Criminal

April 16, 2021

The title of this post is the headline of this new Washington Post op-ed by Nora Demleitner. Here are excerpts: The Virginia Parole Board scandal gets worse by the day. The board stands accused of disregarding state law and its own procedures to facilitate the parole release of a few incarcerated men. A watchdog report alleges that the board failed to consider the required input from victim families and did not inform them and prosecutors…

Sentencing Law and Policy

First public plea deal struck by Capitol rioter, who agrees to cooperate and to reported guideline range of 41 to 51 months in prison

By Douglas Berman

April 16, 2021

As reported in this Fox News piece, headlined “Capitol rioter takes first public plea deal, agrees to cooperate with authorities: sources,” the first big plea in the Capitol riot cases has been announce by the Justice Department. Here are the basics with a few points highlighted: An alleged member of the Oath Keepers militia group who was “among the first five or six” rioters to enter the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6 is…

Grand Jury Target

Historic Levels!-DOJ Sounds the Beacon of COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement

By Kropf Moseley

April 16, 2021

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by Andrea L. Moseley DoJ issued a press release, on March 26, 2021, announcing that it had criminally charged 474 individuals for alleged fraudulent efforts to obtain $569 million in pandemic relief funds. “The impact of the department’s work to date sends a clear and unmistakable message to those who would exploit a national emergency to steal taxpayer-funded resources from vulnerable individuals and small businesses,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement…

Sentencing Law and Policy

Lots and lots more good reads from <em>The Appeal</em>

By Douglas Berman

April 16, 2021

I said here earlier this month that “just about every week, The Appeal has too much great new criminal justice content for me to keep up with.” This week serves as another example, so I will again try to make up for limited time with this round-up of links to highlight some of notable recent Apppeal-ing content: By Maura Ewing, “Philadelphia D.A. Race Could Ramp Up The War On Drugs. Larry Krasner has…

Sentencing Law and Policy

One year (and 185 pages) later, divided Eleventh Circuit (now <em>en banc</em>) again rules Jeffrey Epstein's victims had no pre-charge rights under federal CVRA

By Douglas Berman

April 16, 2021

Almost exactly one year ago, as blogged here, a divided Eleventh Circuit panel handed down a very long opinion on an very interesting issue concerning the rights of victims of a very high profile (and now very dead) federal defendant. The opinions in the original panel decisions In re Courtney Wild, No. 19-13843 (11th Cir. April 14, 2020) (available here), ran a total of 120 pages. Yesterday, exactly a year and a…

Simple Justice

Adam Toledo Complied

By Scott Greenfield

April 16, 2021

He was a 13-year-old seventh grader at Gary Elementary School. He was also a 13-year-old with a gun being chased by cops down a dark alley late at night. There’s an inexplicable compulsion to turn victims into saints these days. They’re not. They don’t have to be. Even kids who do bad things shouldn’t be needlessly killed. Adam Toledo was doing bad things, even though he was just a 13-year-old seventh grader. That shouldn’t have…

Simple Justice

Seaton: Adventures in Lock Picking!

By Scott Greenfield

April 16, 2021

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I took up lock picking recently. The idea came in a moment when I was cleaning out the kids’ toy room and came across a pick set I’d ordered a couple years ago but never really used. So I watched a couple of YouTube tutorials, read a manual, and started working on “bypassing pin tumblers.” It was hard at first. Really, really hard. And because I’m a stubborn son of a bitch and won’t let…

Sentencing Law and Policy

Can capital punishment be another part of a bipartisan criminal justice reform story?

By Douglas Berman

April 15, 2021

The question in the title of this post is prompted by this lengthy new Marshall Project piece fully titled “Can The Death Penalty Be Fixed? These Republicans Think So: A growing number of conservative lawmakers want to overhaul capital punishment, or end it.” Here are excerpts: As Oklahoma officials seek to resume putting prisoners to death later this year, [state Rep. Kevin] McDugle has pursued bills in the state legislature to help those on death…

Sentencing Law and Policy

"Long Road to Nowhere: How Southern States Struggle with Long-Term Incarceration"

By Douglas Berman

April 15, 2021

The title of this post is the title of this recent report from Southern Poverty Law Center. I just noticed the report because it was recently made available here via SSRN, where one finds this abstract: The Deep South is the epicenter of mass incarceration. The United States incarcerates more people per capita than any other country, with prison populations growing by 86% between 1990 and 2019. For Southern states, prison populations exploded by 127%…

Wisconsin Trial Lawyers Blog

What Are the Requirements of a Wisconsin Spousal Maintenance Order?

By GRGB Lawyers

April 15, 2021

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By Attorney Max Stephenson and Paralegal Courtney Hess In a Wisconsin divorce, spousal maintenance or alimony is sometimes ordered to provide support for a spouse who is likely to have difficulty providing for themself without their former partner’s income, perhaps due to their health, childcare responsibilities, or lack of education and work experience. When maintenance is ordered, the paying spouse has an important legal responsibility to make the payments on time and in the…