CrimProf Blog

'Ionia' Challenge to Corporate Criminal Liability

Mark Twain once reportedly observed that "everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it." The same could be said of corporate criminal liability.

In recent years, the corporate defense bar has frequently complained about the low threshold for vicarious corporate criminal liability and the resulting imbalance of power between the government and companies under investigation. However, since potential corporate criminal defendants typically resolve such investigations without a trial, opportunities to challenge the broad scope of corporate criminal liability are rare.

But in a case now pending before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, United States v. Ionia Management SA, the defendant corporation, as well as a diverse group of business and legal organizations acting as amici curiae, are asking the court to re-examine what had previously been accepted as black-letter law regarding when a corporation may properly be held vicariously liable for the acts of its employees.

While the defense bar has successfully battled some of the U.S. Justice Department's specific tactics in corporate criminal investigations (such as pressuring companies to waive attorney-client privilege or deny payment of employees' legal fees), this is the first significant direct challenge in recent years to the long-standing doctrine of corporate criminal liability. Their arguments, if accepted by the court, could have far-reaching consequences for the balance of power between the government and the targets of corporate criminal investigations.

For nearly a century, it has been accepted as well-settled law that a corporation may be held vicariously liable for the criminal conduct of its employees, where they were acting within the scope of their employment and with the intent to benefit the company, even if they were acting in violation of established corporate policy prohibiting their illegal conduct. Moreover, there is no limitation on the level of employees whose wrongful actions may be imputed to the corporation, so the conduct of even a single, low-level employee could trigger vicarious corporate liability. [Mark Godsey]

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From Justice Stevens, No Exit Signs

For all the speculation about how President-elect Barack Obama's nominees may change the Supreme Court, there is one irrefutable fact: He can't make an appointment until there is a vacancy.

Eighty-eight-year-old Justice John Paul Stevens, the court's longest-serving member, is considered most likely to provide that opening. But in a question-and-answer session Monday at an event sponsored by the University of Florida's Fredric G. Levin College of Law, Stevens gave no indication that he is ready to retire to his part-time home in Fort Lauderdale.

Reminded that the court now takes and issues full opinions in half as many cases as when Stevens was appointed to the court in 1975, the justice said he does not consider the workload a burden.

"From my own personal point of view, it's definitely a positive," Stevens said to laughter. "And I have to say I think we were taking too many cases when I joined the court."

He added: "It's still a full-time job; I wouldn't want to say otherwise. But if we had the same kind of workload today that we had then, I would have resigned 10 years ago." [Mark Godsey]

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APD Among Texas Police Agencies With Poor Eyewitness ID Procedures

The Austin Police Department "meets the minimum legal requirements" for the administration of live and photo lineups of criminal suspects, but "does little to ensure that its lineup procedures provide the best evidence possible in any given case," according to a new report released this morning by the non-profit The Justice Project.

The group contacted more than 1,000 police departments across Texas requesting policies and procedures for photo and live lineup procedures; 750 departments responded, but just 88 had any written protocols for the administration of lineups – and among that group, TJP found that the policies and procedures provided are "largely inadequate" and are "inconsistent across departments." (More than 600 departments – including the Travis Co. Sheriff's Office – returned a form affirming that they have no written policies governing lineup procedures. Another 284 departments failed to respond to TJP's requests, as required by Texas' public information law. The group has sent those agencies a second open records request and has contacted the Texas Attorney General's Open Records Division.) [Mark Godsey]

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Experts: Interrogation of boy, 8, 'out of bounds'

The third-grader's legs dangle at times from an overstuffed chair as he answers the questions of two female police officers. His manner and voice are casual, even helpful, but his words are shocking.

And so, legal analysts say, were the methods police used to obtain them.

By the time the boy was finished talking, say police in St. Johns, Arizona, he'd confessed to a premeditated double murder.

The 8-year-old is charged in juvenile court with killing his father, Vincent Romero, 29, along with Tim Romans, 39, a man who rented a room in Romero's home. Police have said the boy confessed to shooting the men. He has not entered a plea.

He will be allowed to leave a juvenile jail for 48 hours to spend Thanksgiving with his mother, a judge ruled Wednesday.

