The Volokh Conspiracy’s Orin Kerr calls December 13th “Ninth Circuit Correction Day” because of two summary reversals of criminal-friendly decisions of the zany federal appellate court, which he summarizes nicely. (See also Dec. 7.) In one, Brousseau v. Haugen, the Court threw out a case that the Ninth Circuit had reinstated. Kenneth J. Haugen pled guilty to a felony, admitting that, while attempting to escape an arrest, he drove a Jeep through a “small, tight space” crowded with vehicles with “wanton or wilful disregard for the lives…of others.” But he sued the officer who apprehended him by wounding him with a shot as he was driving away (after disregarding multiple orders to surrender to an officer with a drawn weapon). The Ninth Circuit had wanted to let this case against the policewoman be decided by a jury for a supposed violation of civil rights. (David G. Savage, “Supreme Court Sides With Police”, LA Times, Dec. 13). Other police-chase lawsuits: Feb. 18; Sep. 21, 2003; Jul. 23, 2003; and older entries.
Posts Tagged ‘crime and punishment’
Swiss Army knife? “Yer goin’ down, mate”
Innocents behind bars
San Francisco magazine takes a long look at persons eventually exonerated and freed from prison after serving long stretches (“Innocence Lost”, Nov. (PDF)). Among them is the case of “John Stoll this past spring. After 20 years in jail for an infamous crime he did not commit, a judge said it had all been a mistake, and he was set free. ‘You win some, you lose some,’ the prosecutor shrugged, refusing to offer any admission of error or hint of an apology for all that her office had put Stoll through.” For the recent North Carolina case of Sylvester Smith, freed after 20 years in prison, see “Molestation charges dropped after victims recant allegations from ’84”, AP/Winston-Salem Journal, Nov. 6. (& letter to the editor, Dec. 20).
“Woman Drops Sunflower Seed, Pays $185 Fine”
The Oklahoma City Municipal Court has upheld Tricia Morgan’s fine for discarding a single sunflower seed on the street: biodegradable or not, it’s still litter. Next stop: fingernail clippings? (The KCRAChannel.com, Nov. 4)(via Matt Welch, Reason “Hit and Run”).
“French drink-drive hosts cleared”
“A French couple on trial for allowing a dinner guest to get into his car while drunk have been cleared of all criminal charges by a court in Nancy. … Victims’ relatives brought the case, accusing Angelique and Jean-Sebastian Fraisse of failing to prevent a crime.” (BBC, Oct. 19).
Criminalizing pain treatment
The New York Times has a short piece on how medical disputes over proper forms of pain treatment have effectively been criminalized by a phobic and overzealous DEA. Reason Magazine has a longer piece on the subject, and has been covering this topic for quite some time.
“We are unable to refer patients to doctors who will treat pain, if only because once a name gets out there, patients understandably flock, and then the doctor is targeted,” said Siobhan Reynolds of Pain Relief Network, a patient advocacy group based in New York. The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, based in Tucson and dedicated to the concerns of private practitioners, has gone so far as to warn doctors against managing chronic pain, lest they face of years of harassment and legal fees, even prison. “If you do,” the association enjoins, “first discuss the risks with your family.”
Scattered evidence confirms these impressions. A 1998 survey of more than 1,300 physicians by the New York State Medical Society found that 60 percent were moderately or very concerned about the possibility of being investigated by regulatory authorities for prescribing opiates for noncancer pain.
A third said they prescribed lower quantities of pills and lower dosages “frequently” because of the possibility of eliciting an investigation. When asked how often they avoided prescribing a preferred drug for noncancer pain, because doing so required triplicate forms, half said “frequently.”
(Sally Satel, M.D., “Doctors Behind Bars: Treating Pain Is Now Risky Business”, New York Times, Oct. 19; Maia Szalavitz, “Dr. Feelscared”, Reason, Aug/Sep.; Jacob Sullum, “Pill Stoppers”, Reason Online, Aug. 20).
Seized cars at auction: buyer beware
Buying at auction a car confiscated by government authorities — seems like a thrifty idea, no? However, in at least three cases in the vicinity of San Diego and nearby Tijuana, Mexico the buyers appear to have gotten more than they bargained for: illegal drugs were later found concealed in the cars, and the hapless motorists in all three cases spent time in jail before the seeming mixup was straightened out. A lawyer for one of the buyers, U.S. citizen Adrian Rodriguez, is now trying to prove that the Customs Service conducted a less than thorough search for contraband before the auctions because it didn’t want to impair the cars’ auction value by cutting them up too drastically. The agency denies the charge. (Anna Cearley, “Customs evidence preserved?”, San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 27).
Oz: “Nudge of sniffer dog is assault, court told”
Hey, that dog’s nose touched me! I’ve been assaulted! Especially since it tipped off the arresting officer that drugs might be found on my person if I were subjected to search. A New South Wales appeals court is hearing Glen Paul Darby’s appeal (Sydney Morning Herald, Sept. 16).
In-car sobriety test
Jason Reali of Pennsylvania has been convicted of drunk driving twice, and he was ordered by a court to install on his dashboard an ignition interlock, “a small machine that measures alcohol on the breath and won’t allow a car to start if the driver has been drinking.” Forty-five states use ignition interlocks; last year, such interlocks have stopped would-be drunken drivers from starting their cars over 33,000 times. Reali, however, is also a heavy smoker, and he claims that blowing into the interlock while driving caused him to pass out and crash. This is, according to his lawsuit, the fault of Pennsylvania and the interlock manufacturer, LifeSafer Interlock Inc. (Oliver Prichard, “Sobriety devices drawing criticism”, Philadelphia Inquirer, Sep. 12; AP, Sep. 12).
$6.5M for being the location of shooting
Luis Gutierrez was providing police with information about a series of burglaries, and police believe that’s why he was shot four times and killed by a ski-masked assailant in the parking lot of the Alamo Quarry Market movie theater in San Antonio. (They’ve made no arrests as of yet.) His family sued the shopping mall management company, Trammell Crow, for not providing enough security to prevent the premeditated attack; their attorney asked for $5 million and a Bexar County jury awarded $6.5 million. Trammell Crow is appealing. The local paper ran the story without any effort to tell the defendant’s side of the story. (KSAT, Sep. 3; Tom Bower, “Jury awards $6.5 million in Quarry shooting”, San Antonio Express-News, Sep. 4).