Is 24 hours reasonable notice of the Grand Jury presentment under CPL 190.50?
In People v. Misaiah Hymes, Case No. 1247; KA 10-01590 decided November 21, 2014 by the 4th Department, the defendant appealed from a judgment convicting him upon a jury verdict of burglary in the second degree (Penal Law §140.25[2]). The 4th Department agreed with defendant that County Court erred in denying his motion to dismiss the indictment pursuant to CPL 210.20 (1) (c) because he was denied his right to testify before the grand...
read moreAs we wait . . .
The result of the Ferguson, MO grand jury investigation into the shooting death of Michael Brown is scheduled to be announced any time now (authorities indicated that the results could be made public as early as yesterday). No one but the grand jury knows what that result will be. That would not be the case, were the situation reversed. If a black man in Ferguson had shot a police officer (who, unlike Michael Brown,...
read moreEthan Nadelmann examines the failure of the war on drugs
Here’s a provocative TED Talk, published today, by Ethan Nadelmann, former professor at Princeton University and founding executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, “the largest and most influential organization promoting drug policies grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights.” Mr. Nadelmann contends that the drug laws have more to do with the sublimation and control of disenfranchised groups of our society than the control of drug use and sale, contending, among other things, that...
read moreThe Second Circuit revisits the concept of curtilage for Fourth Amendment purposes
The recent Second Circuit decision in Harris v. O’Hare, 2014 WL 5471749 [2nd Cir. 2014], decided on October 30th, addresses and expands upon the concept of curtilage, a topic infrequently addressed in judicial opinions (common though it may be in dinner party and happy hour conversation). The Court’s examination of curtilage was important in Harris (and may be useful in other cases) because it delineates an area in which an individual enjoys an expectation...
read moreWhy Innocent People Plead Guilty
Roughly 10% of those defendants who were later exonerated by DNA evidence through the efforts of the Innocence Project pled guilty to a crime they did not commit. What would lead a person to do that? Hon. Jed S. Rakoff, United States District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York examines that question in the above-entitled thought-provoking article (found here) in the November 20, 2014 issue of the New York Review of...
read more