The furlough will start at noon November 26 and end at noon on November 28, Apache County court administrator Betty Smith told CNN.

Legal analysts who spoke with CNN were united in their opinion that the police questioning was improper and that any incriminating statements the boy made shouldn't stand up in court.

A review of the tapes shows that the boy's demeanor was more suitable for a session of show-and-tell than for a soul-baring confession as he describes the carnage he saw inside his home. He does not appear to be depressed, scared or sorrowful.  Watch police interrogate the boy » [Mark Godsey]

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Borderless Drug Wars

The drug violence that has left nearly 4,000 people dead this year in Mexico is spreading deep into the United States, leaving a trail of slayings, kidnappings and other crimes in at least 195 cities as far afield as Atlanta, Boston, Seattle and Honolulu, according to federal authorities.

The involvement of the top four Mexican drug-trafficking organizations in distribution and money-laundering on U.S. soil has brought a war once dismissed as a foreign affair to the doorstep of local communities.

Residents of the quiet Beaver Hills subdivision in Lilburn, Ga., an Atlanta suburb, awoke to the trans-border crime wave in July, when a brigade of well-armored federal and state police officers surrounded a two-story colonial home at 755 East Fork Shady Drive, ordered neighbors to lock their doors and flushed out three men described as members of a Mexican drug cartel. One was captured after he tried to slip down a storm drain. Another was caught in the ivy in Pete Bogerd’s backyard. He lives two doors up and is president of the neighborhood association.

“It blew us away,” Bogerd said. “I didn’t know we had that many cops.”

A short while later, police hauled out a 31-year-old from the Dominican Republic who for nearly a week had been chained and tortured inside the basement, allegedly for not paying a $300,000 drug debt. [Mark Godsey]

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Hearing Slated for Boy Charged with Fatally Shooting Dad

A court hearing is scheduled Wednesday afternoon for an 8-year-old boy accused of shooting his father and another man in rural Arizona.

A dramatic police videotape released Tuesday shows a tearful boy in St. Johns, Ariz., confessing to murder, then burying his face in his shirt after more than an hour of questioning by detectives.

"I think, um, I think I shot my dad because he was suffering, I think," the third-grader says on the tape. "So I may have shot him."

At one point, the boy told authorities he had been mad at his father. He said he was supposed to bring home some papers from school earlier in the week and got spanked by his stepmother at his father's request because he didn't.

The boy faces two counts of premeditated murder in the deaths of his father, 29-year-old Vincent Romero, and 39-year-old Timothy Romans, a work colleague who was renting a room in the family's two-story home in St. Johns. [Mark Godsey]

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Why Is Cuban Facing a Fine When Martha Faced the Slammer?

With Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban facing civil insider-trading charges (PDF) from the SEC, we got to wondering what it takes for securities fraud to become a crime.

The short answer: It depends on the prosecutor.

The SEC does not have authority to bring criminal charges -- it can only refer allegations to law enforcement. Then prosecutors decide whether to pursue a criminal case.

Prosecutors can be swayed by how egregious the allegations are or how much money is involved.

And they are more likely to target people who should have known they were breaking the law. People like Martha Stewart: a former stock broker, director of the New York Stock Exchange and one-time resident of the Alderson Federal Prison Camp for women. (In Stewart's 2004 insider-trading criminal case, a judge dismissed securities-fraud charges against her, but a jury convicted her of obstruction of justice.)

Because of its high-profile status, Stewart's case is precisely the type that the SEC refers for criminal prosecution. "The SEC pushes criminal penalties if they think it'll get attention" and serve as a deterrent to others, Robert Brunig, the former head of the SEC's Forth Worth trial unit told us.

According to this year's SEC Enforcement Manual (PDF), officials also consider whether a criminal case will "provide additional meaningful protection to investors."

Occasionally, the SEC's civil case will be the stepping stone to a criminal one. While testifying at trial a civil defendant might further implicate himself, allowing the SEC to "turn him over on a silver platter to prosecutors," Brunig said. [Mark Godsey]

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An Electronic Witness

When Jason Jones was arrested in a fatal shooting in the Bronx in May, he told the police that he had been nowhere near the scene. He said he had left work, ridden the bus with some co-workers and cashed his paycheck, and later had taken a subway to see his girlfriend.

