(Cross-posted from the C.D. Cal. Federal Public Defender blog.)
In This Edition (to use bookmarks, first click blog post title):
News to Use | Top of the Ninth | SCOTUS Focus | Short Circuits | The Week in Sausage Making | For the Bookworms
So You've Been Indefinitely Detained... Handy information sheet at Mark Bennett's blog, here.
The Week in Berman. Some quick links to Berman's posts this week on the DPIC's new year-end report, NPR's Talk of the Nation segment on falling crime rates, a possible "growing gulf" between SCOTUS justices and federal judges, and some big sentencing stories to come in 2012.
This Is Only a Test. Karen Franklin provides a quick overview of recently updated assessment instruments for malingering and Miranda comprehension.
Top of the Ninth - 9th Cir. decisions released during the week.
· U.S. v. Havelock (en banc) (mailed threat to a "person" under §876 refers only to natural persons) (relevant addressee's identity may be proven by information on envelope as well as by inside content of communication) (several partial dissents/concurrences).
· U.S. v. Russell (voluntary full-body pat-down at airport may include groin area).
· U.S. v. Rodriguez-Ocampo (per curiam) (enhancement under §2L1.2(b) was improperly based on stipulated removal).
SCOTUS Focus.
Grants of Certiorari:
· Florida v. Jardines (whether dog sniff at front door of house requires probable cause).
Short Circuits.
· U.S. v. Edwards (4th Cir.) (don't let this happen to you: after arrest of defendant for brandishing firearm, pat-down revealed no weapon or contraband, so officers pulled his drawers open, shone flashlight down into his nether regions, then reached down and, using a knife, removed drug baggie tied around suspect's penis; this was a "strip search" and unreasonable "sexually invasive search").
· U.S. v. Bell (4th Cir.) (in conviction for distribution of Oxycontin, relevant conduct under the guidelines did not include pills obtained and used legally).
· U.S. v. Harris (5th Cir.) (evidence of payment for purchase price of drugs was not sufficient to prove money laundering, which generally targets activities that follow other illegal acts).
· U.S. v. Lonjose (10th Cir.) (appeal waiver only applied to initial judgment, not modification) (record defendant's abuse of underage girls did now show he was danger to son so as to justify banning visits without probation's permission and supervision).
· Rogers v. State (Nev.) (three-justice per curiam) (state habeas court should have appointed counsel for minor pro se petitioner, where petition raised "difficult issues" relating to applicability and scope of Graham).
For the Bookworms - New books and scholarly articles of note.
· "Child Pornography Sentencing and Demographic Data: Reforming Through Research," SpearIt, 24 Fed. Sent'g Rep. 102 (2011) (SSRN) (research on demographics of possession offenders).
· "U.S. Government Unlawfully Detaining and Deporting U.S. Citizens as Aliens," 18 Va. J. Soc. Pol'y & L. 606 (2011) (pdf) (reseach and policy analysis).
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Suggestions or corrections? Email Michael_Drake@fd.org.
