"Sexually Tinged Words" to 10-Year-Old Insufficient to Prove Attempt to Sexually Assault / Entice into Car
An interesting illustration of the evidence required to prove an attempt to commit a crime.
An interesting illustration of the evidence required to prove an attempt to commit a crime.
There is little utility to charging 10-year-olds as adults, yet Wisconsin still mandates the practice in certain cases.
Missouri law bans those under 21 from witnessing executions. Despite attempts to challenge the law, 19-year-old Khorry Ramey will be barred from attending her father's execution on Tuesday.
The court says a 51-year "life" sentence for a 2015 murder violated the Eighth Amendment.
The music industry objects to the use of rap lyrics by prosecutors.
Plus: The authoritarian convergence, inflation up and stocks down, and more...
The Court agrees with my argument that crime victims can become "limited-purpose parties" in criminal proceedings to protect their interests, such as an interest in the confidentiality of mental health counseling records.
John Adams called jury trials part of the "heart and lungs of liberty." Today, defendants are often punished for exercising that very right.
According to Alito, Gorsuch’s opinion “veered off into fantasy land.”
The defendant is one Rovier Carrington, who "sued Hollywood executives alleging that the executives had sexually assaulted him, and that they had defrauded him in connection with a decision to refuse to produce [his] reality television program."
A Snapchat post containing this line and "a copy of the police report summarizing [a witness's] identification of [a person] as the shooter" leads to a four-year prison sentence for witness tampering; a New Jersey court says the post is a constitutionally unprotected true threat of violence.
A recent pair of cases spotlights the sorry state of affairs.
The recall of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin demands a rethinking of the "progressive prosecutor" brand.
Former prosecutors Markus Funk and Andrew S. Boutros, and Judge Virginia Kendall, delve further into this fascinating question.
Putin and other Russian leaders are likely guilty of massive war crimes. And there is real, though limited, value to pursuing the issue.
In Wooden v. United States, the justices were unanimous in the judgment, but expressed disagreement over the role of statutory history and the rule of lenity.
The SCOTUS pick has shown admirable judgment in criminal justice cases.
The decision is at odds with rulings by some other federal courts, and could end up setting an important precedent.
As the trial wraps up, it's important to remember that the first prosecutor on the case, Jackie Johnson, has been indicted for violating her oath of office.
Some states still allow ordinary citizens (and not just the usual criminal prosecutors) to initiate a prosecution of someone they accuse of a crime.
Professor Matthew Steilen points to an interesting letter to St. George Tucker
Today produced one of the Supreme Court term's few true conservative-liberal splits, and showed additional signs of a generational divide on criminal law.
Substantive criminal law consists of more than statutes and formal common law.
Police were finally able to catch the serial killer using DNA genealogy databases—violating many innocent people's constitutional right to privacy.
A liberal result (granting a criminal defendant's habeas petition) from a quite conservative judge (John Bush).
The system routinely excludes not only those who might be familiar with a given case, but also those who have relevant background knowledge that might improve the quality of jury deliberations.
Experts disagree on whether this is likely or not. The answer remains unclear. But, either way, reform advocates should pursue both litigation and legislative reform. The two approaches are mutually reinforcing, not mutually exclusive.
"Using a bait-and-switch tactic, a detective posing as [eighteen-year-old] Amber chatted and flirted with DeMare online and via text message for four days as an adult before revealing on the fifth day that she was actually a minor."
Former federal judge Michael Luttig thinks that the D.C. Circuit did not really understand what was at stake.
The Department of Justice is finding creative ways to file federal charges against rioters and looters.
A Sixth Circuit panel rejects claims of qualified immunity for officers and Monell immunity for a Cleveland suburb.
A former Bush Administration Justice Department official responds to Judge Michael Luttig's critique of Judge Sullivan.
A former federal judge (and Supreme Court short-lister) on what Judge Emmett Sullivan (and his critics) got right, and got wrong
A new paper by Thomas Frampton suggests most recent commentary concerning the Michael Flynn prosecution gets it wrong.
An abuse of power that doesn't violate federal fraud statutes can still be an impeachable offense - and still violate other criminal law.
The brief was filed by the Cato Institute on behalf of both Cato and myself.
Kansas “will not wholly exonerate a defendant on the ground that his illness prevented him from recognizing his criminal act as morally wrong.”
Under the law, prosecutors are supposed to pursue justice and not only seek convictions.