CrimProf Blog

Punk Out for Public Interest

Tennessee director of clinical programs Ben Barton raised $200 for summer public interest fellowships by auctioning off the right to shave his head into a mohawk.   Yikes, makes my karaoke offer seem like chicken-shit now (although it usually raises a couple hundred).

Profs Shave Heads For Public Interest Law

Some law profs at Western New England shaved their heads at school to raise money for students working in public interest jobs this summer.   Photos here.  [Mark Godsey]

Man Gets 15 Years for Threat Letters

From washingtonpost.com: For two decades, Scott L. Rendelman has sent letters threatening judges, prosecutors, presidents and others with graphic violence. Yesterday, as he was sentenced in federal court in Greenbelt, Rendelman told U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus that he'd stop -- as long as Titus gave him probation instead of prison time.

Titus was not persuaded.

"You simply cannot do this to a judge and a prosecutor, much less the president of the United States," and expect probation, Titus said.

With that, Titus sentenced Rendelman to 15 years in federal prison. Not only did Titus reject Rendelman's offer, he added nearly four years to his sentence after finding that Rendelman had engaged in "extreme conduct" by sending threatening letters to two federal judges since his conviction in December.

Rendelman, 52, was found guilty of sending threatening letters to a judge and a prosecutor in Montgomery County, President Bush, the White House staff and Kevin P. Fay, a Rockville lawyer who in the mid-1980s uncovered a scheme by Rendelman to embezzle more than $240,000 from one of Fay's clients.

Rendelman faced a maximum sentence of less than 12 years in prison -- until Titus took into account the recent threats against the federal judges.

Titus rejected the argument by Rendelman's attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender John C. Chamble, that the letters caused no harm because Rendelman had not followed through on his threats. Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

Taiwanese Prosecutors-in-Training Come to Cornell Law School

For the first time, Cornell Law School will formally host two scholars from Taiwan, linking the Law School to a nation undergoing groundbreaking judicial changes. “The legal system in Taiwan at this moment is at a fascinating crossroads," said Annelise Riles, director of Cornell’s Clarke Program in East Asian Law and Culture. “Their Supreme Court has issued a number of very interesting rulings on matters of constitutional rights and election law. The judiciary is increasingly recognized for its independence. And most relevant to this exchange, there have been important procedural reforms regarding the rights of the accused in the criminal justice system. These legal reforms are being eyed as a model throughout Asia.”

The scholars are prosecutors-in-training at the Taiwanese Ministry of Justice’s Judicial and Prosecutorial Training Institute, a highly prestigious institution that prepares those who have passed Taiwan’s grueling bar examination for careers as judges or prosecutors. They will spend one academic year at Cornell Law beginning next fall. During their stay, they will conduct legal research, present lectures, take courses, and participate in scholarly workshops with faculty and students. The program will continue for two years and then will be evaluated for possible renewal. It is the first time Cornell Law School has instituted a formal international program for prosecutors to study at the university.

Cornell is one of four American universities—including Yale, Harvard and New York University as well as at institutions in London and Tokyo—at which prosecutors-in-training will study, thanks to an agreement with Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice. Larry S. Bush, executive director of Cornell's Clarke Center for International and Comparative Legal Studies, said the visiting prosecutors will provide several benefits for the Law School. "We will have an institutional tie with the Ministry of Justice in Taiwan, which is the highest level in their law enforcement system. It will bring professional prosecutors from Taiwan to the Law School, where they can interact with both students and faculty. It simply opens a door to the legal community in Taiwan for us." [Mark Godsey]

Cannot Throw a Rock Without Hitting an Escaped Convict

From NYTimes.com: A Helena, Montana Prerelease Center employee, hearing something rustling in the bushes, threw a rock at a shrub.

To his surprise, he heard someone say ''Hey, you hit me in the head,'' said Helena Police Cpl. Bill Tompkins.

The rock had hit a 22-year-old escaped convict the center was searching for.

The convict was being transferred by bus from a prison in Seattle to one in Great Falls when he got off at the wrong stop in Helena on Friday, Tompkins said. It wasn't clear if the man meant to get off the bus in Helena or if it was a mix-up, Tompkins said.

The convict contacted the Helena Prerelease Center, which brought him from the bus stop to the center, Tompkins said.

Hours later, center employees noticed the convict was missing and alerted police, Tompkins said. They later called back saying to the convict was hiding in bushes outside the center.

Police found the man hiding behind some barrels, and took him into custody for probation violation, Tompkins said. Rest of Article [Mark Godsey]

FBI Denies Taking David Copperfield's Millions

From seattletimes.com:

The FBI is denying reports that it took millions in cash during a search last week of a Las Vegas warehouse belonging to illusionist David Copperfield.

A Las Vegas television station reported that agents seized $2 million in cash from a safe in Copperfield's warehouse. That report was picked up by other media nationally, including The Seattle Times.

