Landmark Supreme Court 2nd Amendment Ruling Released

Today, the United States Supreme Court released its decision on a landmark Second Amendment case that has been a long time coming.  The Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment's right to bear arms applies to state and local governments.  Two years ago, the Supreme Court had ruled that the Second Amendment applies to federal law.  Today, that principle was extended to the states.  However, it is unclear what the practical effect of this decision will be.  The Supreme Court did not rule upon the constitutionality of any law or ordinance.  Rather, it left the question of what is constitutionally permissible for the lower courts to decide.  The case involved the gun bans in Chicago and Oak Park, Illinois.  It is now for the lower courts to reconcile the gun bans with the decision.  A majority of the justices agreed that this decision may lead to extensive and expensive litigation but that this was necessary.  There is little doubt in the opinion that Chicago's gun ban will not stand.   Chicago's gun ban is a blanket ban on any type of gun.  But "reasonable restrictions" will be allowed according to this decision.  What will be considered a "reasonable restriction" is something that will be litigated throughout the courts of this country.  

The practical effect of this ruling is that traditional gun control legislation, like Chicago's blanket ban on handguns, will no longer be the law of the land.  Instead, cities like Chicago, will have to try to come up with legislation that will be more reasonable and ban specific types of guns or require registration or reporting of the ownership of guns.  Gun control opponents will now file lawsuits challenging all the gun control legislation they can find and force the courts to apply this new constitutional scrutiny to gun control legislation.

The case is McDonald v. Chicago, No. 08-1521.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Police Complaints Drop But True Numbers Being Fudged

Yesterday, Chicago Police Superintendent, Jody Weiss announced that the number of citizen complaints against police officers sent to Internal Affairs dropped 12 percent from 2008 to 2009.  Weiss credited the drop in increased training and emphasis on ethics, professionalism and personal responsibility.  Weiss was understandably proud of the drop in complaints.  However, a deeper review of the the numbers reveals that his enthusiasm may be mistaken.  The actual number of complaints actually rose 3%.  The number of opened investigations rose 9%.  The number of complaints filed in the first quarter of 2010 declined by 2% but the number of open investigations rose 4%.  Also, it appears as if the numbers cited by Weiss do not reflect complaints related to brutality and firearms incidents involving police officers.  

The numbers suggest that the press reports of Weiss's announcement yesterday did not reflect the true picture of what is happening.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Violent Weekend In Chicago

The Chicago Police report that this weekend was a particularly violent one in Chicago.  At least 40 people were shot throughout Chicago and 7 were killed.  Gun violence seems to be on the upswing.  Police blame gangs for most of the violence.  The violence started after Friday's severe storms.  Saturday night, six people were shot at the annual Puerto Rican Day Festival in Humbolt Park.  The violence continued late Sunday night and early Monday when another 18 people were shot throughout the city.  Some of the shooting victims were children.  However, early reports suggest that none of the children were seriously injured.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

DNA Testing Ordered For Texas Man Executed in 2000

We are following a very interesting case in Texas.  Claude "Butch" Jones was the last person executed in Texas in 2000, which set a national record.  He had been convicted of the robbery and murder of a liquor store owner.  Jones had always maintained his innocence.  A hair fragment, which had been recovered from the counter of the liquor store, was the only physical evidence connecting Jones to the murder.  The testimony at his trial was that a microscopic examination of the hair fragment "matched" Jones' hair.  The state's expert could not exclude others whose hair had the same characteristics as Jones'.  The Innocence Project and The Texas Observer, an Austin Texas news magazine, had filed a petition to have mitochondrial DNA testing on the hair fragment.  This type of DNA testing was not available at the time of Jones' trial.  The prosecutor who assisted in the prosecution of Jones had always opposed and blocked this new form of DNA testing of the hair fragment.  The prosecutor died this month and a new prosecutor is handling the case.  A Texas judge has agreed with the petitioners and has ordered that the DNA testing proceed.  The result of the DNA testing could prove that Jones was guilty if it matches him, exonerate him of the murder if it matches his co-defendant, or could cast considerable doubt of his guilt if it doesn't match any of the defendants.

