Criminal Law Library Blog

Personal Lives

How a Reed Smith Partner Learned Wealth, Power Were the Wrong Priorities
Dec 17, 2007, 01:51 pm CST

A. Scott Bolden, a partner at Reed Smith in Washington, D.C., didn't listen to his lawyers' advice after an ex-girlfriend called him about his long-rumored daughter. The ex told Bolden shortly before Thanksgiving in 2001 that his daughter, Shayla, was turning 18 and needed him, Bolden recalls in a Washington Post article..

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Terrorism
At Least Four White House Lawyers Debated Videotape Destruction
Dec 19, 2007, 05:37 am CST

Associates
'Lowball' Bonuses at Some BigLaw Firms?
Dec 18, 2007, 06:49 pm CST

Law Practice
Cravath in 1952: No Billables Pressure, No Fancy Offices and No Women
Dec 17, 2007, 06:47 am CST

Securities Law
Mayer Brown Partner Sued--and Charged--by SEC in Refco Case
Dec 18, 2007, 12:36 pm CST

Family Law
Kinder, Gentler Collaborative Divorce Also Costs Less
Dec 18, 2007, 02:48 pm CST

Legal Ethics
Lawyer Had Duty to Return Opponent's Notes, Court Rules
Dec 17, 2007, 06:09 am CST

First Amendment
10-Rated Lawyer Wins Dismissal of Suit Against Lawyer-Ranking Website
Dec 19, 2007, 11:09 am CST

Entertainment Law
Julia Roberts Character Doesn't Cuss So Much, Thanks to Houston Lawyer
Dec 18, 2007, 01:07 pm CST

Legal News
Legal Blog Picks Top Odd-But-True Stories
Dec 18, 2007, 07:41 am CST

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In The Magazine

Labor & Employment Law
The Boss is Watching
And employees are finding they have fewer places to hide.

Associates
Building Your Dream Practice
Want to specialize? Be patient, pull overtime.

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Question of the Week

What's the Best Way You've Found to Combat the Holiday Blues?

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Table of Contents:

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General Articles

Legal Information, the Informed Citizen, and the FDLP: The Role of Academic Law Librarians in Promoting Democracy [2007-44]
Tammy R. Pettinato

The Queen of Chula Vista: Stories of Self-Represented Litigants and a Call for Using Cognitive Linguistics to Work with Them [2007-45]
Charles R. Dyer

Candy, Points, and Highlighters: Why Librarians, Not Vendors, Should Teach CALR to First-Year Students [2007-46]
Shawn G. Nevers

Interdisciplinary Legal Scholarship: What Can We Learn from Princeton’s Long-standing Tradition? [2007-47]
David A. Hollander

Servant Leadership: A New Model for Law Library Leaders [2007-48]
Filippa Marullo Anzalone

Serendipity in the Stacks, Fortuity in the Archives [2007-49]
Michael H. Hoeflich

Review Articles

Keeping Up with New Legal Titles [2007-50]
Amy Atchison, Laura Cadra

Regular Features

Practicing Reference...The Pajama Way of Research [2007-51]
Mary Whisner

Managing by the Book...Perfecting Negotiation Techniques [2007-52]
Jean M. Holcomb

Technology for Everyone...Tools for Creating Video Tutorials [2007-53]
Diane Murley

2007 Business Proceedings—100th Annual Meeting [2007-54]

2007 Members' Open Forum—100th Annual Meeting [2007-55]

2007-2008 Officers, Committees, Chapter Presidents, Special Interest Section Chairs, Representatives, and Executive Staff [2007-56]

Memorial: Viola A. Bird [2007-57]
Penny A. Hazelton

Memorial: Maurice D. Leon [2007-58]
Sue L. Center

From the Editor: Endnote [2007-59]
Frank G. Houdek

Volume 99: Author and Title Index [2007-60]

This issue of the Law Library Journal is available for viewing here.

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The following is an edited version of an article by Peter Galli, published on eWeek.com:.

