A state appeals court has ordered ex-lawyer Richard Dangler Jr. of Sacramento to pay $25,000 in sanctions for operating “a ‘writ mill’ where law students and disbarred lawyers worked without supervision in filing pointless petitions for paying inmates”. The attorney had filed “a series of what he conceded were ‘patently frivolous and contemptuous’ habeas corpus petitions. Dangler resigned from the State Bar in May with charges pending against him.” (Jill Duman, “Court Says Ex-Lawyer Put Students to Work in Writ Mill”, The Recorder, Sept. 3).
Posts Tagged ‘crime and punishment’
Police officers, above the law
According to Newsday, reporting from Long Island, N.Y., the spring issue of the local union newsletter of the Police Benevolent Association ran an item by treasurer Bill Mauck advising members that in case the car stopped for a traffic violation happens to be that of a police officer, “you don’t summons another cop”. Questioned by the newspaper, union president Jeff Frayler confirmed that “it has been union policy to discourage Suffolk police officers from issuing tickets to fellow officers, regardless of where they work. ‘Police officers have discretion whenever they stop anyone, but they should particularly extend that courtesy in the case of other police officers and their families,’ Frayler said …. ‘It is a professional courtesy.'” Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said he was appalled at the policy: “We can’t be sending the message that some are above the law.” (Joe Kelley’s The Sake of Argument, Apr. 5; via Charles Oliver, “Brickbats”, Reason, Apr.).
“‘Hurt feelings’ win killer $1200”
“A man jailed for brutally murdering a teenage girl has been awarded [NZ]$1200 compensation for hurt feelings and humiliation while in prison.” (Bridget Carter, New Zealand Herald, Aug. 23). “In a decision that prompted political anger, the Human Rights Review Tribunal said inmate Andrew MacMillan had suffered “injury to his feelings, loss of dignity and humiliation” when he was denied access to [a letter written about him]. MacMillan was jailed in 1988 for raping and killing Jayne McLellan, 17.” (“Convicted NZ murderer compensated for hurt feelings”, ABC News Online, Aug. 23; “Rapist-killer wins cash award for hurt feelings”, Sydney Morning Herald, Aug. 23).
“Deadbeat” dads: how many in jail?
The Department of Justice “states that 2,078,570 people were incarcerated ‘in Federal or State prisons or in local jails’ as of June 30, 2003.” How many of them were fathers behind on their child support payments? It seems impossible to get a firm answer to that question, or even a decent estimate. Some such fathers are genuinely able to pay but are expressing contumely toward the court; others, however, appear to have landed in a latter-day equivalent of debtor’s prison. “Their employment prospects sink with each imprisonment, even as their child support debt rises.” (Wendy McElroy, “In Defense of ‘Deadbeat’ Dads”, FoxNews, Aug. 4).
And, of course, parents wind up in jail for nonfinancial offenses too. A “Virginia mother was sentenced [Aug. 12] to 10 days in jail for defying a court order not to smoke in front of her children.” After spending four hours behind bars Tamara Silvius was released on bond for purposes of appealing the order. (Sue Anne Pressley, “Mother Who Smoked Near Family Gets Jail”, Washington Post, Aug. 13).
Not the DUI’s fault?
On June 26, 2002, Reno policeman Mike Scofield was heading to the scene of an accident at a high rate of speed, but didn’t turn on his motorcycle siren. Anna Marie Jackson was pulling out of an office park driveway to make a left turn, and paused in the middle of the street in Scofield’s path; Scofield, driving in the left lane, hit her SUV, and was killed instantly. Jackson was eventually convicted of a felony for causing a fatal crash while driving with marijuana in her system.
So the widow, already receiving $1.3 million in workers compensation, sued… the office park, claiming that untrimmed trees caused the accident, though a photo of the view showed no obstruction. Her lawyer even asked for punitive damages. A jury didn’t buy it, voting 7-1 against the widow. (Jaclyn O’Malley, “Officer?s widow loses lawsuit”, Reno Gazette-Journal, Aug. 13; Martha Bellisle, “Scofield trial nearing end”, Reno Gazette-Journal, Aug. 12; Martha Bellisle, “Civil trial begins in Scofield case”, Reno Gazette-Journal, Jul. 21; Reno press release, Sep. 26, 2002). Anna Marie Jackson is appealing her conviction; sentencing is set for September 10, where she faces two to twenty years. (Jaclyn O’Malley, “Jackson given OK to marry before sentencing in cop’s death”, Reno Gazette-Journal, Apr. 30).
Another driver in a drunken driving death fared better. Robert Curry, who had three previous drunken driving convictions, had had four vodkas and a blood-alcohol level of at least .217 when he drove his jeep over a center line and struck Robert Strehlow’s motorcycle, killing him. But Curry claimed he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from his service in Vietnam that caused him to drink. Curry singled out an event in 1971 where he claimed his plane had been shot down, but the commander of his company testified the incident never happened. Moreover, for the year while he was in jail following the accident before he made bail, he didn’t seek counseling. Nevertheless, a Wisconsin jury found him not guilty of homicide by reason of mental disorder. Curry will now undergo a psychiatric evaluation and will be released to outpatient treatment if he is not a “threat to the public.” (Tom Daykin, “Jury acquits veteran haunted by memories”, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Aug. 12; Terri Pederson, “Curry: Post traumatic stress disorder led to deadly drunken driving collision”, Daily Citizen, Aug. 6; Tom Daykin, “Man’s stories of Vietnam stress questioned”, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Mar. 14; Tom Daykin, “With company on upswing, fatal collision brings man’s world crashing down”, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Oct. 25).
