montana and New Mexico.

Death penalty opponents say they still face an uphill battle, but they are pleased to have allies raising the economic argument.

Efforts to repeal the death penalty are part of a broader trend in which states are trying to cut the costs of being tough on crime. Virginia and at least four other states, for example, are considering releasing nonviolent offenders early to reduce costs.

The economic realities have forced even longtime supporters of the death penalty, like Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, to rethink their positions.

Mr. Richardson, a Democrat, has said he may sign a bill repealing capital punishment that passed the House last week and is pending in a Senate committee. He cited growing concerns about miscarriages of justice, but he added that cost was a factor in his shifting views and was “a valid reason in this era of austerity and tight budgets.”

Capital cases are expensive because the trials tend to take longer, they typically require more lawyers and more costly expert witnesses, and they are far more likely to lead to multiple appeals.

In New Mexico, lawmakers who support the repeal bill have pointed out that despite the added expense, most defendants end up with life sentences anyway.

Full article here.

U.S. Is Arms Bazaar for Mexican Cartels

The Mexican agents who moved in on a safe house full of drug dealers last May were not prepared for the fire power that greeted them.

When the shooting was over, eight agents were dead. Among the guns the police recovered was an assault rifle traced back across the border to a dingy gun store here called X-Caliber Guns.
Now, the owner, George Iknadosian, will go on trial on charges he sold hundreds of weapons, mostly AK-47 rifles, to smugglers, knowing they would send them to a drug cartel in the western state of Sinaloa. The guns helped fuel the gang warfare in which more than 6,000 Mexicans died last year.

Mexican authorities have long complained that American gun dealers are arming the cartels. This case is the most prominent prosecution of an American gun dealer since the United States promised Mexico two years ago it would clamp down on the smuggling of weapons across the border. It also offers a rare glimpse of how weapons delivered to American gun dealers are being moved into Mexico and wielded in horrific crimes.

“We had a direct pipeline from Iknadosian to the Sinaloa cartel,” said Thomas G. Mangan, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Phoenix.
Drug gangs seek out guns in the United States because the gun-control laws are far tougher in Mexico. Mexican civilians must get approval from the military to buy guns and they cannot own large-caliber rifles or high-powered pistols, which are considered military weapons.

Full article here.

Court Denies a Religion Its Monument in a Park

From the New York Times:

A public park in Utah that includes a monument to the Ten Commandments need not make room for a similar monument reflecting the beliefs of an unusual religion called Summum, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.

Permanent monuments in public parks are not subject to the free speech analysis that applies to speeches and leaflets in public forums, the court ruled. Instead, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote for eight justices, such monuments are “best viewed as a form of government speech.”

Since the government is free to say what it likes, Justice Alito said, the Summum church’s right to free speech under the First Amendment was not violated by the city’s rejection of its monument.

The decision was unanimous but fractured. In four concurring opinions, six justices set out sharply contrasting views about the decision’s scope and consequences.

Ten Commandments cases are typically litigated under the clause of the First Amendment prohibiting government establishment of religion. But the case decided Wednesday, Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, No. 07-665, was brought under a different clause of the amendment, the one protecting free speech.

Full article here.

Forensic Science

The National Academy of Sciences has completed the their congressionally mandated research project on the nation's forensic science system and issued their report yesterday. Click here for more information.

Report on Sentencing Levels for Crack and Powder Cocaine in Light of Supreme Court Rulings

Recently released and made available on the Sentencing Law and Policy Blog is a report by the Congressional Research Service, titled "Sentencing Levels for Crack and Powder Cocaine in Light of Kimbrough and the Impact of Booker." This document, which can be downloaded here, provides a very effective review of past and present federal sentencing realities, all the way through the new guidelines and most recent Supreme Court and circuit jurisprudence.

Qwest Communications Subpoena Compliance

Qwest Subpoena Compliance

1801 California Street

Denver, Colorado 80202

(p) 303.896.2522

(f) 303.896.4474

Should Jawad Be Free?

