by Kevin Bliss
The families of six of 11 victims raped and killed by convicted sex offender Anthony Sowell due to a botched 2008 rape accusation reached a settlement with the city of Cleveland. The loved ones of Nancy Cobbs, Telesia Fortson, Amelda Hunter, Le’Shanda Long, Diane Turner, and Janice ...
by Kevin Bliss
California became the first state to completely do away with cash bail, making international headlines. The new system uses algorithms to weigh factors to determine a person’s risk assessment with preventive detention for more serious crimes. Critics are concerned that the algorithms are based on data from ...
by Kevin Bliss
Shannon Daves and five others have filed a federal class-action suit against Dallas County, Texas, due to their secret bail hearings that last under a minute. The hearings are not open to the public or press, and bail is set by a predetermined schedule without consideration for ...
by Kevin Bliss
An Ohio study published in Criminal Justice Policy Review determined that the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”) system classifying the risk assessment of sex offenders is prone to racial bias.
A sample of the 673 sex offenders released from prison in Ohio between 2009 and ...
by Kevin Bliss
New crime registries have been launched around the country, but their value remains to be seen. Research suggests their detriments outweigh their benefits, reveals Jessica Pishko’s article, “Expert: Crime Registries Turn People into Pariahs With ‘Very Little to Lose,’” at TheAppeal.org.
While public sex-crime registries are mandated ...
by Kevin Bliss
The Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District ruled that the State was responsible in a case where the systemic breakdown of the public defender system delayed the Sexually Violent Predator (“SVP”) hearing for George Vasquez for 17 years, violating his right to a timely trial ...
by Kevin Bliss
With current technology, filming incidents of police brutality has become more common, yet many of those responsible for capturing events on film claim retaliation by the same police they film.
Kevin Moore was filming the day Freddie Gray was beaten by Baltimore police. That film was immediately ...
by Kevin Bliss
The “resist tyranny” website Rons Spot (ronsspot.org) published a detailed report, complete with possible scenarios and advice, on how to file a complaint against a police officer.
The article states that a complaint is not a lawsuit; it is a report of a less serious nature against ...
by Kevin Bliss
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that the detention of a prospective material witness for 18 hours in a holding cell instead of adhering to the terms of the material witness warrant violated plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment rights, and therefore the defendants were not ...
by Kevin Bliss
The Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy (summer 2018) published a review of the state’s arbitrary application of capital punishment. The review focused on all of the first-degree murder cases prosecuted in the last 40 years and stated that the system is a “cruel lottery” and does ...