DUI laws in the dark
The Washington Post profiles various local residents who saw their lives turned upside down, sometimes losing their marriage or livelihood, after being arrested under driving-under-the-influence laws which mandate automatic license suspension for first-time offenders. One woman had attended a birthday party after which she drove with a slightly elevated blood-alcohol level (0.09) which would not have constituted a legal offense at all until lawmakers ratcheted down permissible blood levels. (Lena H. Sun and Carol Morello, “For DUI, Personal Costs Are High”, Washington Post, Jul. 25). Soon the Post was fielding vehement letters to the editor accusing the paper’s reporters of excessive sympathy for these criminals. The TrueBeliever.org site, run by a California defense lawyer, has more, including a pointer to an organization called Responsibility in DUI Laws, Inc.. Radley Balko also offers a few opinions, with a big comments section, while KipEsquire dissents.
“Rape shield laws don’t work”
In “acquaintance rape” cases, especially, these laws unjustly deny defendants access to potentially exculpatory evidence. Yet they haven’t succeeded in protecting rape accusers’ reputations or right to privacy either, especially in runaway media events like the Kobe Bryant trial in Colorado: “high-profile rape trials allow the media to do far more damage than rape shield laws ever tried to mitigate”. (Dahlia Lithwick (acting this month as guest columnist), New York Times, Aug. 8).
“Grandparents sue over jailhouse baby”
Knoxville, Ga.: “The grandparents of a child conceived while her parents were both in the Crawford County Jail want the county to help them support the baby. LaTonya Finney and boyfriend, Adrian Howard, were jailed in 2002 to await trial on robbery charges. While they remained behind bars, Finney became pregnant.” Finney’s parents now say that because their daughter was impregnated while in prison, “Crawford County Sheriff Kerry Dunaway shares some of the responsibility — and the cost — while the tot’s parents are both serving prison terms.” The couple say the sheriff granted them a conjugal visit, but he says the man picked a lock and gained access to the women’s portion of the prison to see his girlfriend.
“‘I just think it’s a very, very bizarre social conscience these people have that their daughter conceives a child and they think the sheriff is responsible,’ said county attorney David Mincey Jr. The sheriff said he wasn’t even aware of Finney’s pregnancy until Howard filed suit demanding to be released from prison to care for Adrianna. That case is still pending.” (AP/CNN, Aug. 2).
More on Racial Profiling
Last night I mentioned some of the difficulties in trying to justify racial profiling on the grounds of efficient policing. I just wanted to add a few more comments. First, in my paper with Mike Alexeev, our generally anti-profiling “results” apply to situations where the probability of being stopped is relatively low, as it is in standard highway enforcement. If the police can stop a substantial proportion of folks (a’ la airport screening), then our results are not applicable. Second, choosing whom to stop is the first stage, but as or more important is the next stage, how those who are stopped are treated. Is the stop limited in time and intrusiveness? (Here’s one way not to treat people.) Further, is the goal that ostensibly is being served actually benefiting from the profiling? In a fine paper that looks very closely at Maryland’s I-95 stops, Samuel R. Gross and Katherine Y. Barnes attack Maryland’s stop-and-search policy partly on the grounds that it accomplishes essentially nothing in impeding the flow of drugs to Baltimore and Washington, DC. Third, I am almost ashamed to admit that my own views on racial profiling changed a bit when I found myself to be a “profilee.” (I briefly recounted the tale during an earlier guest-blogging appearance at Crescat Sententia — oh no, I don’t want to develop a reputation as someone who blogs around!) Funny how it is easier to suport a policy (our drug war comes to mind) when you are pretty sure that you and yours will not bear the costs of it.
Racial Profiling
Should the police use race as one of the characteristics upon which they make decisions about stopping and searching motorists or pedestrians? (The question assumes, of course, that the police are not operating from a description of a specific individual believed to be involved in a crime.) Among those who have answered “no” to a question of this sort is our nation’s Attorney General. Others think that the practice is OK, as long as it is consistent with efficient policing: after all, you wouldn’t want to focus lots of law enforcement on groups that are rare offenders, such as elderly women. But is it right that a black driver on I-95 in Maryland in the late 1990s was five times more likely to be subject to a search than was a white driver?
Those who take the “efficient policing” position often say that the disproportionate number of stops is OK, as long as the probability that a searched motorist is carrying contraband (in the case of anti-drug enforcement, the aim of most of the highway searches) is about the same for blacks as for whites. (This probability is sometimes called the “hit rate.”) By this reckoning, if only 5 percent of the blacks who are searched are found to be carrying drugs, while 20 percent of the whites searched are carrying, then the racial disparities in searches are not consistent with efficient policing and should be curtailed, eliminated, or reversed. On the other hand, if the hit rate for searches is about 20 percent for both groups, then the use of race as an indicator might be acceptable.
But I and my co-author, Michael Alexeev of Indiana University, think that this standard “efficient policing” story is mistaken, for reasons that I will mention after the “Continue reading…” link.