It is important to note that Jones had a bad history.  He was an alcoholic and drug user for much of his adult life.  He spent most of his adult life in prison and had been previously convicted of murder in which he poured gasoline on an inmate and set him on fire.

The prosecutor has not indicated whether he will be appealing the ruling allowing for the DNA testing.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Congratulations Maywood! No Murders For One Year

The Village of Maywood is celebrating an important milestone.  For the first time that anyone can remember, there has not been a single murder in Maywood for one year.  As recently as 2003 there were 20 murders in Maywood.  In 2006 there were 11 murders in Maywood, 5 in 2007, 12 in 2008 and 2 in 2009.  Village and Police officials have been hard at work trying to reduce that number.  More officers were put on the street and about 79 surveillance cameras have been placed at problem locations in the town.  Police officers will approach groups of people standing on street corners and ask questions of them. 

Congratulations to Maywood for coming a long way!

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Cook County Allows Suburbs To Opt Out Of Red Light Cameras

The soap opera surrounding the installation of red light cameras has taken another interesting twist.  Cook County decided to install red light cameras at 20 intersections that are controlled by Cook County.  30 candidate intersections were chosen.  Some of the intersections are in towns that are outright opposed to the use of red light cameras.  Two such towns are Schaumburg and Arlington Heights.  Arlington Heights has previously decided not to use red light cameras.  Schaumburg installed a red light camera at one intersection but later removed it and decided not to install any more red light cameras.  The plan by Cook County would mean that cameras would be installed in towns that do not want them and the revenue generated by the cameras would not be shared with the towns.  This caused a huge uproar when these towns discovered that there was not much they could do to stop these cameras from being installed in their towns.  The roads chosen are owned and controlled by Cook County.

Today comes news that the Cook County Board has voted to allow individual towns to opt out of having cameras installed in their towns.  The measure passed on a 9 to 4 vote.  The vote allows each individual town to decide whether they want cameras installed in their town.  Indications are that Arlington Heights will be among the towns that will opt out of the red light camera program proposed by Cook County.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Supreme Court Gives Federal Judges Leeway On Restitution Orders

The United States Supreme Court has issued a decision which resolves a split among Circuit Courts.  The decision involves the imposition of restitution in federal criminal cases.  Federal law provides for a 90 day time limit after a conviction for the court to impose restitution.    Brian Dolan had pleaded guilty to a federal charge of assault in 2007.  He was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison and 3 years of parole.  Restitution was mandatory but the judge left the amount of the restitution open because he did not have sufficient evidence to determine what the amount should be.  Two months after the sentencing hearing, the Probation Office provided the information to the judge, but only 3 weeks before the expiration of the 90 statutory requirement.  Upon receiving the information from the Probation Office, the judge set a hearing on restitution 4 months later.  At the hearing Dolan's attorneys argued that the 90 day time limit had expired, but the judge rejected the argument.  A month after the hearing, the judge imposed $105,000 in restitution.  By the time the order was entered, Dolan had been released from prison.  

The majority adopted a flexible view of the statute and held that as long as the judge made it clear that restitution would be part of the sentence, the court could take longer than 90 days to impose the amount of the restitution.  The dissent argued that the court should look at the clear intent of Congress and should not impose its interpretation of the statute.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Study Suggest Murder Rate May Affect Kid's IQ Scores

A New York Sociology Professor has released the results of a study which suggest that a murder in a neighborhood may significantly reduce a child's score on an IQ test.  This would happen even if the child did not witness the murder.  Analysts think that this may fit into the type of results seen in post traumatic stress cases.  In an IQ test, the normal score is 100.  One standard deviation is 15 points.  If a child took an IQ test within one week of a murder occurring in their neighborhood, their IQ test score was 7 or 8 points lower than a similar child living in a similar neighborhood in which there was no murder.  The test took samples from tests taken from 6,000 murders that occurred in Chicago.  What is interesting is that the study suggests that this effect wears away after about a week or nine days.  In other words, the test results return back to normal after a week or nine days of the murder.  But in some neighborhoods, statistics would suggest that some kids are subjected to this phenomenon a week a month.  Nationally, black children score one standard deviation lower than white children on standardized tests.  This study suggests a possible partial explanation for this.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear California Prison Population Case