Federal law-enforcement sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said that Copperfield, 51, is under investigation of possible sexual misconduct with a Seattle woman while in the Bahamas.

Officially, the FBI has been tight-lipped about the investigation and has not said Copperfield is the target, although high-ranking officials have confirmed that fact anonymously.

National entertainment media and others have repeated the story about the seizure of money, and FBI officials are now concerned the publicity could damage their investigation and is unfair to Copperfield, who has not been charged with a crime. Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

Man Sentenced to 3 Months' Probation for 17th Degree Murder

Read it at The Onion.com

Law and Order SVU Features USC Law Article on Criminal Responsibility

Fans of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” saw a familiar University of Southern California Law publication on the TV show’s season premier episode.

The episode – about a woman with dissociative identity disorder whom detectives suspect may have conspired with her sister to kill their parents – featured the spring 2001 Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal, titled “Symposium on Multiple Personality Disorder and Criminal Responsibility.” The issue featured articles by USC Law’s Elyn Saks, associate dean and the Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences.

Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler, the show’s lead characters, cite articles from the journal that discuss the legal responsibility of persons with multiple personalities and the legal traction that may be established. At one point, Stabler also holds up the journal to an inmate to ask if she has seen it before. [Mark Godsey]

Man Who Attempted to Feed Daughter to Alligators is Paroled

From cnn.com: A man who had been released from prison early for good behavior was convicted Tuesday of trying to kill a young mother and leaving her 5-year-old daughter to be eaten alive by alligators in the Everglades.

Harrel Franklin Braddy had befriended Shandelle Maycock and her daughter Quatisha. Maycock testified that Braddy went to her home in November 1998 and grew enraged when she asked him to leave.

He choked Maycock until she was unconscious and then forced her and Quatisha into his car, the woman testified. At one point, Maycock gained consciousness, grabbed the child and jumped out of the moving vehicle.

Braddy stopped, choked the woman again and put her in the trunk, she testified. Maycock never saw her daughter again. Prosecutors said Braddy then drove to a section of Interstate 75 in the Everglades known as Alligator Alley and dropped Quatisha in the water beside the road.

She was alive when alligators bit her on the head and stomach, a medical examiner said.

Authorities found the girl's body two days later, her left arm missing and her skull crushed, prosecutors said. Maycock woke up bleeding and disoriented in a cane field miles from her Miami-Dade County home.

Braddy had served 13 years of a 30-year prison sentence for attempted murder before being released early for good behavior. Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

Ruling: You Must Actually Have Been Spyed on to Sue

From NPR.com: A federal appeals court has ruled that civil liberties groups have no standing to challenge President Bush's domestic eavesdropping program in court.

The court ruled that only people who can demonstrate that they've been spied on have the right to sue. The records of who's been wiretapped are top secret, so it's not likely that anyone would ever be able to demonstrate that he or she had been a target of the program. Listen. . . [Mark Godsey]

Paying the Price for Stealing Someone's Heart

From latimes.com: Stealing someone's heart can cost you. Just ask German Blinov.

A jury has ordered Blinov to shell out $4,802 after he was sued by a husband from a Chicago suburb for stealing the affections of the man's wife.

Arthur Friedman used a little-known state law to mount the legal attack against Blinov. The alienation-of-affection law lets spouses seek damages for the loss of love. Only a handful of states still have such a law.

But Natalie Friedman, the woman at the center of it all, says her husband asked her to have sex with other women and men — including Blinov — to spice up their relationship. Natalie Friedman supposedly began having feelings for Blinov, prompting her husband to file the lawsuit.

"This guy ruined my life — he backstabbed me," Arthur Friedman said. "What he did was wrong. And I did what I had to do to get my point across." Blinov does not deny having a relationship with Natalie Friedman while she was married. But he was surprised to learn he could be sued for it.

"German was not a pirate of her affections," said Blinov's lawyer, Enrico Mirabelli. "Her affections were already adrift." Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

Who Needs Cell Phones When You Can Use the Toilet?

From post-gazette.com:  Inventive inmates at facilities around the country speak jail cell-to-jail cell using their commodes, a phenomenon known to wardens, correctional officers and attorneys as "toilet talk."

Some toilet talk is mundane. A pair of inmates might call out chess moves. Some prisoners have used the sewage pipes as a conduit to pick up prisoners of the opposite sex. And in at least two cases, inmates have had commode conversations about criminal matters that were used as testimony or evidence in court.

"Inmates will strike up a conversation about anything," said the warden, who can hear muffled chatter through the water in his office's commode all the time. "They have 24/7 to think of ways to beat the system."

Mr. Rustin said he does not consider toilet chat a significant security risk and he could not imagine sticking his head in the commode to overhear what are mostly throwaway conversations.

But the U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia thought differently and got the FBI to wiretap the toilets at the city's downtown Federal Detention Facility to track members of a drug trafficking operation. Richard Manieri, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office, said federal prosecutors used toilet conversations to secure hefty sentences against co-defendants Kaboni Savage and Dawud Bey. Federal agents tapped the prison plumbing system and got a recording of Mr. Bey threatening to kill witnesses who might testify against prisoners charged for their involvement in the drug network.

