by TChris

What a waste.

More than 31,000 California college students forfeited their shot at federal financial aid because of past drug convictions, newly released records show.

Why should a drug conviction prevent students from obtaining the financial assistance they need to improve their educations? Shouldn't society try to help them gain the tools they need to live productive lives?

While Congress recently "softened" the law, it should be jettisoned altogether.

Marijuana Policy Director Rob Kammpia has a new article at Alternet, Your Tax Dollars on Drugs. He writes that marijuana prohibition is a spectacular failure.

The futile effort to "eradicate" marijuana has produced a harvest of misery. By forfeiting any chance to regulate the marijuana market -- you can't regulate what's illegal, after all -- we've given criminals and gangsters an exclusive franchise. We've guaranteed that marijuana will be grown in dangerous locations -- even hidden in wilderness areas or national parks -- instead of by regulated producers who are subject to environmental and labor standards. Unlike liquor merchants, who could lose their very lucrative liquor licenses if they sell to children, marijuana dealers have no incentive not to sell to kids.

by TChris

Mitchell Lawrence sold a little more than a gram of marijuana to an undercover cop for $20.

In the months that followed, the cop approached Lawrence again for marijuana. This time, however, Lawrence refused. Weeks later, a crew of undercover cops stormed Lawrence's home and placed him under arrest. On March 22, 2006, Lawrence was sentenced to two years in prison.

Two years for about a joint's worth of weed? Will this benefit society?

Lawrence was set to graduate from high school this spring. Instead, he will watch his fellow classmates graduate from his prison cell.

As the linked editorial opines, "the case of Mitchell Lawrence is one of countless tales of drug war madness that takes place on America's streets daily." Stop the madness. Just Say No to "drug free zones," mandatory minimum sentences, and other ridiculous laws that target insignificant drug crimes. And Just Say No to the politicians who support and promote those laws without regard to the lives they destroy.

by TChris

The Detroit Police Department has taken a step toward reform by requiring its officers to videotape interrogations of crime suspects in cases that carry the possible penalty of life without parole. If Detroit is serious about reform, it should extend that policy to all interrogations. Why?

"Number one, it keeps cops honest," Chief [Ella] Bully-Cummings said. "It's a protection for the citizen that's being interrogated. But from a chief's point of view, I think the greatest benefit is to police because what it does is provide documentation that they didn't coerce."

The new policy comes in response to a lawsuit filed by the family of a mentally ill man who served nearly 18 years in prison after being coerced to confess to a rape and murder he didn't commit. Sadly, the man died two years after his release, but his family can at least share (in the words of his sister) "a sense that the wrong has been righted."

Radley Balko has an excellent article up at Slate on SWAT, no-knocks, and the Hudson Supreme Court case that will be decided soon.

As the name indicates, a "no-knock" raid occurs when police forcibly enter a private residence without first knocking and announcing that they're the police. The tactic is appropriate in a few limited situations, such as when hostages or fugitives are involved, or where the suspect poses an immediate threat to community safety. But increasingly, this highly confrontational tactic is being used in less volatile situations, most commonly to serve routine search warrants for illegal drugs.

These raids are often launched on tips from notoriously unreliable confidential informants. Rubber-stamp judges, dicey informants, and aggressive policing have thus given rise to the countless examples of "wrong door" raids we read about in the news.

It's a really important topic and I recommend reading the whole article.

by TChris

Conventional lie detectors are untrustworthy assessors of the truth, at best. Even worse, according to a recent ABC Primetime report, are Voice Stress Analyzers. Expect police departments to continue using them, nonetheless. They've paid big money for these machines and are likely to stand behind them, even though they're about as reliable as voodoo.

"Police departments have paid $10,000 per system over the last 18 years and rely on it exclusively for truth verification," said Charles Humble, chairman and CEO of the National Institute for Truth Verification, which sells the CVSA. "We have a remarkable record of success."

Not according to the military, which used voice stress analyzers during interrogations in Guantanamo Bay and Iraq. Military investigators now realize that Voice Stress Analyzers are no more accurate than a coin-flip.