December 19, 2007

By Peter Galli

Microsoft has finally started talking publicly about the next release of its Internet Explorer Web browser, and expects to deliver the first beta for IE 8 in the first half of 2008.

A Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment about the company's future plans for IE 7, particularly with regard to patches and updates, saying there was "nothing new to share at this time."

In a move the development team is citing as a milestone on its blog, it says that IE 8 in standards mode now correctly renders the "Acid2 Browser Test," which determines how well a browser works with several different Web standards.

"Showing the Acid2 page correctly is a good indication of being standards compliant, but Acid2 itself isn't a web standard or a web standards compliance test. The publisher of the test, the Web Standards Project, is an advocacy group, not a web standards defining body," Dean Hachamovitch, the general manager for the Internet Explorer team, said in the blog post.

While acknowledging the many kinds of Web standards, ranging from true industry standards to de facto standards, open standards, and others, Hachamovitch said the key goal was interoperability, so developers did not have to write the same site multiple times for different browsers.

"With respect to standards and interoperability, our goal in developing Internet Explorer 8 is to support the right set of standards with excellent implementations and do so without breaking the existing web … We must deliver improved standards support and backwards compatibility so that IE8 continues to work with the billions of pages on the web today that already work in IE 6 and IE 7 and makes the development of the next billion pages, in an interoperable way, much easier," he said.

Chris Swenson, director of software industry analysis at the NPD Group agrees, telling eWEEK that the IE 8 Acid2 test announcement is a big deal for Web developers as they will now have to spend less time tweaking their sites to work in multiple browsers.

While acknowledging that Acid2 "isn't the be-all and end-all test of compliance to Web standards, in fact some of its tests aren't even finalized yet," Swenson said it was a good test suite to check browsers test for compliance to some major, modern standards.

The announcement also had implications for the recently filed Opera antitrust lawsuit against the software maker, which said Microsoft needed to adhere to common Web standards. "Well, this announcement makes the Opera's suit look pretty weak. Clearly, Microsoft is committed to supporting many modern Web standards," he said.

There has also been much criticism about the deafening silence coming from the team with regard to the roadmap for Internet Explorer. Jurgen Altziebler, the interactive experience director for CoreBrand told eWEEK that IT managers need this information.

"The IE 7 team has been very quiet since the latest release. IT needs to know the roadmap for Internet Explorer, especially now where everything is about building smart, Web-based enterprise applications," he said.

In a reference to the criticism about the lack of public information, Hachamovitch said the team wanted to talk about facts rather than aspirations.

"We're posting this information now because we have real working code checked in and we're confident about delivering it in the final product. We're listening to the feedback about IE, and at the same time, we are committed to responsible disclosure and setting expectations properly," Hachamovitch said.

"Now that we've run the test on multiple machines and seen it work, we're excited to be able to share definitive information," he said.

NPD's Swenson also points to how far Microsoft has come on the Web development front, saying that IE 7 looks like a modern browser with modern features.

"Expression Web creates beautiful, standard-compliant code. With Expression Blend, Visual Studio, and XAML, you can create sexy, rich Internet applications. Silverlight has a streamlined and efficient download experience, a small footprint, and an amazing video codec that many Web developers are raving about," he said. "Granted, Microsoft still has a long way to go, but it really is amazing how far they've come in so short a time."
_____________________________

* To see article with added links, click here.

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To see the list of Chapter Laws enacted by the State of New York during the year, 2007, click here and select Chapters from the menu.

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To see the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division First Department decisions (including index) released on December 20, 2007, click on the links below:

Index of Decisions Released December 20, 2007

Text of Slip Opinions Released on 12-20-2007

Elanor Duffy v. Dr. James H. Voges et.al.

Lisa Green v. Wm. Penn Life Insurance Co. of New York

A Dependant Child Under 18 Years, etc.