Communication through toilets and air vents is fairly common in jails and prisons, according to several correctional officials surveyed.

It's been reported to occur daily at the high-rise, maximum-security Multnomah County Detention Center in Oregon and inmates in California's San Quentin State Prison, in California, used decades ago it to pass the time in solitary confinement. Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

Protect Yourself: Run A Background Check on Lovers and Roommates

From seattlepi.mwsource.com: The day may come when running background checks on a roommate or romantic partner will be as common as getting an annual physical.

Several private investigators in Seattle -- reflecting on two recent cases in which women were killed by romantic partners who turned out to be disguising shady pasts -- find it difficult to believe that such searches aren't common practice already.

"If you're involved in a relationship that's going to affect your whole life, what could be of greater value?" asked Linda Montgomery, a private investigator in Ballard who believes that even people who are dating should be willing to share credit reports.

Though experts have access to databases that average citizens do not, there are measures that anyone can take to collect helpful information -- or at least confirm the veracity of what they've been told.

"I think it should become acceptable for people to say, 'Hey, I'm going to check you out.' It needs to be a thing like going to a doctor for a checkup," Montgomery said. Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

Wanted Posters on Pizza Boxes

story...

Journalist Jeffrey Rosen Discusses NeuroLaw

From NPR.com: Journalist Jeffrey Rosen is a frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine. His article titled "The Brain on the Stand: How neuroscience is transforming the legal system" appeared in the March 11 issue.

It's about an emerging field of study called "neurolaw," which combines neuroscience and the law. He writes about how evidence from brain-scanning technologies are being used in the courtroom to explain away criminal behavior.

Rosen is also the author of the book The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America. Listen. . . [Mark Godsey]

New Gang Intervention Coalition Helps Remove Gang Tattoos

From DenverPost.com: Several Denver groups in the gang intervention and prevention business recently banded together to give new energy to the Metro Denver Gang Coalition, an old coalition that had gone defunct after losing funding.

"They are working in unprecedented ways," said Jeremy Bronson, Mayor John Hickenlooper's special assistant to the mayor for public safety. "Police, schools, service providers and the faith-based community: Everyone is at the table to say, 'I'm prepared to do what I can."'

The coalition is pushing to get new funding to revive a gang tattoo-removal program at Swedish Medical Center that went defunct last year because nobody had the $10,000 necessary to purchase insurance for the program.

It is said that hundreds of youths went through the program each year until the money dried up. In exchange for community service, the former gang members had their tattoos removed, a process that requires numerous laser treatments and normally costs as much as $3,000.

Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

Teen-On-Homeless Violence Increases

TheOnion.com interviews the average American about this trend here.  [Mark Godsey]

New York Divorcee Jailed in "Debtor's Prison"

From NYTimes.com: Like many of the one million Americans who go through a divorce each year, Marvin Singer is indignant, depressed, financially stressed and convinced that he is a victim of judicial abuse. Unlike all but a tiny number, Mr. Singer, 71, is also in jail.

According to the official record, Mr. Singer was jailed for refusing a judge’s order to pay his ex-wife’s lawyer $100,000 — about half of what he owes for her legal representation during their six-year tug-of-war over marital assets.

According to Mr. Singer, he is an inmate in a modern-day debtor’s prison.

“In this country, you’re not supposed to go to jail for owing money,” said Mr. Singer, a real estate lawyer who may or may not have retired, depending on which side of this bitter struggle one sits. “I haven’t hurt anyone. I haven’t robbed anyone. How could this be?”

There is no record of how many people travel a path from divorce court to jail. Administrators of the matrimonial courts in New York and other states track how many divorces are filed, and how many are resolved, but not how many litigants in irreconcilable marriages end up in irreconcilable rows with the judge. Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

Courts Scrutinize Failure to Appear as Bargaining Chip

From nytimes.com: Some call the “failure to appear” charge a prosecutor’s best friend because it is relatively easy to prove and can swiftly bring a defendant to the bargaining table. Others see the long-accepted but little-discussed practice of punishing late or absentee defendants as a crutch for overworked judges to maintain decorum and keep criminal cases from clogging their courtrooms.

Now such criminal charges are being challenged in Connecticut, where nearly 1 in 10 of the cases not involving motor vehicles that ended in convictions over the past five years included a conviction for failure to appear. Those found guilty of what could be a procedural misstep can face up to five years in prison.

Bringing the issue into the open is the case of Ayanna Khadijah, 34, who was convicted of the felony version of failure to appear after she failed to wake up from a nap and arrived 45 minutes late to court one day in August 2003. Her case is extraordinary because she fought back.