Federal prosecutors charged Mr. Jones and his older brother, Corey, in the shooting, saying they had killed the victim because he had been a government witness in drug and gun cases. Both men could face the death penalty if the government decides to seek it.

But in recent weeks, the case has taken an extraordinary turn — because of Jason Jones’s MetroCard.

Months after the arrests, a retired detective working for Mr. Jones’s lawyers drove to a city jail located on a barge moored in the East River in the South Bronx, where Mr. Jones had been held after his arrest, and retrieved his wallet. The MetroCard was still inside.

Mr. Jones’s lawyers then asked New York City Transit to use the card to trace his movements the night of the shooting. The results supported his account, showing that the card had been used on a bus, and later on a subway roughly five miles from the shooting, just as he had described.

With that, and a photograph snapped of Mr. Jones, 26, as he cashed his paycheck, his lawyers argued that it was impossible for him to have committed the crime. Both brothers have been released on bond for now, an unusual step in a federal murder case, while prosecutors say they are continuing to investigate.

Mr. Jones’s turn of fortune might not have been possible before the modern era, where the plastic MetroCards, along with E-ZPass and surveillance cameras, have become ubiquitous.

Critics have said that the devices, for all their convenience, have ushered in an era of Big Brother, but they have nonetheless become useful in legal proceedings, whether to prove or undermine an alibi, find a missing person or even track a cheating spouse.

Read full article here. [Brooks Holland]

New Immigration Regulation Eased After Firms Complain

In a concession to business groups, the Homeland Security Department will significantly scale back its planned crackdown this winter on federal contractors that hire illegal immigrants.

Under a rule published yesterday, the agency said only contractors that do more than $100,000 in federal work will be required to use an electronic government system to check the work documents of new hires. Originally, officials had proposed that companies doing $3,000 in federal work must comply.

The agency also said it would require federal contractors to check only laborers used on specific contracts, instead of their entire workforce.

The revisions significantly reduce the number of companies that will be subject to the program, which will apply to federal contracts and solicitations issued after Jan. 15. The Bush administration had hoped to make the work eligibility system, called E-Verify, mandatory for nearly 200,000 government contractors, covering about 4 million U.S. workers over 10 years.

The government did not say how many companies would be exempted, but stated that it awarded 2.8 million new contracts last year at or below the $100,000 threshold. The contracts, mostly set-asides for small businesses, were worth $9 billion, or less than 3 percent of federal obligations.

In any case, the program will usher in a new degree of employee scrutiny in a wide swath of corporate America that does federal business, including industrial giants with household names such as General Electric, Lockheed-Martin and Boeing, as well as Beltway mainstays such as computer services firms CACI, ManTech International and SRA International. [Mark Godsey]

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Charlotte's DNA backlog slows effort to solve crimes

Evidence with the potential to solve or provide leads on hundreds of burglary and robbery cases awaits DNA testing as Charlotte-Mecklenburg police grapple with a backlog.

Testing is still a top priority for murder, rape and habitual offender cases. And police do have a plan to clear the backlog, but it may take until late next year.

Charlotte police blame a staffing shortage for the problem.

Crime scene evidence in 138 robbery and 443 burglary investigations was awaiting DNA analysis as of Oct. 10, the latest police data available.

Last year, DNA testing led investigators to suspects or new leads in 58 percent of burglary cases and in 18 percent of the robberies that had biological evidence.

In late 2006, two of the four DNA analysts left for personal reasons and the department began an immediate search. But a shortage of analysts around the country slowed the hiring. At a minimum, it takes three to four months to train a new DNA analyst, but the process can stretch up to a year, depending on experience.

Around the time the analysts left, residential burglaries increased and robberies occurred in traditionally low-crime neighborhoods.

Police Deputy Chief Kerr Putney, speaking on the DNA issue, said the lab is in transition: By next year the staff of analysts should grow to six, and the 12-month backlog should start clearing.

Charlotte City Councilman Edwin Peacock III, who serves on the public safety committee, said the backlog is “very problematic” because prompt testing would help solve the crimes, but also help capture some violent criminals in the process.