This video explains the habeas corpus case of Mohammed Jawad, a teenager when first captured, detained by the United States government for the past six years in Guantanamo. Credit must be given to the United States Army Prosecutor, Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, who resigned rather than continue to participate in the trial. He has written a declaration in support of Mr. Jawad's habeas petition urging that Mr. Jawad be released.

National Academy of Sciences Report Released-Need More Science in Forensic Science

The National Academy of Sciences has published its long-awaited report critiquing forensic science titled "Strengthening forensic science in the United States: A path forward." For ordering information see here. The table of contents and chapters can be skimmed for free, and one can order the PDF version as well as the paper copy.
According to the press release:

Rigorous and mandatory certification programs for forensic scientists are currently lacking, the report says, as are strong standards and protocols for analyzing and reporting on evidence. And there is a dearth of peer-reviewed, published studies establishing the scientific bases and reliability of many forensic methods. Moreover, many forensic science labs are underfunded, understaffed, and have no effective oversight.

Forensic evidence is often offered in criminal prosecutions and civil litigation to support conclusions about individualization -- in other words, to "match" a piece of evidence to a particular person, weapon, or other source. But with the exception of nuclear DNA analysis, the report says, no forensic method has been rigorously shown able to consistently, and with a high degree of certainty, demonstrate a connection between evidence and a specific individual or source.

Senate Panel O.K.’s Bill to Give Washington a Voting Representative

From the New York Times:

This could be the year that Washington gets a voting member of Congress.

“There is finally a light at the end of what has been a really long tunnel,” said the city’s nonvoting delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton.

On Wednesday, a Senate committee approved a bill to give the city a voting member of the House of Representatives, clearing the way for the full chamber to take up the matter in the coming weeks.

The legislation would permanently expand the 435-member House by two seats. One seat would go to Washington and the other to Utah, which narrowly missed getting an additional seat after the last census. Utah, which traditionally leans Republican, now has one Democrat and two Republicans in the House.

A similar bill passed in the House in 2007, but the Senate version received only 57 of the 60 necessary votes.

This year, however, with a strong Democratic majority in both houses, supporters of the measure are hopeful — particularly because President Obama, a co-sponsor of the 2007 bill, has said his stance is unchanged.

The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has led opposition to the bill , saying it is unconstitutional and that proponents first must pass a constitutional amendment. Republican opponents of the legislation also fear that giving Washington a House member will eventually lead to the city getting two senators, both of whom likely would be Democrats.

Full story here.

Barriers to Innovation and Inclusion

Troy Davis about to be killed by the state of Georgia

If you wish to send an email to the Georgia Governor, click here.

CIA World Factbook

While looking at three lettered agencies, I found the CIA's "". It has information on all countries including maps, economics, social information, government and more. It includes information on crime, illicit drugs, a description of courts, and legal systems. Handy when doing international research. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

FBI Website-Worth a Browse

I got sucked into the FBI website marveling at something called "FBI Hiring Blitz"--how they have hired nearly 180 agents since October 1, 2008, and plan to hire a total of 850 by the end of the fiscal year(!) And I thought we were in a recession.

Information on the FBI website includes publications and information on a wide variety of topics including Fingerprinting, NCIC and criminal records checks, crime statistics, links to the FBI Library and more. In my perusal, I noticed detailed information concentrated in the "Law Enforcement" section. Probably worth detailed examination especially when working on cases investigated by the FBI.

Warrants for Police GPS Surveillance?

From NACDL

Washington, DC­ (Feb. 6, 2009) -- A diverse group of civil liberties and religious organizations this week weighed in on the question of whether police need a warrant in order to conduct surveillance of personal vehicles by secretly attaching global positioning satellite (GPS) transmitters. The case, which is scheduled to be heard next month in New York’s highest court, has profound implications for the privacy rights of individuals and organizations.