It was the only court date Ms. Khadijah missed among 45 sessions over three years defending herself against a set of drug charges that were eventually dismissed, in 2005. Ms. Khadijah, a single mother with a criminal history, received a suspended three-year sentence on the failure-to-appear charge. Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey and hat tip from Laura Appleman]

Ex-Inmate Helps Florida Find Plan for Re-Entry

From orlandosentinel.com: For five months, members of Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer's crime-fighting panel have been searching for ways to reduce violence.

On Wednesday, one solution became crystal clear. Delgardo Royal, a 45-year-old Orlando man released Monday from a Florida Panhandle prison, told the Mayor's SAFE Orlando Task Force about coming home with no money, no job and the temptation to return to crime to survive.

"I'm at the crossroads right now," he said. "I'm not going back to prison. I'll die on the streets instead of going back to prison. I know what it's like being out on the streets. I just need someone to be near the phone to catch me if I fall."

His safety net was a community activist and former probation officer he met four years ago. Royal called Mercedes Bigelow late Monday from Orlando's bus station. She picked him up, took him to a neighbor's home and then brought him to meetings of the task force Tuesday and Wednesday because she figured who better to describe the needs of those released back into the community from prison.

Royal's experience during the past few days led to the kind of solution the task force is proposing: A one-stop resource center to help ex-convicts get drivers licenses, jobs, medical care, mental-health counseling and other services so they don't return to crime.

When Bigelow brought Royal to a subcommittee meeting Tuesday, his story reduced participants to tears. Members Brandy Hand and Sarah Kelly went out and bought him clothes and shoes with their own money. They also contacted City Commissioner Robert Stuart, who runs the Christian Service Center, where Royal's other needs were assessed.

After Wednesday's meeting of the full task force, several board members -- pastors, businessmen and the president of the Metropolitan Orlando Urban League -- offered to help find Royal housing and a job. One pastor talked to him about setting up an apartment house for released inmates. Other panel members were busy on cell phones trying to line up job interviews with the city, landscaping and flooring companies.

"We are the intervention team," said Joshua Kirven, a psychologist, community liaison with the 9th Judicial Circuit's Public Defender's Office and task-force volunteer. "We've been talking about this for six months, and we finally have come full circle. Now, we've intervened on an offender's behalf."

Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

Beware, Jaywalking Academics Are Coming to a Crosswalk Near You

Here's a funny editorial on jaywalking called Too Cocky for the Cross-walk: Jaywalking Academics are a Threat to National Security. It's based on a ridiculous incident out of Atlanta where a British historian was tackled to the ground, arrested, and detained 8 hours for jaywalking. (Video interview on YouTube here). Did you know that "recreational jaywalking is up 20 percent over the last decade and addiction has skyrocketed? These statistics are particularly unnerving in the light of a "totally legit" study that proved jaywalking is a "gateway misdemeanor." As jaywalkers mature, they turn to more destructive criminal behavior, like walking a dog without a leash, backing the family car out of the driveway or conducting domestic wiretaps without a warrant." Read the full "story" here. . . [Michele Berry]

Overworked Cop

The Onion reports:   OAKLAND, CA—Often referred to by his superiors at the Oakland Police Department as a "loose cannon," Lt. Buck Roth and his unorthodox policing methods have been the subject of controversy for much of his turbulent career. But the renegade detective who acts as judge, jury, prosecuting attorney, bailiff, court reporter, and executioner maintains that his approach gets results.  "Whatever it takes to clean up Oakland, I'll do it," Roth said Monday. "After all the laziness and corruption I've witnessed during my 13 years on the force, I've learned you can't trust just anyone to apprehend, arrest, fingerprint, photograph, delouse, interrogate, arraign, hear testimony from, and set bail for the low-life scumbags I deal with day after day."  Rest of "story" here.  [Mark Godsey]

University of Mississippi Will Hold 4th Amendment Symposium

On March 30, 2007, the National Center for Justice and Rule of Law, of The University of Mississippi School of Law, presents its annual Fourth Amendment Symposium  The conference is open to the public and will be webcast, which contains additional information about the conference and the Center's Fourth Amendment programs. 

Speakers at the symposium include:

• University of Mississippi Research Prof and National Center for Justice and Rule of Law Director Thomas K. Clancy
• Honorable Jack Landau, Oregon Court of Appeals
• Honorable Joseph Grasso, Mass. Appeals Court
• Honorable Irma Raker, Court of Appeals of Maryland
• University of Tennessee School of Law Prof Thomas Davies
• University of New Jersey School of Law Robert Williams
• New England School of Law Lawrence Friedman

Widener Students go to the Big Easy to Assist P.D.s with Their Hard Problems

Nine Widener University School of Law students from the Delaware campus, accompanied by two professors and a civic-minded Philadelphia public defender took part in the Katrina-Gideon Interview Project, a national initiative where American law student volunteers are traveling to New Orleans to assist the beleaguered Public Defender's Office there try to catch up on the backlog of cases caused by Hurricane Katrina.

