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Criminal Justice News This Week (week of 12-21-20)

Ohio Supreme Court Rules Man Can’t Be Ordered to Abstain From Procreation "A father convicted of failing to support his 11 children cannot be prohibited from making it a dozen, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Friday in a 6-1 decision."

How Trump Made a Tiny Christian College the Nation’s Biggest Prison Educator  "His administration has funneled $30 million to Ashland University in Ohio.  Critics say the school’s tablet-based program fails incarcerated students."

Should Ohio reduce penalties for drug possession? Advocates tout bill coming to a vote this week "Ohio could soon take its biggest step toward away from the 'war on drugs' began in the 1970s. Senate Bill 3, pending in the Ohio House, would reduce penalties for possessing smaller amounts of drugs while keeping stronger penalties for having larger quantities."

Divided court reinstates Arizona inmate’s death sentence "The Supreme Court issued orders on Monday from the justices’ private conference last week. The justices had already granted one case, involving class certification in a securities-fraud case, from that conference on Friday, so it was no surprise that they did not add any new cases to their merits docket for this term. The justices denied review in two high-profile cases, involving LGBTQ rights and a proof-of-citizenship requirement for voting, and issued a summary opinion that vacated a ruling by a federal appeals court in favor of an Arizona death-row inmate."

Michigan man imprisoned for nearly 4 decades exonerated after witness admits lying "Walter Forbes was a full-time student at Michigan's Jackson Community College in 1982. He had dreams of owning a real estate development firm after graduating."

The Rise and Fall of a Celebrity Police Dog "Obi had thousands of Instagram followers for being 'cute and derpy.' His work on the streets of Indianapolis was another matter."

False Conviction "How fingerprint and firearm experts use misleading math to appear infallible."

The Role of Lawyers in a Time of Unrest "I’ve spent a lot of time ruminating on my role as an attorney in light of all that I am observing—the disparate impact of COVID-19, the political unrest over elections, the rising up of oppressed people all over the nation."

The Care and Feeding of Clients: An Owner’s Guide "Clients are valuable people, indeed, but they are hard to acquire and easy to lose, so, we try to take care of them. They need to know we appreciate their business and their confidence."

These Cops Lied in Court. But Since the D.A. Isn't Keeping a Brady List, They Could Testify Again "The case illustrates the importance of keeping lists of police officers with histories of misconduct or dishonesty, the defense lawyer in the case says."

Massachusetts Drug Lab Scandal Expands With New Probe "What has been called the largest crime lab scandal in U.S. history received another jolt this week with a Boston Globe report that the office of Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins in Massachusetts is examining the work of another chemist."

What Good Will the “Due Process Protections Act” Do? “On October 21, 2020, President Trump signed into law the ‘Due Process Protections Act’ (‘DPPA’), P.L. No. 116-182, 134 Stat. Ann. 894, which was effective upon enactment. Receiving rare bi-partisan support in both houses of Congress, the new law seeks to bring balance to the power dynamic between the prosecution and the defense by requiring federal courts at the outset of a case to put the government on notice of its constitutional discovery obligations and the potential consequences for flouting those obligations.”)

Cayman Islands jails US college student in coronavirus case “A U.S. college student and her boyfriend have been sentenced to four months in prison in the Cayman Islands for violating strict COVID-19 measures following a recent ruling that will be appealed, their attorney said Thursday.”

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