May 2013 - Federal Criminal Law Center

Thoughts on many Americans’ changed attitudes toward marijuana

Posted by Marcia Shein
On May 31, 2013
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Although marijuana might continue to be viewed harshly by law enforcement bodies, legislators and courts in Georgia, areas in many other parts of the country are showing signs that reveal a progressively relaxed attitude and tolerance for marijuana possession and use. A number of reasons underlie what some commentators are regarding as a virtual sea […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On May 29, 2013
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Police in South Carolina were following a car on an interstate in 2009 when its driver failed to properly signal a move. They stopped the car, requested and received consent to search the vehicle, and found heroin hidden inside a false compartment. They charged the passenger with heroin possession. That suspect was subsequently convicted at […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On May 20, 2013
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A child pornography case currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit centrally concerns a determination of what constitutes a workable and fair formula for calculating restitution to a victim. That standard is proving difficult for judges to agree upon in a federal criminal appeals case in which a lower federal court […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On May 16, 2013
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United States Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) has stepped front and center in national media publications recently with his announcement that he will use all his clout and political capital to help “crush” Chicago’s street gangs. Kirk says that a state and federal crackdown reminiscent of the late 1920s and early 1930s campaign that brought down […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On May 9, 2013
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In what a federal judge termed “the sensible cooperation of prosecutor, defense, experts and the court to save rather than destroy an adolescent” charged with a federal crime involving child pornography, a young man was sentenced to straight probation rather than prison. Senior United States District Judge Jack B. Weinstein’s May 1 sentencing order considered […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On May 6, 2013
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A search warrant is, in effect, a document that is supposed to balance the needs of law enforcement and the individual. The government wants something — whether drugs, documents, evidence of foul play or myriad other things it states are illegal or promote illegality — and the individual wants the comfort of knowing that he […]

Thoughts on many Americans’ changed attitudes toward marijuana

Was the search admissible? Federal appeals court hears GPS case.

Federal appeals case wrestles with restitution formula

U.S. Senator’s tough talk on crime: pure political posturing?

Judge rejects mandatory prison term in minor’s child porn case

Judge offers primer on search warrant requirements; slaps FBI