In Matter of Arthur Lewis Glatman

In Matter of Albert Lefkowitz

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Criminal justice experts from around the country will descend upon Los Angeles on Feb. 7-9 for the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section's 2008 Midyear Meeting. On Feb. 8 members can participate in CLE programs addressing among other issues how the "Jena 6" ordeal affected the public's perception of the criminal justice system and what mediation and restorative justice could have done to prevent it, and the latest tactical approaches taken by both prosecutors and public defenders in DUI trials.

That same day, the CJS Innocence Subcommittee is pleased to announce that the Section is cosponsoring a symposium at Southwestern Law School entitled "Wrongful Convictions: Causes and Cures".

Following the "Jena 6" and DUI programs, the Section will co-sponsor a joint reception celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the ABA Council on Legal Education Opportunity and the presentation of the Section's inaugural Frank Carrington Victim Advocate Award presented in honor of Frank Carrington to the Carrington family.

On Feb. 9, the Section’s Executive Committee will meet to discuss the long-range priorities of the Section, and the Nominating Committee will meet to make recommendations for future Section leadership.

All events are complimentary, but please rsvp to to note your attendance at the CLE programs and reception. Visit the Section's Midyear Meeting page http://www.abanet.org/crimjust/calendar/2008midyear.html to view a complete schedule

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BY LACHLAN HUNT

Abstract

The web is constantly evolving. New and innovative websites are being created every day, pushing the boundaries of HTML in every direction. HTML 4 has been around for nearly a decade now, and publishers seeking new techniques to provide enhanced functionality are being held back by the constraints of the language and browsers.

To give authors more flexibility and interoperability, and enable more interactive and exciting websites and applications, HTML 5 introduces and enhances a wide range of features including form controls, APIs, multimedia, structure, and semantics.

Work on HTML 5, which commenced in 2004, is currently being carried out in a joint effort between the W3C HTML WG and the WHATWG. Many key players are participating in the W3C effort including representatives from the four major browser vendors: Apple, Mozilla, Opera, and Microsoft; and a range of other organisations and individuals with many diverse interests and expertise.

Note that the specification is still a work in progress and quite a long way from completion. As such, it is possible that any feature discussed in this article may change in the future. This article is intended to provide a brief introduction to some of the major features as they are in the current draft.

______________________

Click here to see complete article

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An article by Brian Prince, "On-Demand Trend Touching the Database." describes a growing trend in the marketplace toward migration to web-based databases. Some of the new or forthcoming databases discussed are SimpleDB beta of Amazon.com, Dabble DB, and Trackvia. A company also mentioned, Kognitio, provides on-demand data warehousing.

One person quoted in the article states that "[Data-as-a-service] is driven by the fact that business the business users cannot get what they need from their IT departments in a timely manner." Even for those not experiencing IT problems, this is a positive trend because for many users, including online service providers, because of its being incorporated more directly into the seemingly all encompassing web.

Database-as-a-service (DAAS) is based on cloud computing technology. To see the entire article, click here.

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NY LAW JOURNAL
Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007
p. 1, col. 4

11-Person Jury's Verdict Upheld
Majority Accepts Defendant's Waiver

BY JOEL STASHENKO

ALBANY--The Court of Appeals yesterday abandoned one of its oldest precedents by deciding that a jury with fewer than 12 members can return a valid verdict in a criminal trial in New York state.

The 5-2 ruling upheld Winston Gajadhar's conviction for murder and attempted robbery by an 11-member Manhattan Supreme Court jury Mr. Gajadhar requested that the 11 jurors decide his case after a 12th juror was hospitalized three days into deliberations, but he subsequently appealed his conviction as unconstitutional.

Yesterday's ruling is counter to the Court's findings in the 1858 case, Cancemi v. People, in which the Court recognized the 12-member jury as the standard for criminal trials in New York. Cancemi came only 12 years after the formation of the Court, and the issue had not been revisited until People v. Gajadhar, 166.

Amendments to Article 1; Section 2 of the state Constitution and court rulings interpreting the evolving text of the section have made it clear that defendants in non-capital cases can consent to having juries smaller than 12 members decide their cases, the majority found yesterday.

