Criminal Law

Recent 7th Circuit Cases

Posted on January 13, 2009
Michael O'Hear does a great job in rounding up the 7th Circuit criminal law cases at the Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog (which has become my favorite faculty blog and I definitely recommend checking out). Recently, he covered a...

Ninth Circuit Found Failure to Register Sentence Unconstitutional

Posted on January 13, 2009
Among the many stories I missed while I was traveling over the break was the Ninth Circuit's holding in Gonzales v. Duncan. The court held that the application of the three-strikes law resulted in a constitutionally excessive penalty. From the...

More Sex Offender Info Available Online

Posted on January 12, 2009
Stateline.org has an excellent article detailing how many state sex offender databases are now offering many new features. From the article:Arizona parents who want to find out whether a suspicious e-mail has been sent by a registered sex offender now...

Notable Child Porn Opinion From Sixth Circuit

Posted on January 12, 2009
Sentencing Law and Policy has a discussion of a recent split Sixth Circuit's affirmance of a within-guideline child porn sentence in US v. Paull, No. 07-3482. You can view the opinion here. The dissent, citing a recent Wall Street Journal...

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Sex Offender Exposes Teen To AIDS

Posted on January 12, 2009
A sex offender with AIDS is facing charges of exposing a teenager to the disease. The man allegedly had AIDS medication in his possession when he was arrested. From WPIX:Nassau County police arrested a registered sex offender with AIDS, after...

Sex Offender Wins Lottery Held by Rape Support Group

Posted on January 12, 2009
A registered sex offender has won a $500,000 lottery sponsored by a non-profit group that helps rape victims. The man was thrice convicted of sexually abusing minors. From USA Today:When a non-profit that helps rape victims decided to hold a...

Federal Judge Pleads Not Guilty to Sex Charges

Posted on January 09, 2009
Federal District Judge Samuel Kent pled not guilty to "sex and obstruction charges related to his alleged mistreatment of a court employee." The Houston Chronicle has more. From the ABA Journal:A federal judge in Texas pleaded not guilty this morning...

Larry Craig Won't Appeal To MN Supreme Court

Posted on January 09, 2009
Former Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) has announced that he will not ask the Minnesota Supreme Court to let him withdraw his guilty plea. Sen. Craig pled guilty in 2007 to disorderly conduct after he allegedly solicited sex in an airport...

4th Circuit Got it Right in Comstock

Posted on January 08, 2009
(In the interest of full disclosure, I did help out in a very minor way in the Comstock appeal, so I'm not a wholly disinterested spectator in this case)The Fourth Circuit issued a unanimous and very noteworthy AWA opinion today...

Presentation at AALS

Posted on January 08, 2009
Yesterday, I was on a panel at AALS in the Law & Sexuality section. My talk was about the aftermath of Lawrence v. Texas and how lower courts have treated the decision. I reviewed every case that has cited the...

New Mexico Seeks Adam Walsh Act Compliance

Posted on January 08, 2009
State legislators in New Mexico are expected to introduce Adam Walsh Act-compliant legislation soon and it will be up to the former Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of Commerce-nominee Governor Bill Richardson to sign it. From the Valencia County...

California Lawyer Caught With Child Porn

Posted on January 06, 2009
The lawyer who introduced John Kerry at the 2004 Democratic Convention and served in the Clinton administration pled guilty to federal child pornography charges. From CNN:A lawyer who served in the Clinton administration and more recently was an adviser to...

New York Lets Sex Offender Keep Law License

Posted on January 06, 2009
The New York Appellate Division, First Department has released a divided opinion allowing an admitted sex offender to keep his New York law license. The dissent argued that that man should have been disbarred. You may view the opinion here....

Woman Beats 7'3" Sex Offender With Baseball Bat

Posted on January 06, 2009
A Washington woman pled guilty to assaulting a 7' 3" sex offender with an aluminum bat. From Seattle Post-Intelligencer:The Pierce County woman who used an aluminum baseball bat to attack a 7-foot-3 sex offender living in her trailer park has...

I'm Back - Posts Forthcoming

Posted on January 05, 2009
My "intermittent blogging" turned into "no blogging" as I was busy over the holidays. I've completed my East Coast road trip to visit family, and more importantly completed my grades for last semester, so I'll be back to my normal...