Low-cost GPS transmitters can be secretly attached to a vehicle and pinpoint the vehicle’s location on public or private property, within a few feet or yards, to virtually any computer with an internet connection. The devices are useful for tracking a vehicle or person in real-time, but the data also can be permanently stored and subjected to pattern analysis, revealing not just a person’s whereabouts, but his habits, associations, who his friends are, where he shops, banks and goes to church, and a host of other information. The coalition argues that court supervision should be required to protect First and Fourth Amendment privacy rights.

In People v. Weaver, scheduled for argument in the New York Court of Appeals March 24, the court will be considering whether a police officer, in his own discretion, may undertake GPS surveillance of individuals without any judicial oversight at all. The court below held that there is no obligation to obtain a warrant prior to undertaking such monitoring. Members of the public have no way of knowing if their movements are subject to electronic surveillance from which there is no legal protection.

Texan who Died in Prison Cleared of Rape Conviction

From CNN:

A Texas district court judge Friday reversed the conviction of a man who died in prison nearly a decade ago, almost two decades into a prison sentence for a rape he swore he did not commit, CNN affiliate KXAN reported.

Timothy Cole was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison for the 1985 rape of 20-year-old Michele Mallin. He maintained his innocence, but it was not confirmed by DNA until years after his 1999 death, when another inmate confessed to the rape.

In the courtroom of Judge Charlie Baird Friday afternoon, Mallin, now 44, faced Jerry Johnson, the man who confessed to the rape.

"What you did to me, you had no right to do," she told him angrily, according to Austin's KXAN. "You've got no right to do that to any woman. I am the one with the power now, buddy."
Cole's family also addressed Johnson.

"He'll never have the chance to have children," Cole's mother, Ruby Session, said. "I want you to know he was a fine young man."

Johnson has been in prison since 1985 on two convictions for aggravated sexual assault, according to the Texas Department of Corrections. He was given a life sentence for the rape of a 15-year-old girl, and a jury later tacked on a 99-year sentence for another rape, according to the Lubbock, Texas, Avalanche-Journal. He cannot be charged with the Mallin case, as the statute of limitations has expired.

Johnson also spoke Friday.

"I am responsible," he said. "I say I am truly sorry."

Then a student at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Mallin was walking to her car, intending to move it to another parking lot, when a man approached her asking about jumper cables, she said. In a matter of seconds, he put her in a choke hold and held a knife to her neck. He forced himself into her car and drove her to the outskirts of town, where he raped her.

The next day, police investigators showed Mallin pictures of possible suspects. She chose a picture of Cole and said he was her attacker. She later identified him in a physical lineup, according to the Innocence Project of Texas.

"I was positive," she said. "I really thought it was him."

Full story here.

California Supreme Court Allows Good Samaritans to be Sued for Nonmedical Care

From the LA Times:

The ruling stems from a case in which a woman pulled a crash victim from a car 'like a rag doll,' allegedly aggravating a vertebrae injury.

___________________________

Being a good Samaritan in California just got a little riskier.

The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a young woman who pulled a co-worker from a crashed vehicle isn't immune from civil liability because the care she rendered wasn't medical.

The divided high court appeared to signal that rescue efforts are the responsibility of trained professionals. It was also thought to be the first ruling by the court that someone who intervened in an accident in good faith could be sued.

Lisa Torti of Northridge allegedly worsened the injuries suffered by Alexandra Van Horn by yanking her "like a rag doll" from the wrecked car on Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

Torti now faces possible liability for injuries suffered by Van Horn, a fellow department store cosmetician who was rendered a paraplegic in the accident that ended a night of Halloween revelry in 2004.

But in a sharp dissent, three of the seven justices said that by making a distinction between medical care and emergency response, the court was placing "an arbitrary and unreasonable limitation" on protections for those trying to help.

In 1980, the Legislature enacted the Health and Safety Code, which provides that "no person who in good faith, and not for compensation, renders emergency care at the scene of an emergency shall be liable for any civil damages resulting from any act or omission."

