by Jordan Arizmendi

A new open access database called “Data for Defenders,” a project of MDefenders program at the University of Michigan Law School, is a valuable tool for defenders. The resources available in the database – including briefs, motions, and transcripts – will instantly broaden the tools for defenders ...

by Jordan Arizmendi

Abody farm is often an indispensable tool for investigators. A body farm is a facility that focuses on the details of human decomposition. Such an essential tool allows forensic scientists to study the decomposition process in a controlled environment. In many cases, body farms are the only way to determine the time of death, identification, how long the individual has been dead, as well as identifying many more crucial pieces of evidence.

The main purpose of a body farm is to study and form a conception of the decomposition processes that occur in our bodies. The research is then provided to medical, legal, and educational institutions. 

Amy Rattenbury is a researcher at a body farm and also a senior lecturer in forensic science at Wrexham University in the U.K. She said, “The environment plays a significant part in the rates, stages and features of decomposition observed. Temperature, weather, oxygen, access by scavengers, clothing etc. all cause differences. A general rule is that exposed bodies will decompose faster than buried bodies which are again faster than those submerged in water, but it is not so simple and multiple factors must be considered.” 

The seven body farms in the U.S. ...

by Jordan Arizmendi

Part of an omnibus bill, Minnesota recently placed a five-year cap on probation. Any Minnesotan serving probation sentences longer than five years is now eligible for resentencing. Before this legislation, Minnesota law allowed probation sentences to be as long as the maximum sentence one could get for the crime.

For example, in 2013, Jennifer Schroeder got a year in jail for a drug offense. However, under Minnesota law, the maximum she could have gotten for the crime was 40 years. Hence, she received 40 years of probation.

Many individuals who go through the justice system will agree that the probation period is more burdensome than the incarceration. After all, probation requires someone to pay pricey fees, attend classes, and adhere to other judge-appointed conditions. Nationwide, the average length of probation is a little under two years.  

Sources: reason.com; pewtrust.org

by Jordan Arizmendi

The Supreme Judicial Court of ­Massachusetts upheld a ruling concluding that between 2011 and 2019, breathalyzers used by the government were improperly calibrated and maintained. Commonwealth v. Hallinan, 207 N.E.3d 465 (Mass. 2023). More astonishingly, according to the opinion, because of government misconduct, an estimated 27,000 people found guilty of DUI can either withdraw their guilty pleas or have their convictions revisited.

The biggest Massachusetts’ mistake since trading away The Babe in 1920, all started with Lindsay Hallinan’s case. Back in 2013, Hallinan got pulled over, and when she blew into the Draeger Alcotest 9510 breathalyzer, her blood alcohol level registered at .23. She knew the reading was not correct, though she figured she had no other course of action than to admit to sufficient facts the next month.

After her plea, authorities discovered that some of the breathalyzer machines had not been properly calibrated to ensure accuracy. An investigation by the state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (“EOPSS”) found that the state Office for Alcohol Testing (“OAT”) covered the machine’s inaccuracies and claimed the rate of failure was actually a lot lower than it really was.

The Supreme Judicial Court in Hallinan stated ...

by Jordan Arizmendi

On June 30, 2022, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jason Graham announced the creation of the specialized Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s (“OCME”) DNA Gun Crimes Unit. One year later, it became the fastest big city lab for testing and analyzing gun crime evidence.

With an investment of $2.5 million, the OCME DNA Gun Crimes Unit will hire and train 24 forensic scientists dedicated to testing and analyzing gun crime evidence throughout the five boroughs of New York City.

OCME handles the largest public DNA crime laboratory in the country. The lab tests about 50,000 pieces of evidence every year. A year ago, the lab’s turnaround testing time for gun crimes was 60 days or less, which is faster than almost any other jurisdiction in the country. On June 27, 2023, the city announced that, thanks to the new city lab, that time has dropped to an unprecedented 30 days or less.   

Sources: NYC.gov; forensicmag.com

by Jordan Arizmendi

Few events are more horrific than sudden infant death syndrome (“SIDS”). A boisterous and healthy baby, before their first birthday, goes to sleep in their crib and is found dead the next day. To compound the tragedy, parents and caretakers are sometimes criminally charged for the death.

A new study, published in the Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology, examined dried blood samples from babies who died from SIDS. The study revealed decreased levels of blood enzyme butryrylcholinesterase activity in the ones who died from SIDS versus the infants who died as a result of something else versus infants who did not die at all.

