Archive for the 'The Criminal Justice System' Category

As police continue to investigate the slain man believed to have killed five people in a small South Carolina town, more incriminating details are uncovered, including his recent parole from a North Carolina prison, and had items belonging to the victims on him at the time of his death, according to CNN.

Patrick Tracy Burris was killed by police in Dallas, N.C., on July 6. Police responded to a burglary call, and found Burris with the homeowners, who identified him as an acquaintance.

After running a background check on Burris, they discovered he had a warrant out for parole violation. Burris then opened fire on the officers, shooting one in the leg. Officers returned fire and killed him, CNN reports.

Burris allegedly shot and killed five people, ages 15 to 83, in Gaffney, S.C., between July 27 and his death.

His criminal record includes only white-collar and property criminal charges, such as extortion, blackmail, and larceny. Burris served eight years for felony breaking and entering and larceny convictions.

At his parole in April, prison officials say they had no reason to suspect he would turn violent.

California’s Supreme Court upheld a provision that allows crimes committed while a minor to affect sentencing under the state’s controversial Three-Strikes law, according to the San Francisco Gate.

Under the three-strikes law, any second felony conviction receives twice the normal sentence; any third felony conviction receives an automatic life sentence. The court’s decision means that even if one or both previous felony was committed while the offender was under 18, it still counts as a strike.

The provision was already part of  the California law, but had been challenged after a district court heard the case of San Jose defendant, Vince Nguyen, who was sentenced in 2005 to 32 months for being a felon in possession of a firearm — twice the normal sentence.

Nguyen received a previous felony in 1999 for aggravated assault when he was 16, according to the S.F. Gate article.

In his appeal, Nguyen’s defense attorney argued that because juvenile court cases are decided by a judge and not a jury, allowing a juvenile record to affect a later trial violates his client’s right to due process.

In the decision for the 6-1 ruling, Justice Marvin Baxter wrote that juveniles in California have “every substantial safeguard required in an adult criminal trial except the right to trial by jury,” including the right to be convicted beyond a reasonable doubt.

Criminal defendants can now question the validity of lab results in court, thanks to a recent ruling by the US Supreme Court.

In a 5-4 ruling, the court said that allowing prosecutors to submit forensic evidence without questioning by the defense is a violation of Sixth Amendment right to face one’s accuser, according to The New York Times.

The decision invalidates the theory of neutral scientific evidence.

“Dispensing with confrontation because testimony is obviously reliable is akin to dispensing with jury trial because a defendant is obviously guilty,” Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority.

The court heard the case Luis Melendez-Diaz of Boston, who was arrested for drug distribution & trafficking, along with two other men.

After their arrest, police found 19 plastic bags containing a white powder in the back seat of their vehicle. A lab report identified the powder as cocaine, which was entered into evidence used to convict Melendez-Diaz, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

The decision came in the wake of a wave of scandals at crime laboratories that included hundreds of tainted cases in Michigan, Texas and West Virginia.

Now, a defense attorney will be able to call the lab technician for cross-examination and potentially raise question to the legitimacy of the analysis.

When Michael Jackson died unexpectedly June 25, there were two points that summed up his obituary: He was a million-selling mega-superstar, and his personal life was sketchy at best.

Jackson’s alleged criminal history found him under investigation for child abuse twice. A 1993 case was dropped without formal charges being filed, while a 2005 case resulted in Jackson being acquitted of all charges.

1993 Case

In 1993, the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s office began its investigation of Jackson following allegations of sexual abuse by Evan Chandler, the father of Jordan Chandler, a 13-year-old boy who Jackson had befriended.

Prior to the allegations, Jackson was rumored to be living with the Chandler family, and was close friends with Jordan, a fan he had met in 1992.

The District Attorney’s office searched Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, and the Jackson family’s home, but was unable to turn up incriminating evidence.

Famously, the District Attorney’s office examined Jackson in the nude, following testimony from Jordan Chandler about the appearance of his genitalia. While the description was allegedly similar, it was not close enough to be used as evidence.

Two days after the investigation, Jackson issued a statement by satellite from his Neverland Ranch, describing his disgust at the proceedings and the mass media, and affirming his innocence.

After having developed a drug addiction from the stress of the proceedings, and weary of the media, Jackson eventually settled out of court with the Chandler family. Unable to secure Jordan Chandler’s testimony, the prosecution ceased its investigation without formally issuing any charges.

Bashir Documentary

The majority of Michael’s fans, and America at large, believed Jackson’s claims of innocence. However, his reputation was tarnished.

