The New York Times: Former shoe shine man gets back almost $30,000 feds grabbed from him.
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“I never knew in my whole 58 years as a man in the United States that three D.E.A. agents could take a man’s money from him that he worked for, and not had committed any kind of crime, or was arrested for doing any type of wrongdoing,” Mr. (Kermit) Warren said in a video released by his lawyers. “How could they just take my money from me like that?”

The Washington Post: Trump trying to keep hundreds of pages of documents from Jan. 6 committee, documents show.

AP: Speed of Texas abortion cases has few high court precedents.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: After three years of foot-dragging, Milwaukee Police Department touts its edging forward in complying with stop-and-frisk settlement.

Jurist: Proposed class action lawsuit says Amazon's diversity efforts discriminate against straight white males.

NBC: A dozen states sue to challenge President Biden's vaccine mandate.

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Courthouse News: Law protecting motorists who hit protesters likely violates First Amendment, judge rules.

U.S. District Judge Robin Cauthron — an appointee of President George H.W. Bush — ruled that provisions against street obstructions in House Bill 1674 likely violate free speech rights under the First Amendment and are likely unconstitutionally vague.

HB 1674 was signed into law in April by Republican Governor Kevin Stitt and was comfortably passed by the Republican-controlled Oklahoma Legislature in the wake of last summer’s protests against the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. The law protects motorists who “unintentionally” injure or kill rioters as long as they have “a reasonable belief that fleeing was necessary to protect the motor vehicle operator from serious injury or death.” Motorists who “exercise due care” at the time of injury or death are also protected.

AP: Oklahoma executes inmate who died vomiting and convulsing.

John Marion Grant, 60, who was strapped to a gurney inside the execution chamber, began convulsing and vomiting after the first drug, the sedative midazolam, was administered. Several minutes later, two members of the execution team wiped the vomit from his face and neck.

Before the curtain was raised to allow witnesses to see into the execution chamber, Grant could be heard yelling, “Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!” He delivered a stream of profanities before the lethal injection started. He was declared unconscious about 15 minutes after the first of three drugs was administered and declared dead about six minutes after that, at 4:21 p.m.

Someone vomiting while being executed is rare, according to observers.

“I’ve never heard of or seen that,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of the nonpartisan Death Penalty Information Center. “That is notable and unusual.”

Wisconsin Examiner: Wisconsin concealed carry bill gets quiet hearing.

WPR: Families in Charleston church shooting case reach $88 million settlement with U.S. Department of Justice.

Survivors and families who lost loved ones in the June 2015 attack filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department, saying the FBI's negligence allowed (Dylann) Roof to buy the gun he used in the attack. At the time, federal law barred Roof from possessing a firearm. The families filed their lawsuit in 2016.

For those killed in the shooting, the settlements range from $6 million to $7.5 million per claim. For the survivors, the settlement brings $5 million per claim, the Justice Department says.

Health Affairs: People reentering communities from prison face greater health problems than the general population.

Key Points

• Mass incarceration in the United States is a public health crisis that disproportionately affects Black and Brown people and their communities. Incarceration can exacerbate health conditions and complicate health and justice outcomes for both reentering people and the communities to which they return.
• Disproportionate rates of mental health issues, suicide, substance use disorders, disabilities, and physical disorders plague the reentry population.
• The reentry population faces complex barriers to health care access and often experiences homelessness, unemployment, and a lack of social and family support.
• Justice-based interventions for the reentry population generally focus on life skills or individual deficits. Compared with approaches that focus on health and well-being, these programs are unlikely to achieve identity transformation and self-efficacy in managing health and other needs.
• Savings from reform of the criminal justice system could be reinvested to make successful reentry achievable.
• Public officials should include health care as a key component of community reentry programming by supporting access to Medicaid prerelease and seamless coordination of health care in communities postrelease.

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PBS: U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland defends school board memo.

The Guardian: Kyle Rittenhouse's victims can't be called "victims" in court, judge says.

The people shot by Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last August cannot be referred to as “victims” by prosecutors in court, a judge ruled on Monday.

