Brian Walsh and Benjamin Keane of the Heritage Foundation explore the collision between ever-advancing criminalization and the values of the U.S. Constitution. [Heritage Legal Memorandum]
Posts Tagged ‘crime and punishment’
Autopsy forensics
NPR, ProPublica and FrontLine collaborate on an extensive investigation of the many problems with coroners’ and medical examiners’ role in death investigation.
New conservative group urges rethink of crime policy
Because being tough on crime doesn’t have to mean endorsing the unbounded growth of the prison-industrial complex and the endless criminalization of formerly lawful behavior. Endorsers include such prominent figures as former Attorney General Edwin Meese, Grover Norquist, Ward Connerly, John DiIulio, and Viet Dinh. [RightOnCrime.com]
Frontiers of federal criminalization
A case called Bond v. U.S., arising from an admittedly bizarre fact pattern involving a wife’s attempt to injure a romantic rival, provides an opportunity to test the limits of extension of federal criminal law into areas that would ordinarily serve as the occasion of state-level prosecution. The Cato Institute has filed an amicus brief urging a narrow view of the proper federal criminal role in the case, in pursuit of the view that the federal government is one of limited, enumerated powers. [Ilya Shapiro, Cato]
Special court just for women defendants
That idea should ring Equal Protection alarm bells, no? [Greenfield]
“My Web Designer Goes to Jail”
In some states, the penalties for transporting one’s own firearms can be dire. [Jeffrey Miron; Brian D. Aitken website; David Codrea/Examiner]
Online sockpuppetry: when is it criminal?
Scott Greenfield has some questions following the conviction of a New York lawyer who impersonated a scholar online “in a heated academic debate over the origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls.”
Less harsh federal criminal sentences
Have we arrived yet at a bipartisan consensus? Or is Washington’s “tough-on-crime” faction simply choosing to give the issue a pass? [Josh Gerstein, Politico] Related: if you think conservative Justices on the Supreme Court are adamant against overturning criminal convictions, think again [Marie Gryphon, National Law Journal]
“Felony charges dropped in fire-breathing bartenders case”
Fairfax County, Virginia prosecutors had charged two bartenders at Jimmy’s Old Town Tavern in Herndon over the trick, which (the report suggests) resulted in no mishap or injuries and which the tavern owner said they had done hundreds of times previously. They still face misdemeanor charges. [Fairfax Times] Scott Greenfield discusses the case (with a mention of yours truly) and proposes a “bartender flambé” rule for knowing when the bubble-ization of everyday life has gone too far.
Annals of rape allegations
“A Louisville police detective testified Monday that she was surprised to see television reporters outside the police station when Karen Sypher arrived to file a rape report last year against University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino.” [USA Today, more] A year ago Sypher’s lawyer wrote Pitino a letter demanding $10 million on threat of suit. Sypher is now on trial for alleged extortion and her then lawyer has given testimony for the prosecution. [ABA Journal]