In a highly unusual move, a nine-judge panel of district judges from around the 7th Circuit is hearing arguments on whether certain drug sting operations run since the 90s by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were racially discriminatory.If...
Month: December 2017
Supreme Court to determine eligibility for reduced sentences
In the federal justice system, most criminal sentences are determined by formulas in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. The guidelines are determined by an agency called the U.S. Sentencing Commission.Sometimes the Sentencing Commission determines that the sentencing...
Should DNA probabilistic genotyping be used against defendants?
When a crime scene sample has evidence of more than one individual crime labs attempt to assign the results to particular individuals. When there are DNA alleles from only two people the process is usually straightforward -- there is a "major contributor" and "minor...
Examining racial disparities in sentencing and plea bargaining
In many ways, news that disparities exist in the U.S. criminal justice system based on race evoke thoughts of Captain Renault, Claude Rains' character in "Casablanca," shutting down Rick's Café and exclaiming, "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in...
Be careful to raise no new issues at your probation hearings
If you end up being convicted of a crime, there's a fair chance that part of your sentence will involve probation. Probation allows you to be released into the community instead of serving all of your sentence in jail -- but you must meet certain conditions. If you...