Defense attorneys may, however, call them “arsonists” or “looters”, the judge said.

“The word ‘victim’ is a loaded, loaded word. And I think ‘alleged victim’ is a cousin to it,” said Judge Bruce Schroeder on Monday.

“Let the evidence show what the evidence shows. And if the evidence shows that any or more than one of these people were engaged in arson, rioting or looting – then I’m not going to tell the defense they can’t call them that,” he added, before what is expected to be a contentious trial starting next week.

In response to Schroeder’s ruling on Monday, assistant district attorney Thomas Binger said that he was creating a “double standard”, saying: “If I were to count the number of times that you’ve admonished me not to call someone a victim during a trial, it would be in the thousands.”
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NPR: U.S. will limit immigration arrests at schools.

The Hill: Congress should finally, after 35 years, end the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine.

The Washington Post: How to choose a jury when White supremacists are on trial.

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WPR: Assembly puts off vote on criminalizing homelessness.

Under the legislation, temporary living on public property would become a Class C misdemeanor, with penalties of up to a $500 fine or 30 days in jail. It would also prevent homeless support organizations from receiving certain grants in full unless those groups can prove their efforts have helped people get permanent housing, a job or reduced the number of people experiencing homelessness multiple times.

Republican supporters have said the homelessness bill is a matter of public safety, but city officials, Democratic state representatives and workers for shelter and homelessness programs have condemned some of the bill's many provisions. Though many of those officials acknowledged the harsh realities of the state's housing market, some said the proposals would exacerbate ongoing housing problems rather than addressing them.

Governing: Racial impact statements can help combat disparity in criminal justice.

Business Insider: Federal judge says being president didn't exempt Trump from following Twitter's terms of service.

The Washington Post: The ugly origins of qualified immunity.

To fully grasp the court’s abdication of its responsibility here, it’s helpful to delve into the history of qualified immunity. Qualified immunity isn’t in the Constitution. It isn’t in the U.S. Code. It is judge-made law. It is judicial activism, by any definition of the term.

The Crime Report: How "bail advocates" helped reduce pre-trial racial disparities in Philadelphia.

In a paper published in the Indiana Law Journal, (Paul) Heaton, (director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School,) said the results of a Philadelphia pilot study that assigned “bail advocates” to work with public defenders in presenting the case for releasing defendants before trial showed that improving the quality of defense counsel could correct some of the flaws in the pretrial process that have made it a major contributing factor to high incarceration rates.

Research has shown that decisions on whether to grant bail have disproportionately impacted the poorest defendants, and result in unequal racial outcomes―launching many defendants on a path to recidivism.

“A growing body of high-quality research links pretrial detention to later adverse outcomes, including unemployment and recidivism,” Heaton wrote, noting that individuals in pretrial custody represent 65 percent of the nationwide jail population.

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By Gretchen Schuldt

A Milwaukee County Board committee on Tuesday unanimously recommended establishing a program to provide defense counsel to indigent defendants accused of violating county ordinances.

The county pays for sheriff's deputies to write tickets, lawyers to prosecute the cases, and agencies to collect overdue payments of forfeitures levied as a result, Supervisor Joseph Czarnezki, a sponsor of the measure, told the Finance Committee. (Full disclosure: Czarnezki is a WJI Board member.) Yet defendants are expected to represent themselves, even if they don't understand what is going on in the courtroom or how to proceed.

"This is not what I would call justice," Czarnezki said.

Under the proposed 2022 budget amendment, co-sponsored by Supervisor Ryan Clancy, the corporation counsel's office would seek proposals for a contract attorney to represent the defendants. The $50,000 program would be a pilot, and data would be collected to help determine if it should be continued.

The program would be patterned after one operated by Legal Action of Wisconsin that provides defense lawyers for indigent defendants in Milwaukee Municipal Court, which hears cases involving city ordinances.

While indigent defendants in criminal cases are provided with publicly-funded lawyers, poor people accused of ordinance violations are not provided with lawyers because the violations are considered civil, not criminal, matters. Generally, those wanting legal representation ordinance cases must hire their own lawyers.