Via NORML:

NORML regrets to inform you that earlier this week the House and Senate gave final approval to Senate Bill 8, Ohio's proposed per se "drugged driving" bill. While some of our allies on the House Criminal Justice Committee valiantly tried to address some of our concerns by introducing several amendments to the bill, SB 8 - as approved by both chambers - would still potentially punish marijuana smokers for "drugged driving," even if the individual is neither under the influence nor impaired to drive.

The bill is expected to be signed into law by the Governor, whose administration lobbied for its passage, and will take effect 90 days after his approval.

Congressman James "The Menace" Sensenbrenner is about to strike again -- this time, he's going to urge going topless. Via Law Prof Doug Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy:

I have now heard from two different sources that House Judiciary Chair James Sensenbrenner intends to introduce a bill mandating topless guidelines, and that there will be a hearing concerning the solution to the post-Booker sentencing problems that he identifies sometime in early May. My impression from the House hearing earlier this month was that most of the witnesses did a powerful job urging Congress to leave Booker alone for now, but apparently Sensenbrenner was unconvinced. Needlesss to say, this is a story to watch, and the links below provide plenty of background.

Tranlsation: For federal crimes, the top of the sentencing guidelines will now mean the sky's the limit.

P.S. I tried to make a find a picture of a topless Sensenbrenner for the post, but am not adept enough to create one. If any readers can come up with one, please send it on, anonymously or for credit.

Here's the story: A police officer may have accidentally shot herself outside a house in Long Beach, California. She was found slumped over the wheel of her car. An "Officer Down" call went out. Then,

Long Beach police said dispatchers received an "officer down" call made from inside the Wrigley neighborhood home about 6 a.m. Moments after finding Rosa wounded in the driveway, officers swarmed the area and conducted house-to-house searches.

The 911 call was placed by the resident of the property where the officer was found. The resident appears to be her partner.

So the police go to the house, find the woman dead on the scene, and on her partner's word they search - the neighbors? House to house searches of a neighborhood without a warrant in this situation sounds quite excessive--and frightening.

[Hat tip to reader Kirk]

by TChris

The Justice Policy Institute released a report (pdf) that explores the impact of "drug free zones" on racial disparity in the criminal justice system. This recap is from the Drug Policy Alliance, which commissioned the report:

Although intended to provide a safe haven for youth, drug-free zone laws do not deter drug activity within prohibited zones. While not achieving the intended goals, these laws contribute to unacceptably high levels of racial disparity in the use of incarceration and subject people of color to stiffer punishment than whites engaged in similar conduct. Several states are considering proposals to either eliminate or narrow the scope of the drug-free zone laws, in order to enhance public safety and minimize unintended consequences.

What a ridiculous waste of law enforcement resources.

Texas has begun sending undercover agents into bars to arrest drinkers for being drunk, a spokeswoman for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said Wednesday.

The first sting operation was conducted recently in a Dallas suburb where agents infiltrated 36 bars and arrested 30 people for public intoxication, said the commission's Carolyn Beck. The goal, she said, was to detain drunks before they leave a bar and go do something dangerous like drive a car.

[hat tip to Mish.]

Update: Punchy in the comments notes: "They were also going into hotel bars--a place were people had absolutely no intention of driving, and busting them. Claimed they may drink too much and jump off the balcony."

Very few law enforcment practices are more inisidious than the perp walk. The National Law Journal has an article (free link here) on how to avoid them in white collar crime cases. It begins by telling us who was responsible for creating them: Rudy Giuliani.

Rudolph Giuliani is given credit for "patent[ing] the perp walk" for white-collar defendants during his tenure as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. ...When the time came to arrest three prominent Wall Street traders and bankers that his office accused of insider trading, Giuliani directed that the defendants be arrested at their offices, handcuffed and escorted from the building to a mob of press that had been previously alerted. Charges against one of the defendants were dismissed, although damage to his reputation based on the perp walk and media frenzy was irreparable.