That's because some property crime offenders also have committed violent crimes, he said. “We have people who are the rapists and murderers who are in that pile (of untested evidence),” said Peacock, who campaigned last year on using innovative approaches to battle crime. [Mark Godsey]

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TSA's 'behavior detection' leads to few arrests

Fewer than 1% of airline passengers singled out at airports for suspicious behavior are arrested, Transportation Security Administration figures show, raising complaints that too many innocent people are stopped.

A TSA program launched in early 2006 that looks for terrorists using a controversial surveillance method has led to more than 160,000 people in airports receiving scrutiny, such as a pat-down search or a brief interview. That has resulted in 1,266 arrests, often on charges of carrying drugs or fake IDs, the TSA said.

The TSA program trains screeners to become "behavior detection officers" who patrol terminals and checkpoints looking for travelers who act oddly or appear to answer questions suspiciously.

Critics say the number of arrests is small and indicates the program is flawed.

"That's an awful lot of people being pulled aside and inconvenienced," said Carnegie Mellon scientist Stephen Fienberg, who studied the TSA program and other counterterrorism efforts. "I think it's a sham. We have no evidence it works."

TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe said the program has been "incredibly effective" at catching criminals at airports. "It definitely gets at things that other layers of security might miss," Howe said.

In many cases, the extra scrutiny is a casual conversation with a TSA behavior officer that shows someone is innocent, Howe said. Studies are underway that analyze the program's effectiveness, she added.

The program has grown from 43 major airports last year to more than 150 airports, including some with just 20 flights a day. The number of behavior officers will jump from 2,470 to 3,400 by October.

The TSA has not publicly said if it has caught a terrorist through the program. The agency says that some who are arrested, particularly on fake ID charges, may be scouting an airport for a possible attack. [Mark Godsey]

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When a Gun Isn't a Gun?

U.S. attorneys had a conundrum on their hands -- they had the evidence to prove a convicted felon was in possession of a gun, but they couldn’t prove the gun was a gun.

What attorney’s had on their hands was an American double-action revolver that was manufactured between 1880 and 1941.

The problem is that federal code states that the weapon is not a firearm unless it was manufactured after 1896. Without a definitive production date, the gun was inadmissible as evidence.

At the time, the attorneys were trying to charge Lawrence Ray Cook with possession of the weapon.

Omaha police picked up Cook last September after a hit-and-run crash. U.S. attorney Joe Stecher said that Cook left the scene but he flagged down officers later to tell them he caused the crash.

“His testimony was that he swerved to miss two pedestrians and he hit another car. And as he was driving away they threw the revolver in the back of his car through the open window,” Stecher said.

The attorney said that Cook couldn't explain how the revolver got into his pocket.

However, it didn't matter because couldn't prove what Cook had was a gun.

But they proved something else instead.

“Two rounds of live ammunition and an empty casing gave us the ability to prosecute for felony in possession of ammunition,” Stecher said.

Read full article here. [Brooks Holland]

Ninth Circuit Holds CA Child Abuse Index Violates Due Process

California's Child Abuse Central Index, a database of known or suspected child abusers, violates procedural due process in failing to give listed persons a fair opportunity to challenge the allegations against them and obtain delisting, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held Nov. 5 (Humphries v. Los Angeles County, 9th Cir., No. 05-56467, 11/5/08).

Being listed on the CACI is stigmatizing in itself, and it also makes access to certain licenses, jobs, and benefits less likely, Judge Jay S. Bybee said. But the state spells out no procedure for getting delisted. Bybee thus concluded that the innocent plaintiffs' being listed on CACI resulted in the “stigma-plus” needed under Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693 (1976), for their reputational injury to be actionable under the 14th Amendment's due process clause.

The court followed Valmonte v. Bane, 18 F.3d 992 (2d Cir. 1994), interpreting a similar New York statute, but rejected Smith v. Siegelman, 322 F.3d 1290 (11th Cir. 2003), involving a variant Alabama law, “[t]o the extent that the Eleventh Circuit refuses to recognize a liberty interest [under the due process clause] where the state functionally requires agencies to consult a stigmatizing list prior to conferring a government benefit.”

