criminal law

The Legal Intelligencer (my journalism alma mater) reports that the Superior Court rejected all of the appellate arguments made by Jerry Sandusky, the "former Penn State assistant football coach, [who] was convicted by a Centre County jury in June 2012 on 45 of 48 counts of sexual abuse of 10 boys over a 15-year period and was subsequently sentenced to 30 to 90 years in prison." 

The panel rejected the argument that Sandusky's rights were prejudiced because he was not granted a delay in the start of the trial. 

The appellate court also came back with its decision in record time.

California has passed a law to criminalize, as a misdemeanor, posting "identifiable nude pictures of someone else online without permission with the intent to cause emotional distress or humiliation," The Guardian reports. The ACLU opposed the legislation on free-speech grounds.

ALM's The Legal Times reports on en banc arguments held yesterday "in a case that could undo a terrorism conviction and reshape how the government prosecutes criminal charges against other detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."

 Attorney Terrence P. Dwyer writes that there is still a question left open by the U.S. Supreme Court "relating to the extent of government use of GPS technology without a warrant, specifically about requirements when there is no physical trespass upon personal property." He writes that some courts are more protective of cell site locator information while others are not (CSLI "can be sought in one of two ways — either as historical cell site data that seeks past locator information, or as prospective cell site data which seeks real time, present data"). He also writes that it is likely the courts, not legislatures will decide the parameters of our privacy regarding cell phones locational data as there has been very few bills introduced to govern this subject area.

Philadelphia CityPaper did an incredible job with this enterprise piece on the long-standing violence in Philadelphia's Strawberry Mansion neighborhood. There have been 150 shootings and 30 murders in the last decade involving just three corners in the northwest part of that neighborhood--all stemming from one killing in October 2003.  "The street-corner killings that take many young black lives in Philadelphia are often manifestations of more complicated stories that few outside the neighborhood bother to interpret. This is one of those stories," CityPaper reports.

A West Virginia judge has been charged by federal prosecutors  with allegedly conspiring with a prosecutor, county commissioner and now-deceased sheriff to stop a confidential informant from talking with the FBI information about his drug deals with the sheriff, according to WSAZ News Channel 3, which covers news in West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky.

According to the news report: the informant was targeted by the sheriff after he tried to collect a $3,000 debt the sheriff owed the informant for making political signs. The sheriff arranged for an undercover informant to try to buy oxycodone from the sign-maker, and the sign-maker was indicted for possession of controlled substances with intent to deliver. But after the sign-maker was arrested he disclosed to the FBI that the sheriff had bought prescription narcotics from him several times. Then the judge, the sheriff and the others allegedly arranged to offer the sign-maker a favorable plea deal if he would fire his attorney, who was assisting the FBI, and replace him with a lawyer allegedly handpicked by the conspirators.

You might think false confessions are impossible, but attorney Ronald Goldfarb argues that "an expert on false confessions pointed out that prisoners of war as well as common criminal suspects confess to crimes they didn’t commit after stressful, prolonged, deceitful interrogation." The solution? Record police interrogations. Assure better defense lawyers for criminal defendants.

Two Pennsylvania institutions--Penn State University and the Catholic Church-- were shown to have severe institutional problems of failing to protect children from sex abuse due to two criminal prosecutions. The guilty verdicts were reached the same night against ex-football coach Jerry Sandusky for sexually abusing multiple victims and against Monsignor William Lynn, the first Catholic Church official in the country to be convicted of a crime related to the sexual abuse of youth who were directly abused by other clergy. Appellete arguments in both cases coincided the same day too. Here's a roundup of coverage of the legal arguments before separate panels in the Pennsylvania Superior Court in both cases:

Sandusky:

Allentown Morning Call- Sandusky lawyer cites delay in victims reporting abuse in reasoning for new trial: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-penn-state-jerry-sandusky-appeal-0...

Harrisburg Patriot-News- Jerry Sandusky gets his day in appeals court: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/09/jerry_sandusky_gets_h...

Scranton Times-Tribune- http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/justices-to-decide-new-sandusky-trial-1...

Lynn:

The Legal Intelligencer- Superior Ct. Hears Arguments In Priest Sex-Abuse Case:

http://www.law.com/jsp/pa/PubArticlePA.jsp?id=1202619567790&Superior_Ct_...

Philadelphia Inquirer-Convicted monsignor's lawyer questions law's application: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20130918_Convicted_priests_la...

Associated Press- Pennsylvania Appeals Court Hears Monsignor Lynn’s Endangerment Case: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/09/17/pennsylvania-appeals-court-h...

One of the most notorious incidents of lawlessness the wake of Hurricane Katrina was the alleged murder of two men on a New Orleans bridge by police officers who arrived with guns blazing and who then allegedly covered up the killings. Now the convictions have been thrown out, in part, because of online comments federal prosecutors made on news articles on the New Orleans Times-Picayune web site, that paper reported. The judge in the case said in a 129-page order, according to the paper, "The government's actions, and initial lack of candor and credibility thereafter, is like scar tissue that will long evidence infidelity to the principles of ethics, professionalism, and basic fairness and common sense necessary to every criminal prosecution, wherever it should occur in this country."

The city of Philadelphia is close to changing its model of providing lawyers to criminal defendants and family-court litigants too poor to afford their own lawyers and for whom the Defender Association of Philadelphia is conflicted out of representing. Currently, individual attorneys take those appointments, but the city is contemplating having one for-profit law firm do the bulk of the work. But The Legal Intelligencer reports one of the main attorneys behind the leading bid to get the work not only has a disciplinary record but made questionable postings on social media, including sharing a posting by another page titled "American White History Month 2," whose avatar reads, "Never Apologize for Being White." The attorney told The Legal that the posting was sent to him by someone else and that he shared it from his iPhone without realizing that it originated on the "American White History Month 2" page or that it was directed at Muslims.