7th Circuit Rules on SORNA Constitutionality

Posted on January 05, 2009
The Seventh Circuit, in U.S. v. Dixon, joined the Eighth and Tenth Circuits in reaching the constitutional issues that arise in failure to register prosecutions under SORNA. The opinion is especially notable because it was written by Justice Posner. There...

Carnival Against Sexual Violence 62

Posted on January 05, 2009
While I was traveling, the 62nd edition of the Carnival Against Sexual Violence came out at abyss2hope. Here is the legal section:In An honest (and honorable?) gendered sentencing outcome in adult-teen sex case posted at Sentencing Law and Policy, we...

Intermittent Blogging

Posted on December 16, 2008
I'm going to be driving across the country to visit family. So I will be blogging in spurts. I'm also a bit under the weather, so I haven't been posting about a few things that I have wanted to.In particular,...

Dividing Sex Offenders

Posted on December 15, 2008
Sentencing Law & Policy points to a Houston Chronicle article about an effort to only list the most dangerous sex offenders on registries. From the article:Martin Ezell is tired of the dead-end jobs and unrelenting stigma that comes with being...

Carnival Against Sexual Violence 61

Posted on December 15, 2008
It's up at abyss2hope and this is the Legal section:In Judge entitled to comment on rape complaint delay posted at West Law Report, we get a discussion of an appeals ruling about a judge's reminder to the jury to balance...

The Airport Bathroom Scandal That Never Ends

Posted on December 12, 2008
Larry Craig continues to chug along long after his political future was declared dead and buried. And amazingly, his case has carried on. However, the Court of Appeals has ruled that the lower court did not abuse its discretion when...

Some Sex Crime Sentences

Posted on December 12, 2008
Sentencing Law & Policy has three posts about three recent sex crimes sentences. In Another notable child porn sentencing decision, Berman points to a notable Judge Pratt opinion in a child pornography case. In An honest (and honorable?) gendered sentencing...

20% of Teens Put Nude Pictures Online?

Posted on December 11, 2008
I'm skeptical, but that's what a recent survey indicates. From Ars Technica:What good would technology be if people weren't constantly using it to send naked pictures of themselves to each other? I would know, too?since the age of 12, my...

Case of School Teacher with Pop-up Porn Resolved

Posted on December 10, 2008
Almost two years ago, I posted about the case of Julie Amero, the school teacher who had some pornography pop-up on her computer during class. TChris at TalkLeft recently posted about the resolution of the case:You may remember the case...

The Thin Line Between Pornography and Prostitution

Posted on December 10, 2008
While filming pornography might seem different than prostitution, the difference between the two can be illusory when money changes hands. Eugene Volokh explains in analyzing a recent New Hampshire case:People sometimes ask -- if it's a crime to pay someone...

Southern District of Florida Dismisses SORNA Indictment on Commerce Clause Grounds

Posted on December 09, 2008
In contrast to the holdings in the Tenth Circuit, Judge Zloch, in U.S. v. Myers, held that a prosecution under SORNA for failing to register was an unlawful extension of Commerce Clause authority. I was delighted to see the court...

Tenth Circuit Issues Two Opinions Upholding SORNA

Posted on December 09, 2008
Following on the heels of the 10th Circuit opinion in U.S. v.Husted, the court issued two new opinions allowing SORNA prosecutions to proceed. Sentencing Law & Policy drew my attention to the decision in U.S. v. Lawrance date December 8th....

Will Roman Get a Reprieve?

Posted on December 08, 2008
Jeralyn at TalkLeft recently had a post calling for a pardon for director Roman Polanski:Director Roman Polanski, now age 75, has filed a new motion to have the sex assault charges against him dismissed. His motion alleges prosecutorial and judicial....

Kozinski Case Takes More Twists and Turns

Posted on December 08, 2008
Some have said that lesson of the Martha Stewart prosecution was: It's the coverup, not the crime. Maybe the lesson of Kozinski's ethics investigation is: It's the security breach, not the porn. What started out as a sortid tale of...

Posner and the Problem of Private Entrapment

Posted on December 08, 2008
One of the problems with the Internet age is that it enables unusual forms of private action within the criminal justice system. Among the most notorious of the private involvements is that of organizations like Perverted Justice which use sting-type...

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