"The 1938 constitutional amendments clearly dispelled the notion that a defendant cannot consent to an alteration of the common-law jury of 12 in a noncapital criminal case," Judge Victoria A. Graffeo wrote for the majority in Gajadhar. "Since the waiver language in Article 1, section 2 for civil cases permits juries of less than 12, unlike the dissent, we are not persuaded that the identical language, when applied to criminal cases, prohibits a defendant's waiver allowing deliberations to continue with 11 jurors."

The two dissenters, Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick and Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye, are also the longest-tenured members of the Court of Appeals. Judge Ciparick wrote that Cancemi (18 NY 128) "remains good law."

"A defendant exercising the right to a trial by jury must be tried by a panel of twelve, and neither a court, a prosecutor nor a defendant can alter the parameters of this fundamental mode of a judicial proceeding, that modification is solely within the province of the Legislature," the dissent stated.

Judge Ciparick called the right to trial by a 12-member jury "inviolate" and wrote that it can only be waived by a defendant in favor of a bench trial.

Cancemi involved a murder conviction reached by an 11-member jury after a 12th juror had been dismissed. That Court ruled that permitting convictions reached by juries with fewer than 12 members would be a "highly dangerous innovation."

In addition to a rereading of the venerable Cancemi decision, yesterday's ruling had the Court delving into the legal histories for the origins of why juries hearing criminal cases came to have 12 members in the first place. Judge Graffeo wrote that the number may have had a biblical basis (the 12 tribes of Israel and Jesus' 12 apostles, for example) before becoming the standardized number in England about the 14th century.

"The number 12 has long been associated with trial by jury but no one knows why or when the common law settled on that figure," Judge Graffeo wrote.

Waiver in Writing

In New York, the first state constitutions provided for a trial by jury, but it was not until Article VI, Section18(a) was added in 1962 that the size of juries in criminal trials was placed at 12. CPL Section 2'70.05(1) was amended eight years latter to spell out the 12-juror requirement.

The 1938 amendments to the Constitution allowed criminal defendants to waive their right to a jury trial, something the Constitution had allowed in civil trials starting in 1846 as part of the same amendments that provided for the establishment of the Court of Appeals.

The Court's 1996 ruling in People v. Page, 88 NY2d 1, affirmed that defendants could waive their right to a trial by 12 jurors by consenting to the substitution by a deliberating juror by an alternate, provided they do so in writing in open court. Oral consent is insufficient, the Page Court found.

The majority of the Court held yesterday that defendants are permitted to waive! fundamental constitutional rights in many circumstances, such as the right to counsel and the right to testify or present a defense. Waiver of the "common-law jury" under Article 1, Section 2 is also permissible, as long as it is done knowingly and voluntarily, and with the approval of the trial judge, the Court determined.

Judges Eugene F. Pigott Jr., Theodore T. Jones Jr., Robert S. Smith and Susan Phillips Read joined in Judge Graffeo's ruling.

The dissenters focused on Article VI,Section 18 of the Constitution as containing "clear and unambiguous language" setting 12 as the size of juries in criminal trials.

"There is no language in the Constitution that permits a felony jury trial with fewer than twelve jurors," Judge Ciparick wrote.

Prosecutors at Mr. Gajadhar's 2002 trial for killing a man in a dispute over taxicab repairs had argued for a mistrial when the 12th juror became incapacitated. Mr. Gajadhar asked that the remaining jurors go back to work.

The trial judge, Justice Michael J. Obus, accepted the defendant's request, once Mr. Gajadhar executed a written waiver of his right to a jury trial in open court. Justice Obus had earlier dismissed the alternate jurors after the defense indicated it would not consent to substitution of alternate jurors once deliberations began.

Convicted by the 11-member jury and sentenced to 20 years to life, Mr. Gajadhar appealed. He argued that despite his request to have the shorthanded jury make a decision and his signing of the waiver, he is prohibited from waiving his constitutional and statutory rights to a trial by a jury with 12 members.

