Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Police and prosecution roundup

  • Mississippi AG Jim Hood, a longtime Overlawyered fave, finds way to snipe at opposing death penalty counsel [Radley Balko]
  • Police use forced catheterization to obtain urine samples from unwilling suspects. A constitutional issue? [Argus-Leader, South Dakota]
  • “Why Gary Johnson Opposes Hate-Crime Laws (and You Should Too)” [Elizabeth Nolan Brown]
  • Yes, the Baltimore aerial surveillance program should raise concerns [Matthew Feeney, Cato]
  • “The Citizen as ATM: A small Missouri city has become a legal testing ground for ticketing practices and court reform” [Carla Main, City Journal]
  • New Mexico, a leader on asset forfeiture reform, should now tackle mens rea reform [Paul Gessing]

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7 Comments

  • Why would you ever need to forcibly catheterize someone to obtain evidence? Even if the suspect is uncooperative, all you would really have to do is wait a few hours.

    • By David C

  • If I throw a rock through your window, said Johnson, “I should be prosecuted on throwing the rock, not my thoughts that motivated me throwing the rock.”

    New Mexico, a leader on asset forfeiture reform, should now tackle mens rea reform

    … you know, even though I don’t necessarily disagree with either of those, they do seem somewhat contradictory.

    • By David C

    • Indeed.
      Did I throw the rock at your window because a meterorite fell from the sky, glanced off my body, and hit your window?
      Did I throw the rock at your window because I’m planting a tree in my yard and carelessly flung a shovelful of dirt too far?
      Did I throw the rock at your window because I’m your friend and was trying to attract your attention by flicking pebbles your way?
      Did I throw the rock at your window because you took my parking space and I’m an awful person?
      Did I throw a rock at your window because I was driving around the neighborhood throwing rocks at houses randomly? [Bonus question: did I do that because I was bored, because I’ve taken drugs, or because the voices in my head told me I had to?]
      Did I throw the rock at your window because I want to break in and take your TV while you’re on vacation?
      Did I throw the rock at your window because I want to hold your family at gunpoint?
      Did I throw the rock at your window because I don’t like your race, religion, sexual orientation, etc…?

      • By mx

  • On forced medical procedures.

    I find it hard to believe self respecting, much less patient respecting, health care providers undertake assaultive medical procedures. The warrant might claim to grant the health care providers judicial consent, but no warrant can compel any specific provider to perform medical assaults.

    Need a couple ‘patients’ to sue over unconsented medical procedures. Doubtful that medical societies would back their members. And ultimately whether such suits are successful or not, it would appropriately chill any enthusiasm of emergency room nurses to test their license and livelihood.

    • By Gasman

    • And yet it still happens. The New Mexico man who was subjected to thousands of dollars worth of intrusive medical procedures ending with a colonoscopy because police accused him of hiding drugs in his body would be the most prominent example. In that case, the first doctor to see him refused to have anything to do with it, but staff at a second hospital were more accommodating.

      • By mx