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Fair ~ High: 79°F ~ Low: 65°F Wednesday, June 19, 2013 |
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Why Are Two Million People Behind Bars In Our Country?
Posted Saturday, May 25, at 9:00 PM Professor Douglas A. Berman publishes his blog "Sentencing Law And Policy". http://sentencing.typepad.com/ He recently posted a link to a speach by Attorney General Eric Holder given on April 4, 2013. Here is an excerpt of A.G. Holder's speach: ...The sheer number of Americans contending with these challenges is staggering. ...
Gideon Meets The Sequester This spring was the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court's opinion in Gideon v. Wainwright, a case which held that states had to provide court-appointed counsel for indigent criminal defendants facing felony charges. Many legal beagles chimed in about what a great decision "Gideon" was (and it was!). ...
Update on Earlier Drone Killing Blog Here is another article that is a follow-up to an earler post.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/us/senator-wyden-asks-john-brennan-for-legal-opinions-on-killings-of-americans.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0
Secrecy of Memo On Drone Killing is Upheld Here is a link to an article on a legal service I get that I found interesting. We have probably all seen videos of drones bombing the vehicles of suspected terrorists in Mid-East countries. Some of these suspected terrorists are United States Citizens...
Warrantless Search of Cell Phones By Police Similar to the practice of placing a GPS monitoring device on a suspect's car without a warrant (which was prohibited last year by the US Supreme Court---I think I blogged about that), Courts are now wrestling with the issue of whether or not the police should be able to search through information stored on an arrestee's phone...
Rock And Roll In General And Bruce Springsteen In Particular I just finished the book "Bruce Springsteen And The Promise of Rock 'N' Roll" by Marc Dolan. It was on display at the Spencer Library and I thought I would read it since I have been a fan of "The Boss" since I first saw him in concert at Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City on June 13, 1978...
Don't Throw Justice Under The Bus Most everyone would agree that the best justice system is one in which justice cannot be bought. For years Iowa has had a system of appointing judges by a process of merit selection. In some states, judges have to run for election and solicit contributions to fund their campaigns. Who would want his case decided by a judge he did not help elect---especially if his adversary had contributed to that judge's campaign? Merit selection is by far the better approach...
Runners & Bikers: Let's Get Together In Blue Zone Spirit I like to run and bike. So do a lot of citizens in and around Spencer. An "app" I use when I run or bike is "mapmyrun". It tells me how fast (OK---how slow) I am running or biking and then maps the route taken. It is a pretty cool app and free but I am not trying to promote it. I did, however, use it to search for subscribers near Spencer, Iowa, and found quite a few. So I sent everybody a note/"friend request" saying:...
SHS's new track should be named: David A. Brown Track If you have not seen the new track and stands at Spencer's high school you should take a look. The stands, brick walls, and gating at Dale Norton Field are spectacular. The facility's style is like Kinnick Stadium---completely classey. The track is first class, too. ...
Fly Our Flag High Does anyone else feel that that we fly our flags at half-mast too often? Who makes this call? The governor? The president? Is there a website or resource where one can find out why Old Glory is not at full staff on any particular day?
Warren Buffett, Trading Places, & the Endangered Middle Class I have never met Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, whose net worth according to "Forbes Magazine" is 44 billion dollars. But I know a little about Buffett from a mutual friend who died in 2000 at the age of 96. The mutual friend was Joe Rosenfield, who was an incredibly wonderful human being and philanthropist...
RIP Goober and the Skell Diner
Thank You Bob Rose! Last Friday afternoon I stopped by the Clay County Events Center to pay tribute to Bob Rose and to thank him for his service to the community. The advertising catch-phrase used by Mid-America Energy is appropriate to describe Bob Rose's relationship with the City of Spencer. For as long as I can remember, Bob has been obsessively, relentlessly, at our service...
March Madness All my favorite teams lost today. The Hawkeye men and women both fell, as did the Creighton Bluejays and the UNI Panthers. The blow was softened by nine holes of golf in short pants and short sleaves. Now THAT is March Madness! The Cyclones had a run in their game against Kentucky yesterday that was simply incredible. Basketball in the state of Iowa appears to be on the upswing...
News Sources It is an age of media overload. (Or was that so "twenty seconds ago"?) Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, and other internet-based sources of information and news are threatening newspapers with extinction. And newspapers and radios are joining the world wide web in an "adapt or die" survival reaction...
Allocutions and Criminal Sentencings My best guess is that I have participated in at least three hundred criminal sentencings as either a prosecutor or as a defense attorney. [Never as a defendant....knock on wood!] Sometimes the outcome is already known---for instance when there is a minimum mandatory sentence or when the Court has concurred in a plea bargain reached between the prosecution and the defense. ...
Supreme Court Holding Re: GPS Tracking Devices The Supreme Court issued a ruling on January 23, 2012, which held that the Government's attachment of a GPS device to a vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle's movements, constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. In the case, United States v. ...
HS Football Wrap-up, Play Lists, and Holiday Traditions The Spencer Tiger Football teams had a promising season. The varsity struggled early and lost some close games. They were often ahead at half-time and then let the game slip away in the third quarter. But the team matured toward the season's end. The defense learned to "stay home" and trust each other. ...
A Little More Conversation And A Lot Less Texting Someone brought it to my attention that it has been awhile since I posted anything to this blog...so here I go. I logged onto the computer without any topic in mind and then ran across Gabe Licht's post about places to take a first date. We just happened to spend a few days with some close friends last week. ...
They'll huff and they'll puff and we'll blow their doors down? In an earlier blog http://www.spencerdailyreporter.com/blogs/jurisprudence/entry/41681/ I noted that the "war against drugs" has been an abysmal failure and that the current thought is that drug abuse and dependence should be treated as a health problem. I referenced (in the last paragraph) the problem about huffing and a new abuse of "bath salts"...
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Description: JP's take on legal (and other) issues which interest him.
Biography: Born in Spencer Iowa, February 6, 1957; Graduated Spencer High School 1975; University of Iowa (B.B.A. 1979); Creighton University School of Law (J.D. 1984); American Jurisprudence Award: Debtor/Creditor Relations; Assistant State Attorney, Florida, 12th Judicial Circuit, 1986-89; Assistant Clay County Iowa Attorney, 1989-93; Iowa State Bar Association: Volunteer Lawyers, 1993- ; American Citizenship Committee, 1994-98; Bridge the Gap Committee 1991-94; Criminal Justice Act Panel Member, 2002- ; National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, 2004- ; Iowa Association for Justice, 2004- ; American Bar Association, 1984- ; Florida Bar Association, 1986- .
Hot topics Why Are Two Million People Behind Bars In Our Country?(0 ~ 9:00 PM, May 25)
Gideon Meets The Sequester
Update on Earlier Drone Killing Blog
Secrecy of Memo On Drone Killing is Upheld
Warrantless Search of Cell Phones By Police
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