Virginia spares a person convicted of murder and California balks .

My vacation was supposed to start Wednesday afternoon, right after I continued a case on the 1 p.m. docket. The plan was to take a week, tr...

I posted this item (with several others) on 11/26, but with the Thanksgiving holiday and several subsequent posts, it kind of slipped throug...

Episode 14 - Moore v. Commonwealth : Can an officer who cannot perform a search without violating the 4th Amendment circumvent the constitut...

Better Late Than Never Man convicted on DNA evidence for 1973 rape gets up to 46 years in prison."A woman's testimony was not suff...

Wales - A young woman gets drunk and a friend arranges for her to have a security guard escort her home. Two days later she reported to a u...

1) Virginia may not be able to criminalize sodomy after Lawrence , but it's sure going to hold onto its ability to criminalize solicita...

1) When a Filipina moves to recant a rape charge high level politicians start talking about charging her with perjury . 2) In India a 75 ...

One of the biggest death penalty cases out there right now is in Singapore. An Australian citizen, Van Tuong Nguyen, tried to smuggle heroi...

1) When Lawyers Go Bad A Maryland lawyer was sentenced to 20 years in prison for plotting to murder her former husband. 2) When Judges Go B...

1) Perception (from Taipei) - 997 executions later, " the US still loves the death penalty ." 2) Wisconsin hasn't had the de...

1) Two men wait to see if a Sharia court declares them gay and orders them stoned to death . 2) In Australia, Catholics are urged to take u...

1) China - Unburdened with the mandate against double jeopardy, a Chinese Appellate Court increases a penalty from life to death because th...

The decision referenced by Orin doesn't bother me so much . The measurement in a straight line from the school to the location of a dru...

Over at MoBuzz , Miss Stenquist tells us about a verbal lie detector which an Israeli is trying to sell to airports (2d story). And then sh...

In Florida a lawyer cannot use pit bulls in advertising. So says the government in the body of the Florida Supreme Court .

Sign up for your "I want to be arrested by the Feds" card .

The EU is federalizing certain crimes , but it's not a power grab: EU officials insist that new powers to set criminal punishments for b...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Vacatur: an order of a court vacating a legal proceeding. Webster's Third New International, 1972. Why quote from Webster instead of Bl...

1) If you're hiding from police a deep freeze which locks behind you might not be a good locale . 2) It may not track exactly, but any...

Decision making by committee gives us an officer firing a doughnut rather than a pistol (I kid you not). via the Conspiracy

The latest LexCast is up both in video and audio form. It's a tribute to Professor Roger Groot - the Professor which every single gradu...

Over at MoBuzzTV, Karina Stenquist's first two stories are about law matters . First, we learn of the U.K.'s plan to put a camera e...

Using a dog which is 0 for 4 to justify strip searching people who have been pulled over . Thanks to NS for the tip.

. . . you get " to spend a night in the woods without water, food or light ."

1) Claims of attack at memorial false. U.S. Park Police this week said they want to assure the public that the memorials and monuments in...

Yes, convictions under the UCMJ are convictions under the laws of the United States .

Just because you tricked someone else into taking the property away doesn't mean there was no asportation in your case.

In Virginia it's not probable cause when an officer approaches a car and finds someone asleep in it with a half-burned, hand rolled cig...