Monthly Archives: August 2017
One Stay of Execution Issued Highlights a System Rampant With Problems
On August 22nd, Gov. Eric Greitens granted a stay of execution for Marcellus Williams, who was convicted 16 years ago for the 1998 murder of former reporter Felicia Gayle. The governor also ordered a board of inquiry to look into the case because of a series of issues found embedded in the original conviction…. Read More »
Reform of New York Criminal Justice Laws Sought
New York defense attorneys and the New York State Bar Association are currently calling on the legislature to overturn the state’s “Blindfold Law,” which allows important evidence—such as witness statements and/or police reports—to be kept from the defense until right before trial (i.e. the day the trial begins). Senator Avella recently announced that he… Read More »
Defendant in Notorious Hudson River Drowning Case Pleads Guilty To Negligent Homicide
On July 24, the accused defendant in the kayak death on the Hudson which captured headlines pled guilty to criminally negligent homicide. The defendant—Angelika Graswald—was accused of tampering with her fiancé’s kayak and purposely leaving him to drown in the Hudson River. Graswald pled guilty to criminally negligent homicide and will now spend between… Read More »
When Protesting Turns into a Crime
The rally in Charlottesville has captured national headlines recently, particularly because it ended with three people killed and some 34 injured. Americans have long-enjoyed free speech rights and the right to assemble. But when does it turn into something more; i.e. something that could be construed as hate crime, or other, even more violent… Read More »
New York Investigating New Device To Crack Down On Cellphone Violations, But Is It Constitutional?
According to the Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research, almost 3,000 people were injured in cellphone-related crashes in New York between 2011 and 2015, with more than one million tickets issued for cellphone violations in that same time period. On July 26th, New York State announced that it would set in motion a… Read More »
Is The Department Of Justice Seeking To Prosecute Everyone Who Is Anti-Trump For Criminal Activity?
The Department of Justice is currently seeking 1.3 million IP addresses that accessed a website advertising inauguration day protests, i.e. the website of “Disrupt J20,” which hosted information concerning organized protests on President Trump’s inauguration in Washington, D.C. earlier this year. The justification for the search? That some of the protests turned violent, and… Read More »
Where Does The Responsibility For A Wrongful Conviction Lie?
It would likely be a surprise to most that, according to The New York Times, just in the last three years, Brooklyn’s Conviction Review Unit has asked judges to free 23 defendants who, it stated, were in prison when they shouldn’t have been. And just think: this is only one of many units in… Read More »
Inherent Flaws in Criminal Justice System Bleed Into Deportation Policies
The United States continues to mire itself in a complicated web overlapping immigration decisions with those of criminal justice—a criminal justice system that is “infected with racial bias”—ultimately promoting deportation policies based on criminal activity which effectively result in discriminatory policing. While Senators Richard Durbin and Lindsey Graham introduced a revamped version of the… Read More »
Cases Dismissed After Video of Police Planting Evidence Found
Over a hundred criminal cases involving drug-related felonies and weapons possession—cases which relied on testimony from three officers found planting evidence—are currently under review due to suspected planted evidence by police officers. The video exposing the officers’ behavior—evidently taken in January and released in July—shows an officer placing a bag of white capsules in… Read More »
Federal Bill to Legalize Marijuana Introduced
On August 1st, Senator Cory Booker introduced legislation—the Marijuana Justice Act—to legalize cannabis at the federal level. The bill removes cannabis from the list of drugs covered by the Controlled Substances Act, automatically expunges marijuana use and possession, incentivizes states to change their own laws if they’ve had a disproportionate effect on low-income, African-American… Read More »