In People v. Gajadhar, 38 AD3d 127 (2007), the Appellate Division, First Department, unanimously upheld Mr. Gajadhar's conviction and determined that any earlier decisions that held that juries at criminal trials must have 12 members had been "implicitly overruled" (NYLJ, Jan. 24).

Paul Weiner of the Legal Aid Society represented Mr. Gajadhar.

"We are very disappointed," he said yesterday. "We really felt very strongly that you could not have an 11-person jury in New York. We felt that the language of the New York state Constitution, the language of the statute, supported that. That has been the law up till now."

Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Hilary Hassler argued for the prosecution.

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QUESTION:

"Good afternoon. ...[our court] is trying to find a Quiche interpreter for a pending criminal case. Quiche or K'iche is a Mayan language spoken in the central highlands of Guatemala. We've tried courts in major metropolitan areas, NAJIT, major universities, Language Line, and even the Guatemalan embassy in Washington, DC. I noticed in a Google search that a court in Louisville, Kentucky tried to find a Quiche interpreter in 2000 -- not sure if they ever found one. There are also a few appellate cases out there that talk about exhausting all efforts to find a Quiche interpreter, so I know we're not the first court in this situation. We even tried my brother, who happens to be a theology professor at Biola University, who happens to know Bible translators in obscure South and Central American dialects, which led us to a possible translator at a university in Texas, but now that seems to be falling through. We even priced a plane ticket from Guatemala to Sioux Falls ($697, much less that I thought), but we have no contacts there and the embassy could not offer any."

"If anyone has any leads or suggestions on a Quiche interpreter, we'd be very grateful. "

SUMMARY OF RESPONSES:

Quiche Interpreters

[also spelled K’iche’ and a number of other variations], compiled 12/2007
Court Administrator’s Office, 2nd Judicial Circuit, South Dakota
605-367-5979

1. From California:

Policarpo Chaj. 213-810-4730
Martin Perez 510-610-6555
Misael Itzep 909-941-9769
Orlando Tzul-Mendez 323-252-7198

2. From Minnesota, The Bridge World Language Center, Waite Park (near St. Cloud):

“Nicole M.; the Bridge is pleased to introduce Nicole as our “ Interpreter of the Month”, October 2006. Languages: English, Spanish, Conversational Maya K’iche’. Years as professional linguist: 2+ years. Phone: 320-259-9239

Contact info, web page: www.bridgelanguage.com/viewInterpOctober2006.do

3. From Massachusetts, through Minnesota:

We have a screened (non certified) interpreter of Quiche: Rene Moreno----508-965-8474….Before Rene we had to use relay interpreting.

4. Oregon:

Teresa Kilpatrick,
La Grande, Oregon area
etkilpatrick@gmail.com
(don’t have a phone number)

5. From New Mexico Federal Court and AOC (excluding a couple already listed above):

Francisco Icala CA Los Angeles 323-263-3705
Fidel Sontay CA Los Angeles 323-791-3154

6. E-mail from the Colorado courts:

…Our courts have used a telephonic Quiche interpreter from IAL Language Services, Inc in the past for minor traffic cases. Vince Ciccolini is the contact his number is (877) 638-6818 or e-mail at vciccolini@ialservices.com The website is www.ialservices.com …

7. From an e-mail from the Maryland Courts:

…According to her organization, "Friends of the Mayan", Sue Glenn is a native K'iche speaker and an interpreter….

Sue Glenn
e-mail: sueglenn@blowingrockrealty.com
828-295-9861

8. From Guatelama City:

I, Julio César Muñoz, Certified Translator live in Guatemala City if I can be of any help; please just give more details on how a person from Guatemala can make a short trip to this city or let me know any other available mean to send someone if no such an interpreter is available in USA so I contact an ethnic language institution in my country.

