Articles Posted in Criminal Law

In a ruling that affects all drug cases tested at the state lab between 2009 and 2013, the Massachusetts Supreme Court concluded that former state chemist Sonja Farak's "widespread evidence tampering" had compromised thousands of criminal drug convictions.


Posted in: Criminal Law

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently decided a case allowing the government to produce evidence from the Internet Archive (often referred to as the “Wayback Machine”). The July 2018 ruling supports a similar holding from the Third Circuit in 2011.


From August 21 to September 9, inmates across at least 17 states plan to refuse to work to draw attention to poor prison conditions and exploitative labor practices in American correctional facilities.


Tagged: prison, protests

In October, Canada is set to legalize the recreational use of marijuana nationwide. Legalization theoretically could mean that American consumers could cross the border to consume marijuana in Canada and possibly bring it back to the U.S., but in reality this is unlikely to happen, at least for now. While some states…


California’s felony murder rule may soon be curtailed, if a bill in the state legislature gets approved.


On Friday Special Counsel Robert Mueller issued an indictment of 12 Russian military officers for conspiring to hack into the computers of U.S. persons and entities involved in the 2016 presidential election. The 11-count indictment goes into great detail and specificity, charging that the hacking began at least in March of 2016 and continued through November 2016.


Posted in: Criminal Law

The law in Tennessee stated that failure to pay court fines and other fees associated with an arrest or imprisonment that lasted more than a year is grounds for taking away a person's driver’s license. The consequences of the law for such individuals means that they will have a more difficult time to earn income, as many employment opportunities require a valid driver’s license. Additionally, driving to and from work without a valid driver’s license runs the risk of getting fined or arrested if caught.


Additional counts of sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein have the potential to carry a life sentence if the movie mogul is convicted.


Aaron Persky, the Santa Clara County Superior Court judge who sentenced Stanford student Brock Turner to just six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, was recalled on Tuesday. This is the first time in 80 years that a judge has been recalled in California. The last time a judge was recalled in the United States was in Wisconsin over 40 years ago.


Posted in: Criminal Law

Rising concerns nationwide about underage marriage are reflected in an impending proposal by a Utah legislator to raise the state's legal age of marriage to 18.