Although that passage does not use the word "medical" in describing the protected emergency care, it was included in the section of the code that deals with emergency medical services. By placing it there, lawmakers intended to shield "only those persons who in good faith render emergency medical care at the scene of a medical emergency," Justice Carlos R. Moreno wrote for the majority.

Full article here.

Eleventh Circuit Votes To Uphold Book Ban

From ACLU Blog:

In 2006 the ACLU of Florida began to warn the school district that if they banned the children’s book ¡Vamos a Cuba! and its English equivalent, A Visit to Cuba, a lawsuit would follow. The book is part of a series that shows children ages 5-7 basic facts about other countries, such as the foods they eat, the clothes they wear, and the things they do.

In a politically charged vote, the board voted to ban the book against the advice of the district’s superintendent, the school board’s own attorney, as well as two separate committees comprised of educators, parents and librarians. The school board banned the book saying that it doesn’t accurately portray the Castro regime.

n June 2006, the ACLU of Florida filed suit against the school district, demanding that the books be returned to the shelves. Librarians and experts testified that the book is age appropriate and that it should in fact remain on the shelves. The Florida Library Association even filed an amicus brief in the case. The ACLU prevailed in the federal district court and the school district quickly appealed – throwing more taxpayers’ money at the problem they themselves had created.

On Thursday, the 11th Circuit reversed the district court’s decision, a decision the ACLU says was short-sighted.

Stay tuned.

New York City Police Records

The Criminal Records Section stores and maintains reports of crime and lost property, and provides information from these files to members of the public and authorized agencies, as required by law and Department rule.

The Criminal Records Section is NOT open to the general public.

Telephone inquiries can be made by the public, Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M.. Persons who have reported a crime, or lost property, may request a verification report by properly completing the necessary captions on a VERIFICATION OF CRIME / LOST PROPERTY [PD 542-061] form. This form is available at any Police Precinct, Housing Police Service Area or Transit District.

Requests submitted on VERIFICATION OF CRIME / LOST PROPERTY [PD 542-061] forms must be accompanied by a stamped self-addressed envelope and a non-refundable $15.00 service fee.

NOTE: The service fee is waived for the victims of a crime ONLY.

The completed form, along with the $15.00 service fee and a stamped self-addressed envelope to should be mailed to:

N.Y.C. Police Department
Criminal Records Section (Verification Unit)
1 Police Plaza
Room 300
New York, NY 10038

CRIME VICTIMS ARE ENTITLED TO A COPY OF THIS REPORT AT NO CHARGE.

Stimulus Plan Has $1 Billion to Hire More Local Police

From the New York Times:

President Obama’s economic stimulus plan includes about $1 billion to help local governments hire more police officers, which would resurrect a Clinton administration program that had been largely shelved by President George W. Bush.

The so-called COPS Program, for Community Oriented Policing Services, aimed to add 100,000 police officers to local departments in eight years. Whether it met that goal is the subject of heated debate in law enforcement and public policy circles.

Mr. Bush, reflecting a Republican philosophical objection to having the federal government pay for local police salaries, all but eliminated the program.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said money to hire police officers was an appropriate part of the stimulus bill because it would aid the economy “as fast as, or faster than, other spending.”

“In police hiring, nearly 100 percent of the money goes to creating jobs,” Mr. Leahy said. “This is particularly important in the current economic crisis, since many police departments are already reporting increases in crime and cuts in their budgets and their forces.”

A senior analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, David B. Muhlhausen, who has written about the COPS program, disagreed, saying there was “no evidence that funding for these kinds of programs will stimulate the economy.”

Mr. Muhlhausen said that nonetheless, he expected the program to be enacted either as part of the stimulus package or by itself because “most politicians don’t want to be on the record as against a law enforcement program, and everybody likes the idea of bringing home some federal grants.”

Full story here.

Science is Missing Element in Nations' Crime Labs

The National Academy of Sciences will be releasing a report this month that is reported to be a stinging indictment of forensic methods currently in use in many labs throughout the country. Forensic evidence is routinely used in prosecutions and is involved in hundreds of thousands of investigations and prosecutions. The nation's crime labs may be missing a critical element...solid science practices.

