Posts Tagged ‘prosecution’

“Lawsuit filed over ‘sexting’ suicide”

“The family of a Sycamore High student who hanged herself after nude pictures she took on her cell phone were disseminated without her permission is suing the school, the city of Montgomery and several students they believe are involved.” [Cincinnati Enquirer] Jessica Logan was 18 and on spring break at the time. Patrick at Popehat, and earlier Scott Greenfield, have some relevant things to say about both the civil and criminal law angles of the problem.

New at Point of Law

If you’re not reading my other legal site, Point of Law, here’s some of what you’re missing:

March 25 roundup

  • Driver on narcotic painkillers crashes car, lawyer says pharmacists liable [Las Vegas Review-Journal]
  • Who’s that cyber-chasing the Buffalo Continental Air crash? Could it be noted San Francisco-based plaintiff’s firm Lieff Cabraser? [Turkewitz]
  • Axl Rose no fan of former Guns N’ Roses bandmate or his royalty-seeking attorneys [Reuters]
  • Cheese shop owner speaks out against punitive tariff on Roquefort, now due to take effect April 23 [video at Reason “Hit and Run”, earlier]
  • Too many cops and too many lawsuits in city schools, says Errol Louis [NY Daily News]
  • Law professor and prominent blogger Ann Althouse is getting married — to one of her commenters. Congratulations! [her blog, Greenfield] Kalim Kassam wonders when we can look forward to the Meg Ryan film “You’ve Got Blog Comments”.
  • “Louisiana panel recommends paying fees of wrongfully accused Dr. Anna Pou” (charged in deaths of patients during Hurricane Katrina) [NMissCommentor]
  • U.K.: “Privacy Group Wants To Shut Down Google Street View” [Mashable]

February 26 roundup

  • “God convinces woman to withdraw her voodoo-related lawsuit” [Minneapolis Star-Tribune via Obscure Store]
  • Federal, state judges differ on whether wildlife officials can be sued over fatal Utah bear attack [Heller/OnPoint News]
  • GPS helped trip him up: highest-paid Schenectady cop sure seems to spend a lot of time off patrol in a certain apartment [Greenfield]
  • More coverage of Luzerne County, Pa. corrupt-judge scandal, including reputed mobster link [Legal Intelligencer/Law.com, ABA Journal, earlier here and here]
  • Reductio ad absurdum of laws dictating where released sex offenders can live: proposal to keep them from living near each other [Giacalone and sequel]
  • Defamation suits: “What happens when it’s the plaintiff that is anonymous, and wants to stay that way?” [Ron Coleman]
  • Scalia: “Honest Services” fraud statute lacks any “coherent limiting principle” to restrain runaway prosecution [Grossman/PoL, Kerr/Volokh, Hills/Prawfsblawg]
  • Because they’d never enact a law except to deal with a real problem: “Kentucky Prohibits First Responders from Dueling” [Lowering the Bar]

“How Prosecutor Elections Fail Us”

For one thing, notes Ronald Wright of Wake Forest, relatively few incumbent D.A.s face serious contests:

Even in those exceptional campaign settings when the incumbent prosecutor faces a challenge and is forced to explain the priorities and performance of the office, elections do not perform well. This article surveys the typical rhetoric in prosecutor election campaigns, drawing on a new database that collects news accounts of candidate statements during prosecutor elections. Sadly, these campaign statements dwell on outcomes in a few high visibility cases, such as botched murder trials and public corruption investigations. Incumbents and challengers have little to say about the overall pattern of outcomes that attorneys in the office produce or the priorities of the office.

Microblog 2008-12-22

Found here and there on the web, some matters on topic, some not:

This will have to be a short microblog, due to impending depositions, but it’s better than no microblog at all.

“The video that helped put a man in prison for 22 years for running a stop sign”

Negligence lawyers have long reaped great benefits by introducing “day-in-the-life” videos that arouse jurors’ sympathy for injury victims. Now prosecutors are learning how to get enormous mileage from “victim TV” as well. Fair play? Should defense lawyers be allowed to introduce counter-videos of how horrible prison is and what it does to clients sent there? (Ann Althouse, Nov. 30).

More: Commenters say “for running a stop sign” much under-describes the crime at issue in the case.