Regards,

Julio César Muñoz
Certified Translator
Guatemala City, Guatemala, C.A.
(502) 2331 7719, mobile (502) 5417 1388
9. Various additional contacts, organizations, agencies, and others who may be able to help with Quiche or other languages:

Suzanne L Rogers [native Guatemalan]
Asturias Language Interpreters
Tel. 520 241-4455
Fax 520 624-6772
PO Box 40643
Tucson AZ 85717-0643
www.asturiaslan.com

Sherry Goodman
Regional Court Interpreter Coordinator
Southern Region
Judicial Council of California-Administrative Office of the Courts
2255 North Ontario Street, Suite 200
(818) 558-3022 Fax:(818) 558-3112, sherry.goodman@jud.ca.gov -
www.courtinfo.ca.gov

Guatemalan Consulate in Arizona:

Consul General de Guatemala en Phoenix Arizona
Licenciado Oscar Padilla Lam
602-2003660

E-mail suggestion:

“…You might also want to check with Debra Connors in the federal district court for the District of New Mexico (505-348-2210 ) or Rebeca Calderon in the Southern District of California (619-557-5205). Both courts have used Quiche interpreters several times in the last couple of years. The Oregon Judicial Department (Lois Feuerle 503-986-7041) and the Judicial Council of California (http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/programs/courtinterpreters/) are also good resources for interpreters of indigenous languages of Central America.

List of possible resources from the court in Sioux City, Iowa:

TransPerfect Translations - has a GSA contract for interpreting and translating over 100 languages: 202-347-2300
MN -- http://www.mncourts.gov/FindInterpreters (actually had a Tagalog interpreter!)
NE -- http://court.nol.org/community/cert_interpreters.htm
WI -- http://www.wicourts.gov/services/interpreter/search.htm
Languages Unlimited: www.languagesunlimited.com 800-864-0372
Berlitz Translation Services (also interpretations): 800-423-6756
Total Language Solution: 1-866-691-5160 www.totallanguagesolution.net
Iowa Council for International Understanding 515-282-8269
betmar languages --612-571-3467
Enterprise Language Solutions (translate.com) 415-512-8800
Agnese Haury Institute for Court Interpretation/University of Arizona 520-621-3615
Joe Pittman, Administrator for Nebraska Association for Translators and Interpreters 402-397-0280 (www.natihq.org)
You may also want to consider connecting with a Bureau for Refugee Services (Iowa office: 800-362-2780).

E-mail from Delaware:

…This is a response I received from the person in our court who handles interpreter requests. The church referred to is in Wilmington, DE and Father Bill’s phone number is (302) 656-1372.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sagrario Aleman is a Spanish interpreter from Guatemala, she runs an interpreting agency in Pennsylvania and she was just in Guatemala last year or so, maybe she can be of assistance in locating a Quiche interpreter, here is her phone number: 215-947-2257, cell: 215-694-4089, email: alemanandassociates@att.net. Also you may want to try contacting St. Paul's Church at 4th and Jackson Streets, ask for Father Bill, some of the parishioners are from Guatemala.

Assistance agency:

ORGANIZATION MAYA K'ICHE
11-62 Acushnet Ave
New Bedford, Mass 02746
Director: Anibal Lucas
office: 508/ 994-7396
cell: 508/ 264-0892

Professor in Buffalo who translated a Mayan book recently:

Dennis Tedlock
306 Clemens Hall
State University of New York at Buffalo
Buffalo, NY 14260
(716) 645-3422 / FAX 645-3654
dtedlock@acsu.buffalo.edu
Possible lead for a Quiche interpreter in Canada:

Luis Barnola,
Senior Program Specialist
Institute for Connectivity in the Americas
250 Albert Street
PO Box 8500
Ottawa, Ontario,Canada, K1G 3H9

California:

I believe Los Angeles, CA uses one. Try to call Rudy or Lorraine at 1-2138944370. I think he lives in San Francisco. If you have no luck, email me back, and I will ask my friend who also know someone else. Cynthia Parker, Spanish state and Federally certified interpreter in Los Angeles, CA

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To see the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division First Department decisions (including index) released on December18, 2007, click on the links below:

Index of Opinions

Slip Opinions December 18, 2007

People v.Cyrus

Matter of Catherine M. Conrad

Matter of Berthold H. HHoeniger

Matter of Jeremiah J. Sheehan

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A paper prepared by Hillel L. Parness, Professor, Columbia University Law School and Of Counsel, Lovells (New York) for MessageLabs (http://www.messagelabs.com) ; it includes the following sections: Introduction, The Risks, Harassment, Child Pornography, Defamation, 3rd Party Intellectual Property Rights, Contract Formation, Confidentiality, Dealing With Risks, and a Summary.