The United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of a case in which the State of California has been ordered to reduce the prison population by 40,000 prisoners.  The case actually started in 1990 when various lawsuits were filed regarding the overcrowded conditions in California prisons.  Throughout the litigation, courts have issued many findings that the conditions in California's prisons violate the Constitution.  In August of last year, a three judge panel of federal judges ruled that the only way to remedy the situation is to reduce the prison population by almost 40,000 inmates by the end of 2011.  The California prison system was designed to house 80,000 inmates but was housing almost double that number just a few years ago.  The State of California has been taking steps to comply with the court's order even as it has been aggressively appealing the order of the three judge panel.  

The case will be argued in the fall term, which begins in October.  The case is Schwartzenegger v. Plata, 09-1233.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

McHenry County Unseals Hundreds Of Sealed Search Warrant Files

The McHenry County States Attorneys office unsealed hundreds of search warrant files that had previously been kept sealed.  Most counties make search warrant files open to the public.  Except for McHenry County which keeps them sealed even after charges are filed or are not filed.  Last year, a judge in St. Clair County, ruled in a lawsuit involving a newspaper that such files should be made public unless they jeopardize an ongoing investigation.  McHenry County State's Attorney Louis Bianchi sought the opinion of the Illinois Attorney General which advised his office that once warrants have been served, they should be made open to the public.  Bianchi's office has poured over hundreds of files to see if they contained any information which would jeopardize any ongoing investigations and released 248 files.  Only 20 files were kept sealed after it was determined that they contained sensitive information that would jeopardize ongoing investigations.  Most of the files unsealed contained information regarding drug investigations, investigations involving murders, embezzlement and an illegal fowl hunting investigation. 

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Supreme Court Rules On Aggravated Felony For Immigration Purposes

The United States Supreme Court today issued a ruling on a case involving what is considered an aggravated felony for immigration deportation purposes.  Jose Angel Carachuri-Rosendo was convicted in state court of simple drug possession of a single Xanax pill a year after he had received 20 days in jail for possessing 2 ounces of marijuana.  The state prosecutor had the option to charge him with an aggravated felony because if was his second case, but chose not to.  The federal government sought to have him removed from the country because he had committed an aggravated felony on the basis that it was his second conviction which amounted to a serious, or aggravated felony.  Carachuri-Rosendo argued that he had not been convicted of an aggravated felony.  The Supreme Court held that the immigration court cannot enhance the state judgment by substituting its judgment over that of the state court.  Since there was no finding of recidivism by the state court, the immigration court cannot add their judgment to that of the state court.

The impact of this decision is that a second conviction does not automatically make someone eligible for deportation.  The federal government had argued that since a second conviction for a minor drug offense would be considered an aggravated felony under federal law, immigrants convicted of a second minor drug offense in state court would be subject to automatic deportations.  That is no longer the case and thousands of immigrants who fall under the same set of facts can now petition the immigration judge for leniency.  Before this decision, deportation was automatic and they could not seek leniency.  Carachuri-Rosendo, who was well over 30 years old, has been in the United States legally since he was 5 years old.  His common law wife, mother, sister and 4 children are all U.S. citizens.  Carachuri-Rosendo had actually been deported to Mexico.

The case is Carachuri-Rosendo v. Holder, 09-60.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Chicago Crime Rate Down But Murder Rate Up

The Chicago Police report that the crime rate has dropped  5.8 percent in the city but murders are up nearly 4 percent compared to 2009.  Between January and May of 2010 there were 164 murders in Chicago.  There were 158 murders for the same time period in 2009.  Other violent crimes, like criminal sexual assault and robberies have decreased.  Even property crimes, which include burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson, have dropped 4.2 percent. 