The students, working in pairs during the first week of January 2007, had contact with nine detainees. They interviewed them, made phone calls to relatives, verified information in the case files - in some cases doing investigatory work - tracked down witnesses and drafted motions and letters. Basically, they moved the inmates' case files toward being ready to go to court.

"With all the ups and downs, I feel that we not only made some important strides in getting a crippled indigent defense project back on track, but also that what we extracted was invaluable experience regarding the practicality -- and not the legal theories -- surrounding the criminal justice system," student David Iannucci wrote in a blog about his experience. "I hope this project continues throughout this year with many other law students volunteering their time and energy, with the goal that maybe the attention our presence and assistance has generated will jumpstart a massive endeavor of reform."

The students worked out of the Public Defender's Office in New Orleans and interacted with the attorneys who will eventually take the case files they prepared into court to represent the detainees. The days were long: roughly 12 hours beginning at 7:30 a.m. The group arrived there from Jan. 1 and returned Jan. 6. [Mark Godsey]

Law School Deans Unite Against Call to End Detainee Pro Bono Work

Responding to the remarks of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles "Cully" Stimson, which were reported in the news media on January 13, 2007, the following statement was released Monday, January 15, 2007, by more than 130 deans of U.S. law schools. The statement reads as follows:

"We, the undersigned law deans, are appalled by the January 11, 2007 statement of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles "Cully" Stimson, criticizing law firms for their pro bono representation of suspected terrorist detainees and encouraging corporate executives to force these law firms to choose between their pro bono and paying clients.

"As law deans and professors, we find Secretary Stimson’s statement to be contrary to basic tenets of American law. We teach our students that lawyers have a professional obligation to ensure that even the most despised and unpopular individuals and groups receive zealous and effective legal representation. Our American legal tradition has honored lawyers who, despite their personal beliefs, have zealously represented mass murderers, suspected terrorists, and Nazi marchers. At this moment in time, when our courts have endorsed the right of the Guantanamo detainees to be heard in courts of law, it is critical that qualified lawyers provide effective representation to these individuals. By doing so, these lawyers protect not only the rights of the detainees, but also our shared constitutional principles. In a free and democratic society, government officials should not encourage intimidation of or retaliation against lawyers who are fulfilling their pro bono obligations.

"We urge the Administration promptly and unequivocally to repudiate Secretary Stimson’s remarks."

See all Law School Deans Who Signed. . . .

CrimProf Bernard E. Harcourt Writes on the Mentally Ill in Prison

From NYTimes.com: University of Chicago Law School CrimProf Bernard E. Harcourt recently wrote an opinion piece discussing the mentally ill in prison.  Here is an excerpt:

Last August, a prison inmate in Jackson, Mich. — someone the authorities described as “floridly psychotic” — died in his segregation cell, naked, shackled to a concrete slab, lying in his own urine, scheduled for a mental health transfer that never happened. Last month in Florida, the head of the state’s social services department resigned abruptly after having been fined $80,000 and is facing criminal contempt charges for failing to transfer severely mentally ill jail inmates to state hospitals.

Ten days ago, the Supreme Court agreed to determine when mentally ill death row inmates should be considered so deranged that their execution would be constitutionally impermissible. The case involves a 48-year-old Navy veteran who is a diagnosed schizophrenic. In the decade leading up to the crime he was hospitalized 14 times for severe mental illness.

According to a study released by the Justice Department in September, 56 percent of jail inmates in state prisons and 64 percent of inmates across the country reported mental health problems within the past year.

Though troubling, none of this should come as a surprise. Over the past 40 years, the United States dismantled a colossal mental health complex and rebuilt — bed by bed — an enormous prison. During the 20th century we exhibited a schizophrenic relationship to deviance.

After more than 50 years of stability, federal and state prison populations skyrocketed from under 200,000 persons in 1970 to more than 1.3 million in 2002. That year, our imprisonment rate rose above 600 inmates per 100,000 adults. With the inclusion of an additional 700,000 inmates in jail, we now incarcerate more than two million people — resulting in the highest incarceration number and rate in the world, five times that of Britain and 12 times that of Japan.

Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

Miranda Symposium at Chapman University

On January 26, 2007, University of New Mexico School of Law Professor Sherri Burr will moderate a panel on Miranda and the Media as part of a conference on "Miranda at 40: Applications in a Post-Enron, Post-9/11 World" at Chapman University in Orange County, California. 

View Brochure. . . [Mark Godsey]

Linking Domestic Violence and Sports

From azcentral.com: University studies have shown repeatedly that male athletes are at greater risk of violent behavior than non-athletes, that they are more likely to be aggressive with dating partners and more accepting of hostility toward women. One study found that male student athletes made up just 3.3 percent of the male population at the universities surveyed yet were accused of 19 percent of the sexual assaults on campus.

So why is abuse by athletes not an issue for sports fans? "Here's the deal," said Todd Crosset, a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. "For sport to work, they (fans) have to trust honest effort. Crimes against sports are gambling and steroids. What goes on off the court does not affect the game."