Before this study, SIDS was a perplexing mystery, resulting in countless wrongful convictions. While the study seems to have discovered a possible medical reason, more research is still required.  

Sources: forensicmag.com; nationwidechildrens.org

by Jordan Arizmendi

Last February, WDTN reported that
 Dayton, Ohio, City Commission members, voted to approve installation of the Fusus network. When the system is set up, a 911 call will automatically identify cameras in the area that have a live feed. As a result, police officers could get a real-time view of what is going on around that 911 call. Atlanta, Memphis, Orlando, and countless other police forces across the country are imploring the public to invest in the Fusus surveillance system.

Essentially, the Fusus technology allows law enforcement to spy on people who do not know that they are being watched, as well as target protestors, political dissidents, or even harass people of color. Unrestricted police surveillance allows law enforcement to spy on people without any probable cause.

Now that so much of the world is accessible through video footage, besides hiding under a bed or maybe down in the basement, there are not many places to hide from the Watchful Eye. Fusus is such an effective police surveillance tool because it extends police access to surveillance cameras and then integrates these cameras with private and public networks of other surveillance services.

On the Fusus Q&A page, one ...

by Jordan Arizmendi

In April 2023, the Mississippi Supreme Court unanimously amended the state’s Rules of Criminal Procedure to eliminate the “dead zone.” Essentially, Rule 7.2 of Mississippi declares that counsel must be provided to an indigent defendant after they have been indicted. In re Miss. Rules of Crim. Procedure, 2023 Miss. LEXIS 103 (2023).

Previously, a defendant in Mississippi was not guaranteed counsel “at the critical pretrial stage between arrest and arraignment following indictment.” The time could be prolonged, without the ability to pay for legal assistance. Time spent in the Mississippi “dead zone” averaged from two months to more than a year.

The Mississippi public defender system has been criticized for years. Under Mississippi state law, a defendant’s constitutional right to an attorney does not exist until the defendant is indicted. To make matters worse, attorneys in counties without public-defender offices are not able to do much regarding their client’s case because they only start working once their client is charged. For example, Duane Lake had to wait almost three years in the Coahoma County jail without a lawyer, before being indicted.

Cliff Johnson, the director of the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center at the University ...

by Jordan Arizmendi

The method that law-enforcement agencies use to test a suspect’s DNA is currently undergoing the most significant transformation in the science’s history. New Rapid DNA technology can develop an individual’s DNA profile in one to two hours. The machine can test skin, hair, DNA swabs, blood, saliva, cigarette butts, and anything that potentially contains DNA.

According to the FBI website, coupled with Combined DNA Index System (“CODIS”), a DNA profile can be searched against all unsolved crimes within 24 hours. By using Rapid DNA with DNA Index of Special Concern (“DISC”), a DNA profile can be searched against all unsolved homicides, sexual assaults, kidnappings, and terrorism events. Plus, a match to a DISC profile will notify the booking department, arresting department, and investigating department all instantaneously. Rapid DNA technology can find the results while the arrestee is still in custody.

The Rapid DNA Act of 2017 allows the machines to connect to CODIS. The first Rapid DNA machine was installed at the East Baton Rouge Paris jail in August 2022. In 2020, the FBI started the two-month Rapid DNA pilot in Louisiana, Florida, Arizona, and Texas. After that, Louisiana was chosen to be the location of the ...

by Jordan Arizmendi

Upon reading the Justice Policy Institute report entitled “Safe at Home: Improving Maryland’s Parole Release Decision Making,” the first look at Maryland’s parole system in excess of 80 years, one disturbing trend is that the rate at which the Maryland Parole Commission approves parole sharply declines for people once they turn 40. Even though research shows that people are less likely to commit crimes as they get older, the Maryland Parole Commission is more likely to grant parole to a young defendant than an older one.

The report faults the system for this unnerving injustice in which the players who decide which defendants gain freedom and which must return to their cells for another 10 years are more focused on the details of the crime than recidivism. Maryland law, for example, dictates that parole commission members are to consider certain factors when determining whether or not to grant parole.

According to the Maryland Department of Public Safety & Correctional Services website: We look at multiple factores [sic] when conducting a parole grant (initial) hearing. These include, but are not limited to: the nature and circumstance of the offense; victim input; history and pattern offenses; prior major incarcerations; ...