The War on Education
Wait, what? Another war on [your politically popular cause here]? I can’t keep track of them all. This one, however, is unintentional. We backed into it by accident, La Brea Tar Pit style, while our sensibilities were addled by that Demon Weed. And not just pot, all manner of “harder” drugs too. Turns out you don’t actually have to ingest the stuff for it to alter the capacity for rational thought. You see, wars...
read morePeople v Kent – Important Child Pornography decision holds that viewing is not procurement, and “cache files” are not knowing possession
Today’s Court of Appeals decision (People v Kent #70, 5/8/12) has two very important components. First – proving a defendant has “cache files” on his computer isn’t enough to prove that he knew he had such files saved on his computer.Second – “merely viewing” child pornography is not possession or procurement. Cache files are created when a user visits a website. The computer typically stores that page on the computer. That way it doesn’t...
read moreSORA Registration Requirement Need Not Be Challenged Via Article 78
The Court of Appeals today, in People v Liden (#67) determined that an Article 78 proceeding is not the only valid way to challenge a determination by the Board of Examiners of Sex Offenders that he must register as a sex offender. Ordinarily such a determination is a simple matter of reading the statute. If the defendant is convicted of certain listed crimes, he must register as a sex offender. For out of state...
read moreThe Law of Lesser Included Offenses
How would you like to live in a world where all testimony helpful to you was believed completely, all testimony harmful to you was discredited, and you were allowed to draw conclusions from the evidence favorable to you so long as there was a valid line of reasoning and permissible inferences which could lead a reasonable juror to the conclusion you were proposing? That world is called the “Charge Conference”. When the defense requests...
read moreMolineux is Alive and Well and Coming to a Courtroom Near You
In People v Cass (#28 decided 2/16/12) the defendant’s claim of extreme emotional disturbance was undercut by the fact that he’d allegedly committed a nearly identical murder 14 months earlier. In both cases he claimed that he was surprised by men making sexual advances to him and he “just lost it”. Though in the instant case Cass’ belt was used to drag the deceased and in the prior case it was used to cause...
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