Crossett, who has studied extensively violence by athletes, cited as an example Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Brett Myers, who pitched the day after being cited for beating his wife outside a Boston bar in June. "He didn't commit a crime against the sport," Crosset said. "It's not about sport, it's about their private lives."

But multiple research studies at universities have probed the relationship between athletes and violence against women, and about their sense of being "above the law."

"There's the hubris there's the privilege, there's the acceptance of athletes of having character, money issues, all of those things come together," said Jay Coakley, another researcher at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

"I come under heat for being 'overly negative about sports,' when in fact I'm trying to take a critical look at it," Coakley said. "Whereas most people are looking at sports through rose-colored cultural glasses that can't see any problems with sports itself."

Studies show dominant attitudes toward women and lesser men set in even before the athletes reach high school. Perhaps most disturbing, is the violence might not be random; instead, an outgrowth of the kind of mind control athletes need for a winning edge.

"Athletes are very instrumental in their violence," Crosset said. "They know exactly what they're doing. They're not coming unglued. They're terrorizing these women to get their way."

Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

Washington Post Columnist Picks Mentally Ill Death Row Inmate As Person of the Year

From washingtonpost.com: Washington Post Columnist Richard Cohen picks  mentally ill death row inmate Gregory Thompson as his person of the year to call attention to the madness of the death penalty. Here is an excerpt from the article: 

"Thompson, 45, is delusional. He is also paranoid, schizophrenic and depressed. For these ailments, he receives daily doses of drugs and, twice a month, anti-psychotic injections. The state of Tennessee wants very much to put him to death for the horrendous 1985 murder of Brenda Blanton Lane, of which there is no doubt about his guilt. There is grave doubt, though, about the constitutionality, not to mention the decency, of executing an insane man. Thus the 12 pills Thompson takes every day. The idea, according to a recent account of his case in the Wall Street Journal, is to make him sane enough to be put to death.

Shortly before Justice Harry Blackmun retired from the Supreme Court in 1994, he reversed himself on the death penalty. Blackmun had been a lifelong supporter, but finally had had enough. In words that were to become famous, he wrote, "From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death." It's as if Blackmun had Thompson in mind, for in his case the tinkering occurs on a daily basis.

Blackmun was not the only Supreme Court justice to change his mind about capital punishment. Lewis Powell did something similar. He never got to the point where he considered it unconstitutional or immoral -- he just concluded there was no way to get it right.

Now, from Powell's point of view, matters have even worsened. The death penalty has become so necessarily cumbersome to implement, so full of essential safeguards, that it not only sometimes cannot be done -- note the recent suspensions of executions by lethal injection -- but it takes forever to do it. Thompson, you might have noticed, has been awaiting execution for nearly 22 years -- arguably cruel and unusual punishment in itself." Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

Feds Use Terrorist Risk Rating System to Rank Travelers

From washingtonpost.com: Without notifying the public, federal agents for the past four years have assigned millions of international travelers, including Americans, computer-generated scores rating the risk they pose of being terrorists or criminals.

The travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments, which the government intends to keep on file for 40 years.

The scores are assigned to people entering and leaving the United States after computers assess their travel records, including where they are from, how they paid for tickets, their motor vehicle records, past one-way travel, seating preference and what kind of meal they ordered.

The Homeland Security Department notice called its program "one of the most advanced targeting systems in the world." The department said the nation's ability to spot criminals and other security threats "would be critically impaired without access to this data."

Still, privacy advocates view ATS with alarm. "It's probably the most invasive system the government has yet deployed in terms of the number of people affected," David Sobel, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group devoted to electronic data issues, said in an interview. Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

The Sports/Religion/Crime Overlap: UK and US Compared

Motives underlying the sports/religion/crime-overlap differ in the UK compared to the US.  According to this article from the BBC News, one-third of religious crime in Scotland is football related.  Different religious sects tend to support different teams; add alcohol to the picture and you get crime induced by rivalries in the truest sense.  In the U.S., it's simpler, but for neither better nor worse.  For example, something tells me the infamous Pacers/Pistons brawl wasn't quite so pensive...and watching football would have been a more appropriate Sunday activity for these religious-figures-turned-criminals than attempting to set a moral compass. [Michele Berry]

CrimProfs Know, Less is More

Looks like the lawyers in this case (the judge's order is here: Download less_is_more.pdf) could use some lessons from a CrimProf. CrimProfs do it better. [Michele Berry, honorary CrimProf]

CSI: Parenting

The "CSI" craze has hit Miami, Vegas, NYC, jury boxes, and now, parenting.  Many parents across the country are swabbing the insides of their children's mouths to get a DNA sample just in case they need it if the youngster is kidnapped, runs away, or suffers a terrible accident.  The "insurance policy" of sorts they hope to never use.  Kits are being distributed by private companies, police stations, and orthodontists, ranging in cost from free to $60, and including a photo, fingerprints, a collection swab, and a special envelope in which to put the DNA sample. Story from MSNBC.com. . . [Michele Berry]

Governor Critiques Gun Christmas Tree Ornaments

From philly.com: Nothing says Christmas quite like a glittery black handgun hanging from the tree.