In 2002, British journalist Martin Bashir began filming a documentary, Living with Michael Jackson, that interviewed and followed Jackson around over a period of 8 months, from May 2002 to January 2003.

Airing in February 2003, the documentary immediately drew speculation and re-fanned the flames surrounding Jackson’s relationship with children.

In particular, Michael was accompanied by a 13-year-old boy, Gavin Arvizo, throughout most of the film, and Jackson spoke about sharing his bed with Arvizo and other boys.

People vs. Jackson

Following the broadcast, Santa Barbara District Attorney Thomas Sneddon, the same man who investigated Jackson 10 years earlier, indicted Jackson and his aides on charges of conspiracy to commit child abduction, false imprisonment, and extortion.

In June, 2003, the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department began its investigation of Jackson. In November, more than 70 members of the DA’s office and Sheriff’s department arrived at Neverland Ranch with a search warrant — the largest “raid” in American history that wasn’t for a murderer of serial killer.

On November 20, Jackson flew from Las Vegas, where he was performing, to Santa Barbara for a voluntary arrest.

In a following press conference, Sneddon was quoted as saying “We got him. We finally got him,” despite the fact that the investigation had only just begun, leading many the believe Sneddon had a vendetta against Jackson.

In 2004, Jackson was arraigned, and pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges against him (after which he hopped onto his car and began dancing for his fans). A grand jury unveiled the charges against Jackson and five co-conspirators, setting the stage for his jury trial.

Jury Trial

Jackson’s jury trial began on February 28, 2005.

The judge allowed the prosecution to present evidence that Jackson had a habitual criminal mindset, with evidence from the 1993 investigation being submitted in addition to evidence from the current proceedings.

Both the prosecution and the criminal defense called a wide range of witnesses: five men who alleged that Jackson had abused them as boys testified for the prosecution; Jay Leno and Macaulay Caulkin, among others, testified for the defense.

Finally, after all the evidence was considered, the jury returned its verdict on June 13, 2005: not guilty on all 10 counts.

The investigation and trial lasted for 574 days.

Once again, although Jackson was never convicted of any crimes, the view of Jackson as an alleged criminal was one that could not be eliminated. In the years before his death, Jackson became increasingly reclusive, even moving to Bahrain. Jackson returned to the spotlight while planning a massive farewell tour before his death from cardiac arrest at age 50.

Read more about Jackson’s civil lawsuits.

The Justice Department unsealed criminal indictments against 53 people accused of perpetrating a massive Medicare scam that cost the federal government more than $50 million, according to the Washington Post.

Following the indictment, announced by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III in Washington Wednesday, suspects were arrested in Detroit, Denver and Miami.

Authorities filed criminal charges against patients, doctors, medical assistants and company owners who allegedly played complicit roles in the fraud schemes.

According to Detroit news outlet Local 4, the suspects would target the homeless population, and use their Social Security numbers and Medicare IDs. They would take that information to medical centers, who would bill the government program for treatments that were never performed and medicine that was never given.

Juan Johnson, a man who spent 11 and a half years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, was awarded the largest wrongful conviction award in the history of Chicago, according to WLS-TV.

Johnson was convicted of fatally beating a man with a two-by-four in Chicago’s Humbolt Park neighborhood in 1989.

Johnson’s defense attorneys relentlessly fought his conviction, and he was acquitted in 2004.

In his defense, Johnson claimed to have been framed for murder by a now-retired Chicago police detective in the gang crime unit, Reynaldo Guevara. That speculation is what won him his acquittal, and his record-breaking federal jury award.

“What we proved in this federal case that his conviction was not an accident but he was a victim of police misconduct by Officer Guevara,” said Jon Loevy, Johnson’s attorney.

Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions is investigating more than 40 alleged frame-ups by Detective Guevara.

The Supreme Court is set to hear a case that could keep sex offenders in prison for longer periods of time — even after they’ve finished their sentence.

The issue of federal “civil commitment” allows the government to avoid releasing convicted sex offenders considered to be dangerous, with a high risk of offending again, according to CNN.

The main plaintiff in the case, Graydon Comstock, was deemed too dangerous to release by the state of North Carolina only six days before his child pornography sentence was to end in 2006.

An appeals court ruled that confinement without any new charges violated the Sixth Amendment right to due process of Comstock and up to 77 other men. However, the state has continued to keep these prisoners in civil confinement pending further appeals.

The case will be heard by the Court in October.

