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Criminal Law Tag

Posted by Mike LaChance on December 09, 2017 28 Comments
Back in January, two men and two women in Chicago were arrested after they used Facebook to broadcast images of themselves torturing a mentally disabled man. The defendants were black and their victim was white. The case was classified as a hate crime.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on September 13, 2017 29 Comments
I just developed a profound new respect for our judicial system. The last time we checked on former pharmaceutical titan Martin Shkreli, he had been arrested by the FBI, accused of orchestrating a “trifecta of lies, deceit and greed" related to his hedge fund and pharma business dealings. The move occurred after Shkreli gained notoriety for jacking the prices of life-essential medicines by over 5000% while he was the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals. Shkreli was convicted of defrauding hedge fund investors in last month, and may eventually get a sentence of up to 20 years when sentenced. While awaiting sentencing, he made an usual request of his Facebook followers:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 25, 2017 41 Comments
Progressives and #NeverTrumpers across the nation shriek that President Donald Trump should stop tweeting. In fact, former undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson wants to crowdfund enough money to buy Twitter so she can close President Donald Trump's account. However, someone should really tell California Senator Kamala Harris to take a break from Twitter herself. For instance, her latest legal opinion of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio possibly receiving a pardon from President Trump is a little thin on logic and reason.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 23, 2017 33 Comments
For the second time, a jury refused to convict participants in the Bundy ranch standoff in 2014. Tuesday, not only did a jury find Ricky Lovelien and Steven Stewart not guilty, but they were acquitted of all charges. Scott Drexler and Eric Parker were also found not guilty on most charges. They were accused of threatening and assaulting federal agents in the cattle roundup that turned into a states' rights battle.

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 21, 2017 32 Comments
Yvette Felarca, leader of the Antifa organization BAMN (By Any Means Necessary) has been arrested for inciting a riot. The charge stems from an incident in Sacramento last year.

Posted by Andrew Branca on July 18, 2017 39 Comments
Two years ago tomorrow University of Cincinnati Police Officer Ray Tensing, who is white, shot and killed black motorist Sam DuBose during a traffic stop. The stop, DuBose' attempt to drive away while dragging Officer Tensing down the road, and the fatal shot were largely captured on Tensing's body-cam.  Today, after trying Tensing twice and achieving only two hung juries, Prosecutor Joe Deters announced that he is not seeking to try Tensing a third time, reports WCPO news and other sources.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 20, 2017 25 Comments
When a teenage Muslim girl was killed in Virginia recently, some people speculated that it could be a hate crime due to her religion. It turns out however that the suspect is believed to be an illegal immigrant who was triggered by road rage. The Fairfax County Police Department blog reports:
Road Rage Leads to Murder of Reston Teenager: Evidence in case does not point to hate crime An autopsy this afternoon revealed the body recovered from a pond in Loudoun County is that of a Reston teenager who went missing early Sunday morning. The victim has been identified as Nabra Hassanen, 17, of Reston. The autopsy results show Nabra suffered from blunt force trauma to the upper body after a road rage incident. Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, of Sterling, is charged with her murder.

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 14, 2017 21 Comments
A doctor in the Detroit, Michigan area has been charged with performing female genital mutilation. Her victims were six to eight years old. WXYZ News reported:
Detroit emergency room doctor charged with child genital mutilation A Henry Ford Hospital emergency room doctor has been arrested and charged in connection to performing female genital mutilation on young girls.

Posted by Andrew Branca on April 03, 2017 48 Comments
Back in September 2016 Terence Crutcher — a quite large black man — was shot and killed by white police officer Betty Shelby in Tulsa OK. I covered the case evidence in a prior post, Legal Game Changer: Terence Crutcher had “High Levels” of PCP when shot by OK police. Included in that post is an extensive discussion of the history and legal significance of a suspect not obeying instructions and returning to his vehicle.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 30, 2017 19 Comments
The Democrat Attorney General Xavier Becerra of California has invented a new crime: Performing Undercover Video Journalism While Not a Democrat. Of course, he didn't call it that. Nor did his predecessor, now U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, when she launched an investigation of the undercover video operation to expose alleged fetal body part sales by Planned Parenthood. That investigation resulted in 15 felony charges that were just announced, as we covered the other day, California’s AG Charges Undercover Reporters Who Exposed Planned Parenthood Baby Part Selling.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 18, 2017 26 Comments
In late December 2016, a woman was brutally murdered in Washington State, shot to death with a note from the murderer attached to her body with a knife. Her name was Jill Sundberg.
Jill was born on Aug 4, 1985 in Quincy, WA to Greg and Janet (Zimbelman) Sundberg. Jill lived her entire life in Quincy, graduating from Quincy High School in 2004. After graduation, in addition to raising her family, she worked various jobs in Home Health Care and food services.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 15, 2017 27 Comments
The governments in Florida, Washington, and Alabama have begun to consider passing legislation that will allow it to overrule "certain state court decisions." However, some have concerns over this due to separation of powers. Florida GOP Rep. Julio Gonzalez filed two bills that gives the Florida government or the U.S. Congress the ability "to override or nullify court decisions." House Joint Resolution 121 will add an amendment that allows lawmakers to take that step "by a two-thirds vote of each chamber for up to five years after a decision at any level - county, circuit, appeal or supreme court." His House Memorial 125 aims at "Congress to propose a similar amendment, but to the U.S. Constitution, granting Congress the power to nullify federal court decisions." The Washington bill will also allow its legislators "to vote to 'reject the determination of the court,'" if a court rules an act unconstitutional. In Alabama, two legislators have proposed legislation that will not allow a judge to impose the death penalty if the jury recommends life imprisonment.

Posted by New Neo on January 07, 2017 37 Comments
Despite some initial hesitation by Chicago authorities to call the torture of a mentally disabled white man by four young black people a hate crime, they were charged with committing one, according to the Cook County State's Attorney's office. Additional charges were: "aggravated kidnapping, aggravated unlawful restraint, [and] aggravated battery...[one was also charged with] robbery and possession of a stolen motor vehicle...[and three] also were charged with residential burglary." Many of the details of what happened to the victim can be found in this post by Professor Jacobson. This would appear to have many of the elements of the type of offense known as a hate crime, obligingly documented and disseminated by the alleged perpetrators themselves.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 02, 2017 14 Comments
That strict gun control in Chicago has obviously worked. America's third largest city had 762 homicides in 2016, the most in two decades and more than New York and Los Angeles combined. It also saw 3,500 shooting incidents, which is 1,100 more than it had in 2015. From WGN:
According to the Chicago Police Department, there were 762 murders in the city in 2016 and 3,550 shooting incidents with 4,331 shooting victims. A department spokesman says more than 80% of the fatal and non-fatal shooting victims were previously identified by police as being likely to be involved in an act of gun violence, either as a victim or an offender. Most of the murders occurred on the city's South and West Sides.

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 27, 2016 7 Comments
Donald Trump earned tremendous support from the law enforcement community by promising to stand up for its members. They need an advocate like Trump in the White House. Recent reports indicate that the number of police deaths has risen significantly since 2015. FOX News reported:
60 law enforcement officers fatally shot this year, 20 in ambushes, report says A total of 60 law enforcement officers have died in firearms-related incidents in 2016, marking a 67 percent increase since 2015, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reported.
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