Forensics Talk

Gang Wars: The Failure of Enforcement Tactics and the Need for Effective Public Safety Strategies

 Justice Strategies

      "Youth crime in the United States remains near the lowest levels seen in the past three decades, yet public concern and media coverage of gang activity has skyrocketed since 2000. Fear has spread from neighborhoods with longstanding gang problems to communities with historically low levels of crime, and some policy makers have declared the arrival of a national gang “crisis.” Yet many questions remain unanswered.

Youth crime in the United States remains near the lowest levels seen in the past three decades, yet public concern and media coverage of gang activity has skyrocketed since 2000. Fear has spread from neighborhoods with longstanding gang problems to communities with historically low levels of crime, and some policy makers have declared the arrival of a national gang “crisis.” Yet many questions remain unanswered. How can communities and policy makers differentiate between perceived threats and actual challenges presented by gangs?

   Which communities are most affected by gangs, and what is the nature of that impact? How much of the crime that plagues poor urban neighborhoods is attributable to gangs? And what approaches work to promote public safety? . . . Los Angeles is a case in point. Author and former California state senator Tom Hayden reports that thousands of young people have been killed in Los Angeles gang conflicts despite decades of extremely aggressive gang enforcement. . .  " Read More

Thoughtful New District Court Opinion Adopting 1:1 Crack/powder Ratio Sentencing Guideines

  Sentencing Law & Policy                                                                 

     Do we want crack dealers out on the streets earlier? Are they more dangerous than a powder cocaine addict? Read below:

 Post:

   "I am pleased to be able to post a new opinion from a district court that provides a thorough and thoughtful account of why the court has adopted a 1:1 ratio for crack sentence cases.  Here is the openning paragraph and one key passage from US v. Gully, No. CR 08-3005-MWB (N.D. Iowa May 18, 2009) . . ."

Excellent comments left below the post: 

     "Notice I say "offenders" and not types of drug. One of the things that gets lost in the popular press and, consequently, the debate on the 100:1 ratio is what the law actually is punishing. Certainly there can be no doubt that crack is cocaine. While I do not doubt the many anecdotal stories and medical studies that suggest that crack is more dangerous to it's user, the criminal sanctions are against the individuals selling crack and powder, and the differential conduct they engage in, not the drugs themselves. That may seem simple, but I think it's lost on many people.

The only pertinent question to ask when determining punishment is what are differences between these two groups of offenders that suggest one crime is more serious, more dangerous, and more ruinous to the community than the other?

To put it simply, the answer to this question is obvious to anyone bothering to look at the facts rather than simply go with the prevailing wind or pander to race politics.

You may comfortably set aside the facts about what crack did to communities around this country in the '80's and '90's, probably because many lawyers and judges live comfortably far from these ravaged communities.

You may comfortably dismiss the individual human toll of crack because crack is very often a poor man's drug and many lawyers and judges also avoid personal or familial knowledge of the personal devastation of crack. . . " Read More

Restorative Justice and Child Sex Offences: The Theory and the Practice

Annie Cossins
University of New South Wales - Faculty of Law

British Journal of Criminology, Vol. 48, pp. 359-378, 2008
UNSW Law Research Paper No. 2008-43

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1398603

"Abstract:     
Restorative justice advocates have made a number of claims about the effectiveness of restorative justice in relation to sexual assault crimes, such as its ability to defuse power relations between the parties and heal the harm. This article examines whether or not restorative justice is one of the ways forward in the difficult area of prosecuting child sex offences by re-analysing some of the data reported in Daly (2006) and comparing restorative justice with other reforms to the sexual assault trial. It concludes that there is insufficient evidence to support the view that there are inherent benefits in the restorative justice process that provide victims of sexual assault with a superior form of justice. "

Michael Jackson's Hired Physician Says MJ had a Pulse . . . Oh, Really?

  Point of View                                                                         

     According to Fox News today, "Michael Jackson still had a faint pulse and his body was warm when his doctor found him in bed and not breathing, a lawyer for the doctor told The Associated Press on Sunday. . . Chernoff told the AP that Murray was at the pop icon's rented mansion on Thursday afternoon when he discovered Jackson in bed and not breathing. The doctor immediately began administering CPR, Chernoff said."

      OK, I have a slight problem with this info . . . and more than a few questions. First off, if the physician was the one who found Michael Jackson, why wasn't he the one who called 911? Was someone else in the room when the physician found him and was that person asked to call 911? 

   If so, how many minutes passed between the time the physician found him, "warm and with a slight pulse," and the unidentified person called 911 saying that he had no pulse, wasn't breathing, and that the physician was performing CPR? 

  What did his pupils look like? The classic sign of an overdose with narcotics is pin point pupils. After checking a patient's breathing and heart rate, the next thing would be checking the pupils. It can all be done in a matter of seconds.

  And why in the world would a cardiologist not know what any first time CPR trainee is taught - that you have to have a hard surface beneath the patient or CPR won't work? A bed is way too soft.