Under California's Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, Cal. Penal Code §§ 11164–11174, and implementing regulations, law enforcement and child welfare agencies are required to investigate reports of child abuse or neglect and determine whether the incident is “substantiated, inconclusive, or unfounded.” The incident must be reported to the California Department of Justice and included in the CACI unless it is determined by the investigator to be “unfounded,” that is, “false,” “inherently improbable,” an accidental injury, or not constituting child abuse or neglect.

CACI data is made available to state and local agencies and persons involved in licensing or making background inquiries regarding child care providers, peace officers, adopting parents, or foster parents. It is also made available for use in out-of-state background checks in foster or adoptive parent cases. Certain in-state agencies are required by statute to check the CACI before granting child care-related licenses.
An agency forwarding an incident for listing on the CACI must notify the listee. But the statute provides no procedure for challenging a listing, and, while indicating that the state DOJ shall not retain a report “which subsequently proves to be unfounded,” it does not specify who makes that determination, although the court surmised that it is the submitting agency.

Daughter Reports Abuse.

In this case, the plaintiffs' 15-year-old daughter reported that they had abused her for several months. Based on an emergency room examination and a police report from Utah (where the child had driven herself to be with her biological mother), a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department detective obtained warrants and arrested and booked the plaintiffs for cruelty to a child and torture. The couple's other two children were placed in foster care. The detective identified the case as a “substantiated report” of child abuse, and their names were listed on CACI.

The criminal case against the couple was dismissed, however, after the prosecutor learned that a doctor had surgically removed a melanoma from the daughter's shoulder and had fully examined her during the alleged period of abuse, but had found no signs of it. The couple was found “factually innocent” of the torture charge.

But when they asked the Sheriff's Department to remove their names from CACI, a sergeant told them that the fact that charges were filed “would indicate to us that some sort of crime did occur,” and the dismissal of the case “would not negate the entries” into CACI. The couple then filed this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 suit, alleging in part that their initial and continued inclusion in CACI violated procedural due process, and seeking damages and injunctive relief against the county and individual officials. The defendants won summary judgment.
Stigma-Plus Test.

Reversing, the Ninth Circuit said that its procedural due process inquiry has two steps. It first asks whether a liberty or property interest exists with which the state has interfered. It then examines whether the procedures used to deprive any such interest were sufficient.

Read full article here. [Brooks Holland]

Tenth Circuit's Construction Narrows Federal Sex Offender Registry Law

The provision of the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act that makes it a crime to travel interstate and fail to register as a sex offender does not apply to someone whose travel was complete before the law went into effect, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held Nov. 5 (United States v. Husted, 10th Cir., No. 08-6010, 11/5/08).

Congress's use of the present tense “travels” in 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a)(2)(B) plainly indicates that it meant to reach only those who moved between states following the statute's enactment, the court decided.

The statute provides that a person who is a convicted sex offender and “travels in interstate or foreign commerce … and knowingly fails to register” at his destination as required by the act is subject to imprisonment for up to 10 years.

The defendant in this case was convicted of sexually abusing a child in Illinois in 1993. He subsequently moved to Oklahoma and later to Missouri at some point prior to July 27, 2006, the effective date of SORNA. In 2007, a federal grand jury indicted him for traveling interstate and failing to register as a sex offender in Missouri.

The defendant challenged his indictment on the ground that SORNA does not apply to a person whose interstate travel took place before the effective date of the act. The government took the position that the term “travels” applies to anyone who traveled in interstate commerce after having been convicted of a qualifying sex offense. The trial court rejected the defendant's argument but, apparently concerned about ex post facto problems, amended the indictment to reflect that the offense commenced on the date SORNA went into effect.

The defendant pleaded guilty but reserved the right to appeal the denial of his motion to dismiss. The Tenth Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Carlos F. Lucero, reversed.

‘Travels' Is Forward-Looking.

Focusing on the text of the statute, the court concluded that “Congress's use of the present tense form of the verb ‘to travel' indicates that SORNA's coverage is limited to those individuals who travel in interstate commerce after the Act's effective date.” Noting that 1 U.S.C. §1 instructs courts that “words used in the present tense include the future as well as the present” unless a statute's context suggests otherwise, it said, “The Act uses the present tense (‘travels'), which according to ordinary English grammar, does not refer to travel that has already occurred. Had Congress used the past tense (‘traveled') or the present perfect tense (‘has traveled'), then this might be a different case. Here, however, we find no ambiguity in Congress's use of the word ‘travels.'”

