Posts by Jessica Jackson

Civil Gang Injunctions: Skirting the Burden

Posted 466 days ago by Jessica Jackson

As counties across the country search for more effective tools to disband gangs and prevent gang activity, several cities have turned to the civil courts for help. Civil gang injunctions, which prevent specific gang members from associating with one another as well as from entering certain parts of the city, have been popping up nationwide. These injunctions, which were first implemented in Los Angeles and then Oakland California, are usually served by the city attorney’s office on the alleged gang member and include a hearing date.

While the goal behind the injunctions is one most people support, the procedure involved in obtaining the injunction and its quasi criminal ramifications are have proven problematic. In criminal law, the prosecutor most prove elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. As an aggravating factor, gang affiliation also must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. . . .

Read more

You have the right to remain silent, now hand over your iphone

Posted 473 days ago by Jessica Jackson

Last month’s California Supreme Court decision in People v. Diaz represents an unprecedented expansion of the government’s ability to search without a warrant. The defendant, Diaz, was arrested for possession of narcotics after an informant bought six pills of ecstasy from him. Ninety minutes after Diaz had been cuffed, the arresting officer confiscated and searched Diaz’s cell phone, finding a text that was allegedly related to the drug sale.

The court upheld the officer’s actions under the exception to the warrant requirement that allows “search incident to arrest.” The rationale for the exception focuses on the protection of officers and the preservation of evidence. The court’s logic is problematic because it fails to show how a cell phone search falls into either of those categories. . . .

Read more

Redefining Reasonable Representation

Posted 480 days ago by Jessica Jackson

[UPDATE: This post was edited on Jan. 28 to correct an inadvertent deletion  from the author's original draft.]

Under Strickland v. Washington and its progeny, a criminal defendant not only has the right to counsel, but also has the right to effective assistance of counsel. But that guarantee seems to be in danger due to two recent Supreme Court opinions, Harrington v. Richter and Premo v. Moore. The court has begun to relax its standards for effective assistance of counsel, refusing to grant defendants’ Sixth Amendment claims in spite of quite troubling facts.

Read more

California’s Not-So-Secret Mission to Locate Lethal Drugs

Posted 486 days ago by Jessica Jackson

In what reads like a plot straight out of a Tom Cruise Mission Impossible movie, the Scott Kernan, undersecretary of operations at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations (CDCR), details how the state recently obtained the necessary lethal drugs to resume executions. The last scheduled execution, that of Albert Brown, was called off due to the expiration of the state’s supply of sodium thiopenthal, the first of the three drugs used to induce death. Since then, the CDCR has been very busy attempting to find an additional supply of the drug, a quest which is chronicled in the records published by the ACLU who obtained them through the Public Records Act….

Read more

Executing Education

Posted 489 days ago by Jessica Jackson

When Jerry Brown stepped into the Governator’s shoes this month, he was faced with a the difficult task of making cuts to California’s budget. This week he announced that those cuts were going to include a $400 million cut to the State’s community colleges (along with a $1 billion cut to the state’s university systems). Hearing this figure, I couldn’t help but recall a very similar figure announced by the State last year; the price of San Quentin’s new death row facility. This housing facility, which has not yet been constructed, is projected to cost $395 million to build and another $58 million to operate each year….

Read more