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

The Watering Down Of Miranda Continues

Followers of this post know that we have been reporting about a steady stream of Supreme Court rulings that are having the effect of eroding Miranda.  In a recent decision, the Supreme Court has continued the process.  Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled, in a 5 to 4 decision that a criminal suspect in police custody must make a simple, unambiguous statement that he or she wants to remain silent or that he or she does not want to talk to the police.  Criminal suspects can no longer invoke their right to remain silent by simply remaining silent.  Absent any simple, unambiguous statement that he or she wants to remain silent, any incriminating statement made by the suspect can be used against them in court.  The case in questions involves Van Chester Thompkins.  He was involved in a shooting outside of a Michigan shopping mall in January of 2000.  A year and a half later he was interrogated by the police.  Prior to questioning he was advised of his Miranda warnings but refused to sign a form indicating that he acknowledged that he had been given the warnings.  Police state that he verbally confirmed that he understood his rights.  Thompkins denies that he gave them any verbal acknowledgment.  Thompkins remained silent during the questioning until 2 hours and 45 minutes into the questioning.  Tears welled up in his eyes and the officer asked him if he prayed for forgiveness for shooting the victim and Thompkins stated "yes" to that question.  The Court of Appeals threw out the statement but the United States Supreme Court overturned the decision because Thompkins did not make a verbal statement that he wished to remain silent.

The case is Berghuis v. Thompkins.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Chicago Police To Increase Police Presence On The Street

On Wednesday, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announced that 130 more Chicago police officers will be put on the street to patrol trains and streets.  86 of the additional police officers will come straight from the police academy while the rest will be reassigned from other parts of the department.  The additional police officers will be paid by federal stimulus funds which will run out in 3 years.  Mayor Daley hopes that by the time the federal stimulus funds run out, the economy will rebound and the city will be able to pay for the officers out of their own funds.  50 of the new recruits will be assigned to patrol the streets while 36 of the new recruits will be assigned to patrol trains.  

The Chicago police department has been struggling with budget problems.  Last year the retirement age was lowered from 60 to 55 in an attempt to attract younger personnel who make less money than older officers.  168 officers were moved to the streets from administrative duties.  As of April of this year, the Chicago police department is down 780 officers from what it needs to properly function.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Police Having Harder Time Solving Murders

The Scripps Howard News Service has released a study involving unsolved murders.  The study reveals an alarming rise in the number of unsolved murders.  Of the nation's 100 largest police departments only 63% of murders have been solved.  In the 1960's, this number was regularly at 90 percent.  Nearly 185,000 murders went unsolved between 1980 and 2008.  Police fail to make arrests in over one-third of all murders.  In Cook County, only about one-third of all murders since 1980 have been solved.  Police only solved 35 percent of the murders in Chicago in 2008.  Many experts believe that the reason for these numbers is that more and more murders are drug and gang related, as opposed to crimes of passion.  It's easier to identify a suspect in a crime of passion than in a drug or gang related murder.  The study showed a wide range or disparity in these numbers from city to city.  In New Orleans, only 22 percent of murders were solved.  In Detroit, only 21 percent of murders were solved.  In Philadelphia, 75 percent of murders were solved, 92 percent in Denver and 94 percent in San Diego.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.

Washington Supreme Court Reverses Murder Conviction

The Washington Supreme Court has reversed the first degree murder conviction of a defendant because it was unfair to hold his trial at the county jail rather than the courthouse.  James Frank Jaime was convicted of the murder of a man during a 2005 drug deal.  The judge agreed to hold the trial in a courtroom at the jail because he agreed with prosecutors that security reasons required this.  The Washington Supreme Court found that there was no reason on the record to justify those security concerns.  The court found that holding the trial at the jail courtroom was prejudicial to the murder defendant.  Similar to letting the jury see the defendant in shackles.  The court was also troubled by the fact that the judge lied to the jury as to why the trial was being held in the jail by telling them that it was for administrative and space reasons.

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.