National District Attorneys Association. Newsclips. August 23, 2012

Transcription

1 National District Attorneys Association Newsclips August 23, 2012 Today s Clip Headlines Kansas Attorney General Schmidt launches education initiative to fight gang activity in state Kan. getting $400K to monitor prescription drugs Re-entry programs give former prisoners hope in the real world Tennessee Supreme Court rules gunshot wounds are different from serious bodily injury North Dakota judge admonished for conduct as prosecutor Bill lifting statute of limitations for sexual abuse lawsuits stalls in state Senate Vermont high court to weigh pre-conviction DNA testing Experts: Laws on online prostitution need updating Indigent Defense Groups Call on DOJ to Gauge Impact of Policy Changes Veterans in the justice system pose special challenges for courts, corrections Wrongful Convictions Worry Cops In the Bronx, Victims Get 24 Hours to Talk Or the DA Lets the Accused Walk Clip Synopses and Links The Republic Kansas Attorney General Schmidt launches education initiative to fight gang activity in state Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt launched an initiative Wednesday aimed at educating the public about the warning signs of gang activity. During a statewide tour with stops in Kansas City, Topeka and Wichita, Schmidt announced a new website and partnership with law enforcement to reduce the number of gang members and curb criminal activity. He said the problem isn t confined to the state s largest cities or the suburbs that ring it, noting that earlier this year federal agents coordinated with local authorities to arrest and charge some 30 individuals on gang-related charges in Dodge City in southwestern Kansas.

2 Among the coalition of partners joining the attorney general s effort are the Kansas Association of Chiefs of Police, the Kansas Sheriffs Association, Kansas Highway Patrol, Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Kansas District Attorneys Association. Attorney-General-Gangs The Republic Kan. getting $400K to monitor prescription drugs Kansas is getting a $400,000 federal grant to improve its prescription drug monitoring program to combat what U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom calls the nation s fastest-growing drug problem. Grissom announced the grant to the Kansas Board of Pharmacy on Tuesday. The board will use the money to strengthen the Kansas program and find new ways to share information between states. Monitoring-Grant Las Vegas Sun Re-entry programs give former prisoners hope in the real world It s a story police and court officials say they hear time and again: former inmates reentering society with little direction and even fewer resources. They have scant cash, dubious housing and lack of proper identification. The majority of people really do want to change, said Jon Ponder, founder of Hope for Prisoners, a nonprofit that helps ex-offenders transition into society. They have no idea how to do it. The predicament can nudge former inmates back into a life of crime, creating a revolving door of offenders cycling in and out of prison, officials said. A study released last year by the nonpartisan Pew Center found that more than 40 percent of offenders nationwide returned to state prison within three years of their release. In Nevada, recidivism hovers just above 26 percent a figure also measured by offenders who returned to state prison within three years, said Brian Connett, deputy director of the Nevada Department of Corrections. Public safety officials in Las Vegas, however, presume the percentage could be at least double because it doesn t account for offenders returning to city or county jails. 2

3 The Tennessean Tennessee Supreme Court rules gunshot wounds are different from serious bodily injury The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled that a gunshot wound isn t necessarily the same as a serious bodily injury. The court s opinion was published Wednesday in the case of two men found guilty of especially aggravated robbery for shooting a man in the leg during a 2008 Memphis holdup. The opinion written by Justice Sharon G. Lee said the prosecution failed to show that the victim, Terrell Westbrooks, was at risk of dying, lost consciousness or suffered extreme pain, disfigurement or substantial impairment. Those are the standards spelled out in the state statutes that define serious bodily injury. Court-rules-gunshot-wounds-different-from-serious-bodily-injury Bismarck Tribune North Dakota judge admonished for conduct as prosecutor North Dakota s Supreme Court on Monday admonished a state district judge for withholding evidence when she worked as a prosecutor, a less severe penalty than the two-month suspension recommended by a disciplinary panel that investigated the case. Judge Cynthia Feland, who was an assistant Burleigh County state s attorney before she was elected judge almost two years ago, also must pay $5,636 of the $11,272 cost of the disciplinary investigation against her, the Supreme Court ruled. The justices concluded that Feland s oversight did not harm the defense of the man she was prosecuting, former state workers compensation director Sandy Blunt. 3

4 NJ.com Bill lifting statute of limitations for sexual abuse lawsuits stalls in state Senate A bill that would have removed the statute of limitations on civil sexual abuse claims appeared on its way to passage in the state Senate. But it was derailed by a lack of enough Democratic votes. The sponsor, state Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), said he hoped the wait would be short, since four Democrats whom he expected to support the bill were absent. Burlington Free Press Vermont high court to weigh pre-conviction DNA testing The Vermont Supreme Court has been asked to rule on the constitutionality of a 2009 law allowing the state to take DNA samples from people charged but not yet convicted of crimes. Lower court rulings effectively have blocked the state form carrying out the law, says a lawyer who has been following the issue. The law was enacted after the 2008 rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl in Randolph. Until passage of the law, the state was permitted to take DNA samples for storage in a database only from those who had been convicted of felonies. The samples are taken with a swab that collects saliva from the inside of the cheek and become part of both the state database and a national one maintained by the FBI. The Vermont law requires that if the defendant is acquitted or if the charge is dismissed or reduced to one not covered by the DNA sampling requirement, the record must be expunged from the database. Arizona Republic Experts: Laws on online prostitution need updating Laws written long before the dawn of the Internet age have authorities across the nation struggling to prosecute online prostitution rings because of huge loopholes and defense lawyers claims that the websites are protected speech. 4