  I once arrived to visit a home health care patient, only to find him in complete arrest (after a "night of partying"). The first thing I did, after assessing his respiratory, cardiac and pupil status, and asking the family to call 911, was pull him to the floor and begin CPR. Geezz, how long has it been since this guy renewed his CPR certification? We're required to renew every year. 

  According to Fox news, "Dr. Murray has never prescribed nor administered Demerol to Michael Jackson," Chernoff said. "Not ever. Not that day. ... Not Oxycontin (either) for that matter."

  Well, that's all fine and good. But did the good doctor know about the drugs? It's one thing to practice in an office, and the patient not tell you they are taking drugs, quite another to be living in residence with that patient and not know what was going on.

   Whether he actually wrote any prescriptions, or actually gave any narcotics, or any other drugs, to Michael Jackson or not, it was still that physician's responsibility to know what was going on with his patient and what drugs that patient was taking.

Did he give any to Michael Jackson at any time? Sometimes drugs can react negatively with each other and increase the effects of other drugs, especially if there are other conditions, like kidney or liver disease, whereby the drugs couldn't be cleared properly from the body. This could possibly cause a build up of drugs in his system.

   In other words, Demerol, being a respiratory depressant, could increase the effects of any other meds, built up in his system, which would also have a respiratory depressive effect. Together, they could severely depress the respiratory system by acting on the respiratory center of the brain which controls breathing. The combined effect could also decrease the patient's heart rate, blood pressure, and circulation, potentially causing a cardiac arrest.

   Whether Dr. Murray prescribed Demerol or not, if he was aware that Michael Jackson was taking it, long term, he should also have been aware that Demerol, or any other narcotic, is not an appropriate treatment for chronic back pain and, most definitely, not appropriate treatment for a fractured leg that reportedly had occurred years before. It was his job to know these things. I did check his name and license out on the CA Medical Board website. It stated, "No records returned." Although it's possible to obtain a temporary licensure, according to the research, it's usually reserved for visiting professors or to complete continuing educational requirements in a different state from which the original license was obtained.

   Narcotics are Schedule II drugs used for pain relief of acute injury only and its use is severely restricted by law under the Control Substances Act. NSAIDS (Non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs) are usually the appropriate choice for chronic back pain, not narcotics.

   If Michael Jackson was actually being given Demerol, or any other narcotic, long term, as reported, then the investigation should determine who prescribed the narcotic, who obtained it, and who gave it. Someone had to have done so. IMO, the facts, as they are coming out, just don't pass the smell test at the moment.

 

 

 

 

Latest In Duke Child Rape Case: "New allegations . . . Stunning and Sickening"

American Thinker

     Thomas Lifson
"A new and even more scandalous rape allegation has surfaced at Duke University. Yet the usual media and campus PC crowd are keeping mighty quiet. Identity politics apparently trumps all sense of outrage. . . Of course, after the disgraceful media and university reaction to the phony allegations against Duke Lacrosse team members, it is wise avoid jumping to conclusions, but the comparative silence on the current case is nonetheless remarkable, considering how many particulars of the case were left out of the main AP account"

"Mike Adams, writing on Townhall, lays out the facts the MSM won't: Frank Lombard is the associate director of Duke's Center for Health Policy. . . accused of logging on to a chat room online and describing himself as a "perv dad for fun" . . . recently arrested by the FBI and charged with offering up his adopted 5-year-old son for sex. . . "

"It gets worse. The allegations are stunning and sickening. Adams spares us what he says is the worst. . . The Associate Press (AP) did not mention the fact that the five-year old offered up for molestation was black. Bringing that fact to light might be damaging to the political coalition that exists between blacks and gays. Nor did the AP mention that the adopted child is being raised by a homosexual couple. . . . "  Read More

 

 

Insurance Defense Blog

    Dave Stratton's Insurance Defense Blog is an excellent resource for those researching information regarding insurance cases. The following include excerpts and links:

Failure to order complete trial transcript results in dismissal of Virginia appeal of $8.3 million verdict

April 21, 2009

   "A simple clerical error -- failing to order the complete trial transcript -- resulted in the dismissal of the Virginia appeal of a $8.3 million verdict and also spawned two other lawsuits.  These events and their consequences are worth reviewing, as many lawyers will have to admit "there but for the grace of God . . . ."' Read More

 

Defamation per se in Virginia arising from summary of a judicial opinion

April 10, 2009

   "In Vaile v. Willick, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53619 (W.D. Va. July 14, 2008), a law student's defamation action against two lawyers survived the defendants' motion for summary judgment.

The defendants practiced family law in Nevada, and represented the plaintiff law student's ex-wife.  The defendants represented the ex-wife and their children in a series of lawsuits in state and federal courts in Nevada to recover damages from Vaile's removal of the children from their mother's custody without her consent. . . " Read More