Jun 5, 2017
For more than a decade, prosecutors have been warned about the perils of eyewitness identification. The drumbeat grew steadily louder after the National Institute of Justice (“NIJ”) published Convicted by Juries, Exonerated by Science in 1996. View Full...
Jun 1, 2017
National District Attorneys Association On Friday, May 12, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo to federal prosecutors outlining updated charging and sentencing guidelines for the Department of Justice (DOJ). The National District Attorneys Association (NDAA),...
May 31, 2017
The Pew Charitable Trusts More than 20 years ago, when Russell Foster was 19 and his girlfriend Amber was 15, Montana’s laws tore them apart, sending Russell to prison for four years for having sex with a minor. Their story mostly has a happy ending. They reunited...
May 26, 2017
Star Tribune Law enforcement agents are deploying an onslaught of new technology to collect information on criminals and unsuspecting citizens alike. Body cameras. Cellphone hacking devices. License plate scanners. Software that can identify faces in surveillance...
May 24, 2017
Statesman Journal In the face of extremely complex and challenging child abuse cases, the Marion County District Attorney’s Office is launching a pilot program designed to increase coordination during high-risk child abuse investigations. Officials with the...
May 23, 2017
OWH May 22, 2017 State prison officials are now on the way to following state law by requiring DNA swabs of convicted felons. The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services no longer lets inmates refuse to provide the samples without suffering consequences — which...
May 22, 2017
Office of the Deputy Attorney General Forensic science is generally dated to Hans Gross’ Handbuch für Untersuchungsrichter, Polizeibeamte, Gendarmen (Handbook for Magistrates, police officials, military policemen), which was published in 1893, although forensic...
May 22, 2017
Star Tribune Mary Ellen Heng doesn’t think a bank account should dictate how long someone spends in jail. Yet throughout her career, the deputy Minneapolis city attorney has repeatedly seen exactly that: people lingering in Hennepin County jail because they can’t...
May 19, 2017
ABA Journal On the morning of March 30, 2016, David Robinson and his partner, Jan Bultmann, were starting their day when six Seattle police officers knocked on their door with a search warrant. The police thought Robinson was trafficking child pornography. View Full...
May 18, 2017
Gintautas Dumcius Sexting – the sending of sexually explicit messages via text message — is a “growing problem” in middle schools and high schools, leading to the need for legislation that could curb it, a top prosecutor said Tuesday. “We...