Introduction
"Email is critical to many businesses; its ease of use, combined with the speed and
scale of distribution, make it an invaluable business tool. Today, many businesses
could not function without consistent and unfettered access to the Internet.
However, these same attributes can also cause severe difficulties for employers if
employees' use of email and the Internet is not controlled adequately. This short
summary considers some of the risks that employers face. It is not a
comprehensive study of the topic; therefore, detailed legal advice should always be
sought in specific situations."

Summary
"All employers should have a clear AUP (Acceptable User Policy) and ensure that it is enforced consistently. The AUP should explain the risks, indicate what monitoring is to be conducted and why, offer alternatives to employees if they do not wish to use email communication
and set out penalties for any breach of the AUP, linking this to the employer's
disciplinary policy. The AUP can be supported by appropriate technical solutions,
but the employer must ensure that the level of monitoring is proportionate to the
risks involved.

To see the Paper, click below:

Legal Risks of Uncontrolled Email and Web Content

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From the New Jersey Law Journal December 17, 2007.

N.J. Ends Capital Punishment, Commutes All Death Sentences

Michael Booth

12-17-2007

A quarter-century after it was reinstated and without it ever being used, New Jersey's death penalty is repealed"

Gov. Jon Corzine on Monday signed legislation that eliminates capital punishment as a sentence and replaces it with life in prison without parole.

At the same time, he commuted the death sentences of the eight men presently on death row at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton to life without parole.

"These commutations, along with today’s bill signing, brings to a close in New Jersey the protracted moral and practical debate on the death penalty," Corzine said at the signing ceremony.

New Jersey thus becomes the first state to legislatively repeal the death penalty since 1965 and also the first since the U.S. Supreme Court reauthorized capital punishment in 1976.

If you are a premium subscriber to the online New Jersey Law Journal, click here to see entire article

Death Penalty Information Center

Democracy Now: New Jersey Votes to Abolish Death Penalty

Commentary:

Sentencing Law and Policy blog

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View Letter from the Working Group – November 30, 2007 [PDF, 41 KB]
Read Draft Final Report of the Working Group [PDF, 315 KB]

The period for public comment on the report is open until December 15, 2007. Comments can be submitted via the Web site at http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future/contact/. Electronic submission of comments is encouraged. Please note that public comments are a vital part of the Working Group's deliberations and may be available for public access either online or in print.

As an alternative to electronic submission, comments can be mailed to:

Olivia M. A. Madison
Dean of the Library
302 Parks Library
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-2140
515 294-1443 (tel.)
515 294-2112 (fax)

The group intends to submit the final report to the Library of Congress by January 9, 2008

OFFICIAL RESPONSE OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF LAW LIBRARIES (AALL):

AALL's official response to the report of the LC Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control is now available here.

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The Legislative Resource Center of the Office of the Clerk, U.S. House
of Representatives is looking for a Manager of Library Services. The
individual will provide daily management, oversight and supervision of
library operations and personnel. Applicants should have at least five
(5) years of progressively responsible management and supervisory
experience; an MLS from an accredited American Library Association (ALA)
school is preferred. Contact: Mr. Eddie Curry, Office of the Clerk,
Legislative Resource Center, B-106 Cannon House Office Building,
Washington, D.C. 20515, Fax: (202) 226-5204, Eddie.Curry@mail.house.gov
or Deborah.Turner@mail.house.gov.

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Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Forms

By Rick Weiss
Washi