Congress also used the present tense in SORNA when referring to entering, leaving, or residing in Indian country, the court said, which makes clear that the use of the present tense “travels” was not a mistake.
The court found support for its holding in the Ninth Circuit's interpretation of the term “travels” as used in the federal statute that makes it a crime to travel in foreign commerce to engage in illegal sex, 18 U.S.C. § 2423(c). In United States v. Jackson, 480 F.3d 1014 (9th Cir. 2007), the court held that Section 2423(c) applies only to travel taking place after the statute's enactment, explaining that “one would not refer in the present tense to something that had already happened.”

Similarly, the Tenth Circuit found the language of Section 2250 unambiguous and held that “Congress's use of the present tense indicates that it was targeting prospective travel.”

The government argued that Congress meant to close a loophole in state registries for sex offenders, and that the failure to sweep up offenders who moved to another state before the law took effect would lead to an absurd result. However, the court responded that the absurdity doctrine applies to unambiguous statutes, such as Section 2250, “in only the most extreme of circumstances.” It explained that “the relevant portion of SORNA is unambiguous, and we cannot say that Congress's choice to regulate only those sex offenders who travel interstate after SORNA's enactment shocks the general moral or common sense.” In fact, the court said, “prospective legislation is typical of the legislative task, and Congress may well have wished to avoid the very ex post facto concern [the defendant] raises before this court.”

The court also rejected an argument that the broad statement of purpose in the preamble to the act under which SORNA falls should be read to trump the specific provision under which the defendant was charged. To do so, it said, “would contravene the axiom that a specific provision controls over a general one.”

Read full article here. [Brooks Holland]

LAPD's Fingerprint Lab Isn't Up to the Task

Late on the morning of April 14, 2006, a troubling letter rolled off the fax machine in the harried, disordered fingerprint unit of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Months before, one of the unit's print specialists had determined that several prints lifted from a cellphone store where a burglary had occurred belonged to Maria Maldonado, a 25-year-old hospital technician. Two others in the unit had signed off on the work. The match had given authorities the evidence they needed to arrest the woman and charge her with the crime. When the case went before a judge, however, a renowned fingerprint expert testified that the police had made a mistake.

The district attorney's office sent the fax demanding answers.

The analysts stood by their work, but days later the file containing the suspected burglar's prints mysteriously disappeared from the unlocked drawer where it was kept. Working from copies of the prints, others in the unit and outside consultants later concluded that Maldonado had, in fact, been wrongly accused, and the charges were dropped.

The case offers a stark profile of a high-stakes operation that for years has been marred by inadequate training, antiquated facilities, poor supervision, careless handling of evidence and other shortfalls, according to internal police records and interviews.

"We were trying to hold on by the skin of our teeth to make sure things were done right," said Diana Castro, the latent print unit supervisor who retired early last year. "Were we perfect? No. Did we do everything right? No. We did what we could to keep the cases flowing -- to assist the detectives and the community." [Mark Godsey]

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Attorney General's Report Details Human Trafficking in Texas

Texas has become a major hub for human trafficking, state officials said Monday while proposing a more aggressive response to what a senior lawmaker described as "modern-day slavery."

Nearly 20 percent of human-trafficking victims found nationwide have been in Texas, according to a report released by Attorney General Greg Abbott. The 57-page report, mandated by the Legislature in 2007, also identifies Interstate 10 as a major route through Texas for human-trafficking rings.

Abbott released the report at a news conference with Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, who introduced legislation to combat the problem.

"These human traffickers are like cockroaches," she said.

Her bill, prepared for the 81st Legislature, which convenes in January, would create a task force in the attorney general’s office, start training programs for local law enforcement and implement an awareness campaign for communities. It would also improve programs for assisting victims.

Abbott, Van de Putte and others said human trafficking has grown into one of the nation’s top criminal enterprises. Abbott’s report, compiled from federal data, news reports and other research, said traffickers often lure victims into phony moneymaking opportunities, then hold them in slaverylike conditions.

