Articles Posted in Criminal Law and Justice

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CRS Report No. R41222; 4/30/2010; Posted 5/7/2010 Author(s): Charles Doyle, Senior Specialist in American Public Law Subject(s): Criminal Justice; Law

No. of Pages: 9

Summary Zacarias Moussaoui, members of the Colombian drug cartels, members of organized crime, and some of the former Enron executives have at least one thing in common: they all have federal conspiracy convictions. The essence of conspiracy is an agreement of two or more persons to engage in some form of prohibited misconduct. The crime is complete upon agreement, although some statutes require prosecutors to show that at least one of the conspirators has taken some concrete step or committed some overt act in furtherance of the scheme. There are dozens of federal conspiracy statutes. One, 18 U.S.C. 371, outlaws conspiracy to commit some other federal crime. The others outlaw conspiracy to engage in various specific forms of proscribed conduct.General Section 371 conspiracies are punishable by imprisonment for not more than 5 years; drug trafficking, terrorist, and racketeering conspiracies all carry the same penalties as their underlying substantive offenses, and thus are punished more severely than are Section 371 conspiracies. All are subject to fines of not more than $250,000 (not more than $500,000 for organizations), most may serve as the basis for a restitution order, and some for a forfeiture order.

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Non-traditional communications devices such as smartphones and game consoles pose a particular problem to law enforcement agencies trying to milk them for forensic data that reveals criminal activity, attendees were told at the 2010 Computer Forensics Show in New York City.

From: Greene, Tim. FBI: Finding Criminal Data on Cell Phones and Game Consoles:is Tough,. in Network World, April 23, 2010.

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To view the full-text of cases you must sign in to FindLaw.com. All summaries are produced by Findlaw
April 12 -16, 2010:

U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, April 14, 2010 US v. Cintron-Echautegui, No. 08-1800 In a conviction of defendant for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, district court’s imposition of 292-months’ imprisonment is affirmed as the court did not clearly err in making its drug quantity determination. .

U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, April 14, 2010 US v. Mardirosian, No. 09-1144 Conviction of defendant for possessing, concealing or storing six stolen paintings, including a rare Cezanne valued at $29 million, is affirmed where: 1) the 1999 Agreement had no bearing on the “stolen” character of the paintings as the agreement was void ab initio as a contract for an illegal purpose; 2) the jury’s finding that defendant knew the paintings were stolen at some point after taking possession of them was sufficient to satisfy 18 U.S.C. section 2315’s mens rea requirement; 3) district court did not err in instructing the jury that the Agreement did not provide defendant with viable mens rea defense to the charge; and 4) district court’s use of Cezanne’s 1999 auction price in its calculation of loss was not clearly erroneous.

U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, April 15, 2010 US. v. Ellison , No. 09-1234 In a conviction of defendant for robbery and related offenses, district court’s denial of defendant’s motion to suppress statements made to the police while being held at a county jail charged with another crime is affirmed, as there is nothing in the facts of this case that would be likely create the atmosphere of coercion subject to Miranda concern. .
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The following is presented as a service of the ABA Criminal Justice Section http://www.abanet.org/crimjust

The ABA Section of Criminal Justice is pleased to provide Professor Rory Little’s Perspective, a Case Brief in U.S. v. Stevens which includes the Holding, Facts, and Analysis in the case.

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In City of Ontario California et. al. v. Jeff Quon et. al. the U.S. Supreme Court is wrestling with the issue of whether public employees are entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy in text messages transmitted on their workplace pages or similar devices without such messages being subject to review from recipients public employer. The city of Ontario, California is asking the justices to overturn a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, holding that it violated the Fourth Amendment privacy rights of Mr. Quon, a member of the Ontario police department SWAT team, when it reviewed transcripts of his and another offiicer’s text messages on their department pagers. Below are links to the argument transcipts and other docuemts related to this case:

Argument: City of Ontario California, et. al. v. Jeff Quon, et. al. 08-1332

The Scotus Wiki contains links to other useful documents related to this case.

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Title: Principles of Cybercrime

Author: Clough, Jonathan Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN or UPC: 0-521-89925-7 (Active Record)

Format: Trade Cloth Date: May 2010 Price: $125.00 Market: United States Availability: Available for Order

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To view the full-text of cases you must sign in to FindLaw.com. All summaries are produced by Findlaw
April 5 – April 9, 2010:.

U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, April 01, 2010 Chamberlin v. Town of Stoughton, No. 08-1289 In plaintiff-officers’ 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit against a town, its officials and police chiefs involving various workplace discrimination and harassment claims, district court’s grant of a directed verdict in favor of one of the two police chiefs is affirmed as any error in granting the directed verdict was harmless because of the rejection of plaintiffs’ claims against the other police chief by a different jury in a second trial.

U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, April 06, 2010 US v. Flores-Rivera, No. 09-1131 In defendant’s action seeking return of seized property without notice arising from his drug arrest and conviction in 1991, district court’s ruling that his property should be returned but simultaneously ordering that the funds be applied to defendant’s criminal fine is vacated and remanded with instructions to promptly conduct a hearing, follow the applicable statutory procedures, and otherwise provide defendant with the long-delayed process to which he is entitled.

U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, April 06, 2010 US v. Sed, No. 09-1489 In a prosecution of defendant for conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute drugs and other related crimes, defendant’s conviction and sentence is affirmed where: 1) the seizure of defendant by Pennsylvania State Police in Ohio was not unreasonable and the district court did not err in denying his motion to suppress; and 2) the district court did not err when it failed to grant defendant a downward departure or an additional downward variance as the record amply supports the district court’s conclusion that defendant perjured himself and that the Pennsylvania State Police did not act improperly in conducting their sting operation.
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A select bibliography.

In response to a recent request I compiled a short, selected list of treatises published between the years 1880 and 1990. It is being reproduced here for the benefit of those readerw who might also be interested. This list is selective and thereroe not intended to be exhaustive. Even among the authors listed, many produced an number of additional titlies related to the law of evidence.:

Selected treatises on the law of evidence – United States published in the late 1800’s

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