David's Blog
Summary of the current status of SOPA and Protect IP bills making changes to civil remedies and criminalizing additional conduct for copyright infringement on the internet.
I spend a lot of time looking out the window. I look in the direction of trees, mountains when they’re visible, water, nature generally. But I’m not seeing any of it. I just look. Some think I’m a staring. But my gaze is unfocused, my eyes resting on nothing I am thinking. Random thoughts coalesce [...]
Last March, the Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 1789, which proposes significant changes to the Federal Sentencing for crack cocaine offenses. Under the prior law, possession and possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine is punished harshly — far more severely than the same offense involving powder cocaine. The statute, 21 U.S.C. §841, imposed mandatory [...]
The Supreme Court of the United States firmly established that any factor in a criminal case that affects the sentencing exposure a defendant faces–anything that changes the possible sentence from the discretion of the judge–must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt or admitted by the defendant during a guilty plea hearing. Read the decision here: [...]
In light of the recent attempted Time Square bombing in New York City, the call to limit or even abolish the so-called Miranda-rights has gained support among those pushing for a harder line in the “War on Terror” and to remove any and all conduct related to terrorism out of the criminal justice system. Whether [...]