Many are women and children forced into "despicable sex acts," Abbott said. An estimated 14,500 to 17,000 victims are brought into the U.S. from Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, but an increasing number are U.S. citizens. [Mark Godsey]

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An upcoming local Michigan talk "Bad to the Bone: Horrors!--Can Our Genes Help Make Us Act Badly?"

Talk located at at Schuler Books, 2820 Towne Centre Blvd Lansing, MI 48912, Tuesday, November 18, 7:30 PM.  More information about the bok the lecture is based on is below. 

Praise for the tongue-in-cheek titled, best-selling, meticulously researched book the lecture is based on: Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend, by Barbara Oakley, Prometheus Books, October, 2007.

"A fascinating scientific and personal exploration of the roots of evil, filled with human insight and telling detail."
-Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor, Harvard University, and author of The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, and The Stuff of Thought

"A highly-readable, entertaining, ground-breaking, must-read study with notable insights on the rise and fall of empires; but more importantly, it offers, perhaps for the first time, a distinctly plausible mechanism for explaining the origin and persistence of social inequality."
-Glenn Storey, President, Archeological Institute of America, Iowa Society, Associate Professor of Classics and Anthropology, University of Iowa, and author of Urbanism in the Preindustrial World: Cross-Cultural Approaches

"Remarkable -- and difficult to put down ... a wonderfully readable tapestry of family autobiography, historical biography, and biological psychology. Without oversimplifying their psychosocial complexity, Evil Genes explores new research on the genetics and neurobiology of personality disorders. Shining this light on some of the most problematic figures of our era, it challenges our assumptions about the roots of terrorism, genocide, crime, corruption--and even the sinister sides of politics, business, and religion."
-Terrence W Deacon, Professor of Biological Anthropology and Neuroscience, University of California, Berkeley, and author of The Symbolic Species

"Einstein once said that all important new science would be found at the interstices of existing disciplines; if you need proof of that, this book is it. Starting with a background in the military, linguistics and electrical engineering, Oakley deftly moves through psychology, functional brain imagery and molecular biology to weave a compelling and provocative case for a genetic base for evil. 'Scientific non-fiction' and 'page turner' aren't two phrases I'd expect in the same sentence, but for the remarkable Evil Genes, they fit."
-William A. Wulf, President Emeritus, National Academy of Engineering. [Barbara Oakley, Ph.D., P.E] [Mark Godsey]

Related Talk  Available on Book TV at http://www.booktv.org/program.aspx?ProgramId=9618&SectionName=&PlayMedia=Yes.)

Craigslist Increasingly Used to Sell Drugs

Drug dealing on craigslist has become so rampant that the city's special narcotics prosecutor has asked the online trading post to curb the ads, the Daily News has learned.

Bridget Brennan's undercover investigators have bought drugs offered on craigslist personals from dealers ranging from a Citigroup banker to an Ivy Leaguer to a violent felon using a halfway house computer. In the past four years, her office has prosecuted dozens of dealers.

"Ski lift tickets are here for sale ... Tina Turner tickets ... best seats around!" Offers like these appear virtually every day on craigslist, and they are thinly veiled ads posted by people hawking cocaine (ski) or crystal meth (cristina or tina).

"Despite devoting considerable resources to prosecuting these cases, drug dealing is still thriving on craigslist," Brennan wrote craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster. Brennan said she was inspired to act by a recent agreement between craigslist and attorneys general from 40 states to curb prostitution ads.

"It's like shooting fish in a barrel," Brennan said of how easy it is to find dealers on craigslist.

One undercover said he just types "ski" in the search field and up pops ad after ad with offers.

"We respond to the ad, but it must lead to a meeting where the drug is exchanged for money, like any regular drug deal," the investigator said.

Ten days ago, craigslist unveiled sweeping new measures, in partnership with law enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, to stop its ads from being used for prostitution, child exploitation and other illegal activities.

Craigslist will require "erotic services" providers to pay $10 for each listing and pay with a credit card, which the police will be able to subpoena.

Brennan says the idea could be applied to drug ads.

"I would like members of my staff who have an expertise in prosecuting Internet drug sales to meet with you and explore ways to curb drug dealing on your Web site," her letter says.

In an interview, Brennan said the best course is "to work with them to screen out sellers. They would have to focus on commonly used terms and develop screening mechanisms.

