As a criminal law practitioner the percentage of cases that actually go to trial may be in the low single digit percentages, however the percentage of clients that happen to be black, will likely be in the much higher double digits. It is no secret that blacks account for a much higher percentage of Americans within the criminal justice system. A part of these staggering statistics can be attributed to the school-to-prison pipeline and its impact on black youth, specifically

The line between donating to a candidate’s campaign and bribery isn’t always so clear. For former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, this line between campaign contributions and criminally defined bribery remained ever so elusive until an investigation into his donations occurred. Siegelman asserted “If I had known I was coming close to the line where a campaign contribution becomes a bribe and a crime, I would have stopped”. The Alabama Governor was sentenced to six and a half

Mental health is a large issue in this country. Although the stigmatization of mental illness has been waning in recent years, our society in large part continues to stigmatize individuals with mental illness on a large scale. In our legal system, individuals with severe mental illnesses are not so much stigmatized as they are feared. When an individual is thought to either be threatening to him or herself, or to other individuals, because of his or her mental illness, a cour

Today’s crimes are increasingly global and likely to perpetrated over or using the Internet. Thus, it is more likely than not that a law enforcement agent will need to serve legal process upon a global company for data regarding an email address, telephone number, or bank account. A major roadblock encountered by law enforcement agencies worldwide in doing this is the archaic and time consuming Mutual Legal Assistance process (MLA), used by many nations to collect authentic

For over thirty years, the War on Drugs has had massive repercussions for the United States. It has brought about racial injustice, mass incarceration, denial of social benefits for drug offenders, and a lack of treatment . However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. With more than half of federal inmates incarcerated for drug offenses and a prison population hovering around two million people, changes need to be made. In the last decade, drug courts have revolutioni

Locked in a contentious election year with Republicans and Democrats warring over the majority of topics, many individuals have overlooked the specifics of a battle currently taking place regarding control of the Supreme Court. Not with regards to whether a nominee will be confirmed, but rather aspects of the current nominee – Merrick Garland. The Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Chief Judge Garland is considered by many to be a ‘

As technology becomes increasingly intermixed with the criminal justice system, Apple continues to advocate on behalf of its users by refusing to create software that would help override the passcode security system on Apple phones. Specifically, the FBI wanted Apple to unlock an encrypted iPhone used by one of the two attackers that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California this past December. The judge ordered Apple to bypass a security feature that erases a device’s