In addition to violating constitutional rights, Comstock’s defense attorney has argued that in passing the 2006 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, Congress overstepped its bounds by interfering in states’ rights.

Most violent sex crimes are prosecuted at a state level, and by initiating the civil commitment program, the federal government may be dictating how states should process criminals.

If the Supreme Court sides with Comstock the other North Carolina prisoners, some offenders who have completed their sentences could be released immediately following the ruling.

An Ohio repeat drug offender has been released from prison after discovering a typo in his jury verdict, according to a recent CNN story.

When Calvin Eugene Wells of Akron was convicted for first-degree crack cocaine possession in October, 2005, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison, due to the amount of the drug in his possession — more than 100 grams.

However, in the official verdict signed by the jury, that amount was skewed, leading to confusion about exactly what Wells had been convicted for.

The form, typed by an employee of the court or prosecution, reads in part:

We, the Jury, find the Defendant Guilty of the offense of POSSESSION OF CRACK COCAINE.

We, the jury, further find that the amount of crack cocaine WAS in the amount exceeding ten one hundred (100) grams as charged in the indictment.

The phrase ten one hundred (100) grams sticks out, and, according to a three-judge appeals board, lowers Wells’ crime to fifth-degree possession.

Wells had already served four years of his sentence before being released from prison.

Wells discovered the superfluous number while researching his case from prison, but had more difficulty finding a criminal defense attorney who would take the issue to appeals.

Finally, Wells fifth attorney, Jason Desiderio, successfully argued that Wells was unduly sentenced.

However, even with his favorable decision, Wells may be heading back to prison. He apparently has an outstanding warrant for possession in New Jersey.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset was sentenced by a federal jury to pay the Recording Industry Association of America nearly $2 million for 24 counts of copyright infringement, according to multiple online news outlets.

This was the second trial for Thomas-Rasset, after the judge presiding over her first trial issued a mistrial following a $220,000 verdict by the jury.

Thomas-Rasset allegedly illegally downloaded songs from Green Day, Sheryl Crow and others from the peer-to-peer network Kazaa.

Copyright law allows juries to fine a guilty party between $750 and $150,000 per count, ultimately settling on $80,000 owed for each song.

Thomas-Rasset allegedly distributed 1,702 songs on the file sharing network, although the RIAA chose to focus on only 24.

Some constitutional scholars predict this case could be appealed to the Supreme Court, noting that the compensation amount greatly outweighs the injustice done — a clear example of cruel and unusual punishment.

The RIAA is notorious for going after file-sharers. There have been at least 35,000 other lawsuits, all settled out of court for an average $50,000. The RIAA has said they are still willing to persue a settlement with Thomas-Rasset.

During the trial, her defense attorney tried to cast doubt on Thomas-Rasset’s involvement in the file sharing, and illustrated her as a music lover who has already put thousands of dollars in the RIAA’s pocket through legal purchases.

“Defendant is a single mother, residing in greater Minnesota who did not download anything from Kazaa or any other peer to peer network. Ironically, defendant is one of plaintiffs’ best customers having bought hundreds of dollars worth of their CD’s, yet she has shared the same fate as thousands of other individuals who have been sued by various recording company plaintiffs,” the defense said.

Prison is no party. Not unless you know the right people, that is.

in New York City, the Bureau Chief of Department of Corrections Facility Operations and the chaplain of the Manhattan Detention Complex have resigned after helping a prisoner arrange a bar mitzvah — inside the prison.

Approximately 60 guests arrived at the detention center, known as “The Tombs,” for prisoner Tuvia Stern’s son’s bar mitzvah, which included catered kosher food and a live band, according to an investigation by the New York Post.

Apparently the party was such as smash that Stern held his daughter’s engagement party in the prison a few months later.

Peter Curcio, the corrections official, resigned Monday; Rabbi Lieb Glanz resigned Tuesday.

The New York Department of Investigation has launched a probe into the coordination of the events, citing preferential treatment, special treatment, special visits, special meals and special-access calls.

Guests at the melee were allowed to use cell-phone inside the facilities, which are normally off-limits.

Manhattan’s District Attorney’s Office has launched a probe into possible criminal conduct involving the bar mitzvah, focusing on whether Department of Correction officials may have received money, The New York Times reported.

Norman Seabrook, president of the Corrections Officers Benevolence Association, issued a statement saying, “it is imperative for a new team of leadership to take over, clean house, and immediately restore accountability, which has been absent for too long.”.

Stern was serving a two-and-a-half year sentence for first-degree grand larceny, after spending two decades as a fugitive.