Read full article here. [Brooks Holland]

Editorial: DNA Testing Beyond a shadow of a doubt

It's hard to believe that someone would plead guilty to a crime he didn't commit.

But it happens, more often than anyone likes to admit.

More than 200 people have been exonerated in recent years thanks to advances in DNA testing. In about 25 percent of those cases, the wrongfully convicted person either pleaded guilty, confessed to the crime, or made self-incriminating statements.

A variety of factors can contribute to an innocent person's confessing to a crime he didn't commit, including coercion, duress, fear of violence, limited mental capacity, ignorance of the law, actual harm, and the threat of a long sentence or the death penalty if you don't cooperate.

Such a case is now before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, involving a Philadelphia man convicted of a brutal rape and murder in 1993. He alleges he was pressured by police to confess to the crimes.

Anthony Wright contends he didn't rape and murder a 77-year-old woman in her Nicetown home, and he has requested DNA testing of the evidence. But Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham has opposed the DNA test, arguing that there is no need because Wright confessed.

Wright's attorneys filed an appeal last month to the state Supreme Court, which has yet to rule.

The best and only way to resolve the dispute is to proceed with the DNA test.

Isn't the goal justice?

Wright may very well be guilty. But Abraham's refusal to conduct the DNA test only raises suspicion and undercuts the D.A.'s argument that the right person is behind bars.

Wright was convicted in 1993 of rape, murder and burglary of Louise Talley, a widow who lived near him. Wright was sentenced to life in prison for the crimes, which occurred in September 1991, when he was 20 years old.

Wright's conviction was based largely on his signed confession and the testimony of two witnesses - one of whom police initially considered a suspect. [Mark Godsey]

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Sobreity Checkpoints: Some See Big Problem in Wisconsin Drinking

When a 15-year-old comes into Wile-e’s bar looking for a cold beer, the bartender, Mike Whaley, is happy to serve it up — as long as a parent is there to give permission.\

“If they’re 15, 16, 17, it’s fine if they want to sit down and have a few beers,” said Mr. Whaley, who owns the tavern in this small town in southern Wisconsin.

While it might raise some eyebrows in most of America, it is perfectly legal in Wisconsin. Minors can drink alcohol in a bar or restaurant in Wisconsin if they are accompanied by a parent or legal guardian who gives consent. While there is no state law setting a minimum age, bartenders can use their discretion in deciding whom to serve.

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When it comes to drinking, it seems, no state keeps pace with Wisconsin. This state, long famous for its breweries, has led the nation in binge drinking in every year since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began its surveys on the problem more than a decade ago. Binge drinking is defined as five drinks in a sitting for a man, four for a woman.

People in Wisconsin are more likely than anywhere else to drive drunk, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The state has among the highest incidence of drunken driving deaths in the United States.

Now some Wisconsin health officials and civic leaders are calling for the state to sober up. A coalition called All-Wisconsin Alcohol Risk Education started a campaign last week to push for tougher drunken driving laws, an increase in screening for alcohol abuse at health clinics and a greater awareness of drinking problems generally.

The group, led by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, criticized the state as having lenient alcohol laws and assailed a mindset that accepts, even celebrates, getting drunk.

“Our goal is to dramatically change the laws, culture and behaviors in Wisconsin,” said Dr. Robert N. Golden, the dean of the medical school, calling the state “an island of excessive consumption.” He said state agencies would use a $12.6 million federal grant to step up screening, intervention and referral services at 20 locations around Wisconsin.

The campaign comes after a series in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel titled “Wasted in Wisconsin,” which chronicled the prodigious imbibing among residents of the state, as well as the state’s reluctance to crack down on alcohol abuse.

Drunken drivers in Wisconsin are not charged with a felony until they have been arrested a fifth time. Wisconsin law prohibits sobriety checks by the police, a common practice in other states.

“People are dying,” the newspaper exclaimed in an editorial, “and alcohol is the cause.”

Wisconsin has long been famous for making and drinking beer. Going back to the 1800s, almost every town in the state had its own brewery. Milwaukee was the home of Miller, Pabst and Schlitz. Now Miller is the only big brewery in the city. [Mark Godsey]

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