From New York Times, full article here:

Forensic evidence that has helped convict thousands of defendants for nearly a century is often the product of shoddy scientific practices that should be upgraded and standardized, according to accounts of a draft report by the nation’s pre-eminent scientific research group.
The report by the National Academy of Sciences is to be released this month. People who have seen it say it is a sweeping critique of many forensic methods that the police and prosecutors rely on, including fingerprinting, firearms identification and analysis of bite marks, blood spatter, hair and handwriting.

The report says such analyses are often handled by poorly trained technicians who then exaggerate the accuracy of their methods in court. It concludes that Congress should create a federal agency to guarantee the independence of the field, which has been dominated by law enforcement agencies, say forensic professionals, scholars and scientists who have seen review copies of the study. Early reviewers said the report was still subject to change.

Do You Have Office Privacy? Standing for an Office Search

This case is a must read for office workers in evaluating the privacy of information and storage at the office under the Fourth Amendment. In United States v. SDI Future Health, Inc.,__ F.3d __, No. 07-10261, 2009 WL 174910 (9th Cir. Jan. 27, 2009), the Ninth Circuit imports a Tenth Circuit test to create a new rule for gauging the standing of corporate employees to challenge a search within a business. Here is a clip from the Court:

Held: “[W]e conclude that, except in the case of a small, family-run business over which an individual exercises daily management and control, an individual challenging a search of workplace areas beyond his own internal office must generally show some personal connection to the places searched and the materials seized. To adapt [United States v.] Anderson, [154 F.3d 1225, 1230-32 (10th Cir. 1998)] although all the circumstances remain relevant, we will specifically determine the strength of such personal connection with reference to the following factors: (1) whether the item seized is personal property or otherwise kept in a private place separate from other work-related material; (2) whether the defendant had custody or immediate control of the item when officers seized it; and (3) whether the defendant took precautions on his own behalf to secure the place searched or things seized from any interference without his authorization. Absent such a personal connection or exclusive use, a defendant cannot establish standing for Fourth Amendment purposes to challenge the search of a workplace beyond his internal office.” Id. at *5 (footnotes omitted). “The district court’s grant of the motion to suppress must be reversed and the matter remanded for further fact-finding.” Id. at *7.

For More Analysis See Ninth Circuit Blog

Justices Step Closer to Repeal of Evidence Ruling

From the New York Times:

In 1983, a young lawyer in the Reagan White House was hard at work on what he called in a memorandum “the campaign to amend or abolish the exclusionary rule” — the principle that evidence obtained by police misconduct cannot be used against a defendant.

The Reagan administration’s attacks on the exclusionary rule — a barrage of speeches, opinion articles, litigation and proposed legislation — never gained much traction. But now that young lawyer, John G. Roberts Jr., is chief justice of the United States.

This month, Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority in Herring v. United States, a 5-to-4 decision, took a big step toward the goal he had discussed a quarter-century before. Taking aim at one of the towering legacies of the Warren Court, its landmark 1961 decision applying the exclusionary rule to the states, the chief justice’s majority opinion established for the first time that unlawful police conduct should not require the suppression of evidence if all that was involved was isolated carelessness. That was a significant step in itself. More important yet, it suggested that the exclusionary rule itself might be at risk.

The Herring decision “jumped a firewall,” said Kent Scheidegger, the general counsel of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a victims’ rights group. “I think Herring may be setting the stage for the Holy Grail,” he wrote on the group’s blog, referring to the overruling of Mapp v. Ohio, the 1961 Warren Court decision.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. joined the Herring decision and has been a reliable vote for narrowing the protections afforded criminal defendants since he joined the court in 2006. In applying for a job in the Reagan Justice Department in 1985, he wrote that his interest in the law had been “motivated in large part by disagreement with Warren Court decisions, particularly in the areas of criminal procedure,” religious freedom and voting rights.

Full story here.