I've been reading lots of write-ups for Law Professor Michelle Alexander's book on the American criminal justice system, entitled The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. From what I've read, and heard from others in the legal community, it sounds like an amazing work. You can find the website for the [...]
In a big loss for the federal government, the Supreme Court held today that when the government attaches a GPS device to a vehicle to monitor the vehicle's movement, the government conducts a Fourth Amendment search. Justice Scalia wrote the opinion for the Court in United States v. Jones, No. 10-1259, backed by the Chief Justice, [...]
I am a little late on New Year's resolutions. But I thought I would shoot for three things I would like to see happen in the criminal justice system in 2012. At number three I would like to see the U.S. Supreme Court declare, loud and clear, that lawyers must be constitutionally effective at the [...]
Stanford Law Professor Jeffrey L. Fisher had a particularly compelling argument yesterday in the New York Times against the assertion that if applying federal constitutional rights costs too much than the right should not apply. This efficiency versus rights argument is a commonly employed by prosecutors offices across the country. And it is incredibly false. Tax [...]
SCOTUS news was dominated this week by the oral arguments United States v. Jones, No. 10-1259. In that case, the Court must decide whether law enforcement can conduct GPS monitoring sans warrant without violating the Fourth Amendment’s prescription of unreasonable searches and seizures. A lot was written about the oral arguments, but [...]
It appears that we may have finally reached a consensus on the simple proposition that the War On Drugs is bad policy. Well, kind of. I know what you’re thinking, are there really people out there who believe that the drug war is good policy? Unfortunately, yes, especially if they happen to [...]
The New York Times has been criminal justice heavy in the last week. The articles are so good that I wanted to share them here all in one place. First, there was a great piece on how tough sentences have given prosecutors unbridled discretion. In this federal system this is especially true [...]
The 2011 Supreme Court Term is about to ramp up and there are several intriguing criminal cases set for argument. The cases I’m most curious to see the Court confront are the ones that have so far flown under-the-radar. Let’s start with the ineffective assistance of counsel cases. IAC claims are the [...]
It is nice to see California attempting to rectify one of the more serious problems with the criminal justice system. The problem is what I call "conviction by jailhouse snitch." This is when the prosecution locks up someone in a county jail with known snitches. These snitches question and prod and sometime interrogate the defendant [...]
This year marked the twentieth anniversay of the Seattle Hempfest. To mark the big occasion, U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich spoke to a crowd of stoners pro-pot proponents. He compared the quest to legalize marijuana to the uprisings in the Middle East, the push for womens’ right to vote and the civil rights [...]