Urban Outfitters Inc. - no stranger to controversial products - is offering the 5-inch-long, Chinese-made gun ornament for $6 in its stores and catalogs this year.

"Bust a cap in your tree with this superglittery ornament in the shape of a handgun, complete with a satin ribbon for hanging," the online description of the revolver says. It is meant, the retailer says, as an "ironic twist" on the holidays.

"Twisted" is more like it, said Kate Philips, Gov. Rendell's spokeswoman. "The governor doesn't find it humorous or clever to display weapons that are responsible for taking hundreds of lives each year as if they are decorations," she said. Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

Flaunting Booty Shots on MySpace Leads to Mug Shots

Seven dimwitted teenage thieves have been arrested and charged after they posted pictures of themselves on MySpace, posing with thousands of dollars worth of stolen jewelry, laptops, firearms, and televisions. Now the only pics they're posing for are mug shots. Story. . . [Michele Berry]

Charges Dropped Against Naked City Prosecutor

From enquirer.com: Charges against a former Hamilton, OH city prosecutor accused of naked after-hours strolls in public buildings will be dropped because of a technicality, a special prosecutor said today.

Special Prosecutor Steve Tolbert said there was an error in the charges that will require dismissal of the case. It was not immediately clear if the charges will be refiled.

Former prosecutor Scott Blauvelt, 35, of Hamilton has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to two counts of public indecency.The charges stem from incidents in the city's Government Services Center on Oct. 4 and Oct. 5 that were caught on a security camera. Blauvelt worked in that building.

Blauvelt's lawyer, Mike Gmoser, has suggested that his client's behavior may be related to a mental illness, medication and/or a brain injury that resulted from a 2005 car wreck in which Blauvelt also had been naked.

More recently, Blauvelt told investigators he had been "doing similar things for about the past five years," but didn't know why -- and officials learned that he also had walked naked in the city building Sept. 25. Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

O.J.'s "If I Did It" T.V. Special and Book Cancelled

The clouds have parted and the sun shines through--News Corp. has cancelled the O.J. Simpson T.V. special and book, "If I Did It," in which O.J. was to speak in hypothetical terms about how he would have committed the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.  I guess News Corp. realized that the chances of O.J.'s account being a real confession were about as likely as Steve Forbes being identified as the "anonymous author" of the attacks on Grenator Dob Bole and At Buchanan in "Election Colors," the "fictional" account of the 1996 Republican primary dedicated to lovely wife Telen Torbes, and beautiful daughters Tatherine, Tabina, Taberta, Taura and Telizabeth Torbes. [Michele Berry]  Find out what average Americans are saying about the cancellation of Simpson's confession book here. 

Connecticut Plans to Protect Children of Incarcerated Parents' Rights

From courant.com: Representatives from an array of Connecticut state agencies met at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford Wednesday for a summit to hash out a plan to create a bill of rights for children of incarcerated parents.

"Children of prisoners are often invisible and overlooked," said Susan Quinlan, executive director of Families in Crisis, a Hartford agency that works with families of incarcerated parents. "We as a community need to respond to that."

In Hartford alone, an estimated 4,500 to 6,000 children - about one in every six children in the city - have at least one parent in a state prison. The very fact that no hard numbers exist and that the state is left to extrapolate estimates from national trends illustrates the need for local attention, Quinlan said.

The group, which includes state agencies as well as representatives from the United Way and the University of Connecticut School of Social Work, agreed to form committees that would work on developing legislative proposals and a bill of rights for children. Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

PA Appoints First Dog Law Prosecutor in Effort to Stop Puppy Mills

From post-gazette.com: Former assistant district attorney Jeffrey Paladina is Pennsylvania's first special prosecutor for dog-law enforcement.

Much of his work on the new job will involve the administrative appeals of kennels that have had their state operating licenses revoked. He also expects to be involved in the state's proposed crackdown on unlicensed kennels. Mr. Paladina will also be prosecuting animal cruelty cases according to Jessie Smith, named to the newly created post of special deputy secretary for dog law enforcement.

Pennsylvania is one of a handful of states that have the dubious distinction of being targeted by a number of animal rights groups for operating puppy mills. Puppy mills are breeding facilities that raise hundreds of puppies -- or more -- per year. Such puppies are raised in kennels, not in the homes of the breeder. Critics charge that the puppies are not properly socialized or handled, which can result in personality and temperament problems, and do not receive good veterinary care.

The appointment of Mr. Paladina and Ms. Smith are part of what the governor earlier in October called "proposed sweeping changes to the state's dog law and related state regulations to improve the conditions under which dogs are bred and sold in Pennsylvania." 

Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

New Criminal Law Blog: "Sex Crimes"

Aspiring CrimProf Corey Yung has recently developed a new Criminal Blog called "Sex Crimes."  The blog is devoted to the criminal laws regulating and punishing sex offenders.

The goals of the blog are to:

(1) compile news and legal developments about the criminalization and punishment of sex offenses in the United States.

(2) offer legal opinions about developments in the laws regulating and punishing sex crimes.

(3) provide a resource for people doing research and/or writing about sex crimes.

One of the most significant developments related to the subject matter of this blog is the growing use of residency and work restrictions to prevent sex offender recidivism.  This is also the scholarly area in which Yung is currently writing.  As a result, this will be one of the primary subjects focused on in posts. 

Check it Out . . . [Mark Godsey]

DNA Frees Man After 15 years of Marriage

From onion.com: Henry "Hank" Doswell, 42, was released from his marriage Wednesday, after DNA tests conclusively proved his innocence in the July 1991 fathering of Spencer Doswell, the solitary charge that has kept him committed for 15 years.

"Fifteen years, seven months, and two days," said Doswell, speaking to a group at the Red Room bar's Singles Night shortly after his release. "I always said they'd made a terrible mistake, that I did not deserve to be put away in the prime of my life, but no one believed me. If it hadn't been for this DNA test, I might have died in that monogamous relationship."

Though he feared he might never be able to break free of "the old ball and chain," Doswell always professed that being sentenced to a life of enforced fidelity was a "horrible injustice." But as each new anniversary seemed only to confirm his guilt, Doswell began to doubt he would ever be a free man again. Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

The New School Hosts "Punishment: The U.S. Record" Conference

The "Punishment: The U.S. Record" conference will take place at The New School for Social Research on November 30 and December 1, 2006. It is the 16th conference in the Social Research conference series, dedicated to enhancing public understanding of pressing social issues.  Here is the premise of the Conference:

"We are convening this conference at a time when our nation's prison population has soared by more than 600% since the 1970s, despite a drop in crime rates. As of 2005, over two million people were imprisoned in this country: almost one in every 136 U.S. residents. Black men, who make up 6% of the U.S. population, comprise over 40% of our prison population. A black male born today has a 32% chance of spending time in prison. Eleven states do not allow ex-cons to vote. Nearly 2,800,000
American children have at least one parent in prison or jail.

We ask, what does this mean for our democracy? Where do our concepts of punishment come from? What is the effect on our families, communities and the economy of our staggeringly high incarceration rate?" More Info. . . [Mark Godsey]

Landlord: Crack Dealer Most Reliable Tenant

The Onion's humorous take on the upside of renting to a crack dealer.  Average Americans opine on the arrest of Willie Nelson.

Delancey Street Restaurant: Serving Meals and a 2nd Chance

From latimes.com: Delancey Street in San Francisco might look like every other successful restaurant in this restaurant-obsessed city, but the menu here comes second to the mission: providing felons with a solid first step on the straight-and-narrow.

Mimi Silbert, who started Delancey Street 35 years ago, explained that the Cons are fed, clothed and paid a small stipend, all from a general fund that also provides Silbert's pocket money: She takes no salary. Delancey Street prides itself on receiving no government aid, so everything comes from revenue or donations. (Brooks Brothers and Zegna have been particularly generous of late.)

In exchange for their basic needs being met, cons promise to work—hard. They put in long hours at the restaurant, and often at one of the other, smaller Delancey Street "business training schools," such as Christmas tree lots and moving companies. They also hit the books. Besides obtaining high school diplomas and college degrees, cons complete a liberal arts survey course designed by Silbert, which includes field trips to museums, recitals and ballets.

Delancey Street is the only program of its kind in the nation, Silbert says, and she's besieged each day by people wanting to copy it. There isn't time to answer all the requests, she complains. Besides, she designed Delancey Street on the fly, over 35 years, with help from experts, scholars, gourmets, friends. Occasionally, even a con's mother will donate a secret family recipe. It would take too long—a lifetime—to tell anyone all she's learned. Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

OSU Journal of Criminal Law Sponsors Miranda v Arizona Anniversary Symposium

Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law is sponsoring a symposium on Friday, October 6, 2006, in honor of the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Miranda v. Arizona at OSU Moritz College of Law.

The symposium will feature a panel of experts on the decision, and on constitutional criminal procedure more generally, who will discuss the past controversy surrounding this landmark decision and its future.

Speakers include some of the country's foremost experts on Miranda:

• Professor Yale Kamisar (University of Michigan Law School and University of San Diego School of Law)
• Professor Ronald Allen (Northwestern University School of Law)
• The Hon. Gerard E. Lynch (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and Columbia Law School)
• Professor George Thomas (Rutgers School of Law)

Boston Globe Supreme Court Reporter Charles Savage will moderate the event. Papers by the speakers, along with an introduction by Symposium Guest Editor, Professor Marc Spindelman (Moritz College of Law), will be published in the Ohio Stat