News
[03/09]
Man dead after killing 1 officer, wounding another
[03/09]
Calif. serial killer asks jury to spare his life
[03/09]
Police: Man eyed in 2nd teen murder investigation
[03/09]
Judge plans to unseal Yale killing search warrant
[03/09]
Sentencing for doctor in wife's cyanide death
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Articles
How Sentencing Works
Sentencing is a pivotal element in the criminal process. Beginning with the decision as to what type of crime a prosecutor decides to charge a suspect with, to whether or not a defendant decides to enter into a plea bargain or whether a defendant has a right to a jury trial, sentencing affects almost every aspect of criminal case. Despite its key role, however, the sentencing process remained largely unregulated until the 1970s when the United States Sentencing Commission was created to reduce racial and socio-economic disparity in the system.
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When Do the Police Have to Read Me My Rights?
Your "rights," otherwise known as the Miranda warnings, are a list of statements that law enforcement must recite to you before they can conduct a custodial interrogation. The Miranda warnings exist to protect your Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. If you understand these rights before you talk to the police, the legal theory goes, anything you say after that will be voluntary. While the exact wording differs between jurisdictions, the warnings are essentially as follows: You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to have an attorney present. If you can’t afford an attorney, you will be provided one by the government. Anything you say can be used against you in court.
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Case Summaries
[03/09]
Zia Trust Co. v. Montoya
In an action for excessive force brought by family members of a man defendant-officer shot and killed while responding to a domestic disturbance, denial of summary judgment based on qualified immunity is affirmed where the court could not say that a van fifteen feet away, which according to the plaintiffs was clearly stuck on a pile of rocks, gave defendant probable cause to believe that there was a threat of serious physical harm to himself or others that would justify his use of force.
[03/09]
US v. Wise
Defendant's firearm possession sentence is affirmed where: 1) defendant's prior conviction under Utah law for failure to stop at the command of a police officer was a "crime of violence" under the Sentencing Guidelines; and 2) the district court erred in not assigning criminal history points for one of defendant's prior convictions, but that error did not invalidate defendant's sentence.
[03/09]
Redd v. Wright
In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action arising out of plaintiff inmate's confinement in tuberculosis hold following his refusal to submit to tuberculosis testing, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) prior precedent did not "clearly foreshadow" a holding that the testing policy, as applied in this case, violated plaintiff's Free Exercise rights; 2) it could not reasonably be said that defendants acted in violation of clearly established Eighth Amendment law by implementing the policy; and 3) it was not clearly established that plaintiff was entitled to some kind of notice that religious objectors could be exempt from the policy.
[03/08]
US v. Miller
Dismissal of defendant's petition for a writ of audita querela challenging a restitution order, arising from his conviction for conducting a monetary transaction with criminally-derived funds and evading income tax, is affirmed where: 1) if it still exists, the writ of audita querela can only be applied to rectify a judgment which, though correct when rendered, has since become infirm; and 2) since all parties to this case agree that the district court's restitution order was initially correct, and because the statute does not require the order to be modified every time a subsequent payment is made on a restitution obligation, there is no infirmity in defendant's judgment for a writ of audita querela to rectify.
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