5 A case in point is a recent New Mexico case involving a retired professor and former college administrator who were accused in what police described as an extensive multistate, online prostitution ring, experts say. The two were cleared after a judge ruled that state law said the website they operated didn t constitute a house of prostitution, even though investigators said the men used the site to recruit prostitutes and promote prostitution. The problem, legal experts say, stemmed from law enforcement officials trying to apply old prostitution laws in a high-tech world. And they say it happens in many states, with authorities struggling to prosecute websites as brothels or pinpoint where free speech ends and the facilitation of a crime begins. Further, the National Conference of State Legislatures says state legislatures aren t actively working to update prostitution laws. Legal Times Indigent Defense Groups Call on DOJ to Gauge Impact of Policy Changes Two national defense attorney groups are asking the Department of Justice to better analyze how proposed criminal laws and crime-fighting strategies might add additional costs to the rest of the justice system. Federal and local officials look at the funding needed to implement new laws and strategies but ignore how other parts of the system can be affected, said Virginia attorney Bonnie Hoffman, co-chair of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Indigent Defense Committee. They do not consider how much will be spent on police, prosecutors, probation officers, jails and prisons, Hoffman said in a statement. And they never consider the impact on the nation s over-extended and under-funded indigent defense system. The NACDL joined the American Council of Chief Defenders section of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association in passing a resolution this month that calls for the DOJ to conduct justice system impact statements statements on future policy changes. The resolution suggests the DOJ could fund the studies through its criminal justice grant programs

6 The Oregonian Veterans in the justice system pose special challenges for courts, corrections Around the country, including Oregon, veterans advocates are pushing such initiatives as veterans courts and veterans dockets to steer them into substance abuse treatment or other programs instead of prison. Clark County has such a court. So does Klamath County, which was the first in Oregon when it launched in November Lane County followed suit, and Marion County has a veterans docket. But if a veteran is convicted of a crime in a place where there is no specialty court for veterans, he goes to jail. Once in, he enters a caged new world where he may have some opportunities that other inmates don t or, as in Jones case, face exceptional challenges. - incart_river_default The Crime Report Wrongful Convictions Worry Cops As the problem of wrongful convictions has been dissected over many years, defense lawyers, law professors and a few prosecutors have taken the lead in proposing reforms. Now police chiefs are jumping in, focusing on their specialty: the front end of the justice system. Today, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) is gathering about 70 experts from various disciplines involved in the legal system at a summit in Alexandria, Va., a Washington, D.C. suburb, to seek new solutions. The session was set up at the urging of current IACP President Walter McNeil, police chief of Quincy, FL. Writing in the organization s magazine, McNeil said that, While a very small percentage of all convictions are in fact wrongful, the damage to those wrongly accused, convicted, and incarcerated is irreversible. He added: The damage goes beyond the wrongfully convicted citizen; it hurts all those involved in the case, including law enforcement and prosecutorial staff, families of the wrongfully accused, the victim of the original crime in question, and the public at large when justice is not carried out and the true guilty individual is not arrested and punished. 6

7 The event, which is not open to the public, includes four working groups, titled Making Rightful Arrests, Correcting a Wrongful Arrest, Technology and Forensic Issues and Reexamination of Closed Cases. The one-day session, which is supported by three federal agencies--the National Institute of Justice, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, and the Office for Victims of Crime, will publish a set of recommendations later. WNYC In the Bronx, Victims Get 24 Hours to Talk Or the DA Lets the Accused Walk A months-long WNYC investigation has revealed that those accused of crimes in the Bronx have a greater chance of walking away without any charges than anywhere else in the city. The Bronx County District Attorney s Office declines to prosecute thousands more cases than do the four other District Attorney offices and one of the main reasons is an internal policy that cops say allows criminals to go free. In the Bronx, if a victim isn t interviewed by prosecutors within 24 hours after an arrest, the DA will almost always decline to prosecute the case an internal policy followed by no other DA s office in the city. 7

8 Upcoming Courses To see a full list of our upcoming courses, their dates, summaries and registration forms, please visit Member Benefits New NDAA membership benefits available: Need Case Assistance? NDAA can help. Send a message to NDAA s prosecutor assistance address and we will get your request to one of our program specialists or out to prosecutors around the country. jhemphill@ndaa.org 8