State law mandates that people arrested for certain ordinance violations, such as controlled substance offenses or some gambling cases, have their personal and arrest information entered into the state's criminal database, where it is available to potential employers, colleges,  landlords, or anyone else with the $7 fee to get it, Czarnezki said. While those who are never actually charged or who are acquitted can request that their information be removed from the database, most people don't know how to go about doing that.

A lawyer, Czarnezki said, can help clients negotiate the court process. remind them about court dates, help them with payment plans, and help get records removed from the state database.

As a matter of equity, he said, "I think this is something we should do."

Clancy, who sponsored unsuccessful measures to reallocate some Sheriff's Department funding, said that having fewer deputies making arrests would be best, but the attorney resolution is "the second-best way to go." 

The Washington Post: The rage behind homicides is something new.

I have since returned to the department as a civilian to work on cold cases. When I recently read how the U.S. murder rate has spiked, I wished I could say the FBI’s numbers were a surprise. I can’t. I used to report Albuquerque’s crime data to the feds. Murder stats have stories to tell. Some can mislead; some hold our thorniest truths.

A disturbing factor is the pure, irrational rage that seems increasingly to drive these grim numbers. Uncontrollable anger has always accounted for some murders, of course, but I’ve been struck in recent years by the greater role it plays in these cases.

NBC Washington: Judge defends contempt finding for woman who smoked pot before testifying.

SCOTUSblog: U.S. Supreme Court puts abortion on the rocket docket.

​Reuters: Conviction of "El Chapo" drug lord should be tossed, lawyer says.

Guzman's appeal focused on a Vice News article where an unnamed juror said at least five fellow jurors followed media coverage of the trial, and lied about it to the presiding judge, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan.

The coverage included a claim that Guzman had drugged and raped teenage girls, which Guzman's lawyers have denied.

MacRumors: U.S. Justice Department likely to file antitrust suit against Apple.

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Feds seize guns from felon; seek forfeiture without criminal charges.

The Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas cops seized money that was earned in legal Missouri cannabis sales.

The driver said she was on her way to Kansas City and would collect the cash proceeds from marijuana businesses. The driver was released. The DEA then surveilled the driver "stopping at and entering multiple state marijuana dispensaries" on the Missouri side of the metro, according to the affidavit.

One day after the first traffic stop, (Deputy Kalen) Robison again pulled over the Empyreal van along the interstate in Dickinson County. The affidavit didn't specify the reason for stopping the vehicle.

Law enforcement then seized five bags of cash, which the driver said were from multiple marijuana dispensaries in Kansas City. A drug dog later "alerted to the odor of marijuana coming from the currency," the DEA agent wrote, and "marijuana is a controlled substance and illegal under both federal and Kansas state law."

Forbes: New proof that police use civil asset forfeiture against those least able to fight back.

CNN: The quotable words of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

The Crime Report: How education helps incarcerated women resist the inhumanity of prison.

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The Hill: Justice Sonia Sotomayor calls U.S. Supreme Court refusal to block Texas abortion law "catastrophic."

Reason: Gun rights group targets Texas abortion law.
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Courthouse News Service: Environmental organizations call for halt to state power line construction.

The companies building the line — the American Transmission Company, ITC Midwest and Dairyland Power Cooperative — announced their intent last month to begin construction on-schedule, before the end of October. (U.S. District Judge William) Conley said that by putting him in a rush, the group hadn’t helped its chances of evading an injunction.

“You asked [the plaintiffs] not to precipitate a preliminary injunction, which could have been filed a year ago, or at least nine months ago when they filed suit, and you agreed with them that you would hold off. I haven’t heard you say that you told them all along, ‘we’re gonna stick to our construction schedule,'” he told attorney Stacey Bosshardt of Perkins Coie, who represented the companies at the hearing.

“Certainly we all had notice that this could suddenly come before the court, but there was a more orderly way we could have accomplished this,” he added.

Marijuana Moment: IRS official says cannabis banking reform would help feds get paid.

​Balls and Strikes: The U.S. Supreme Court is an international embarrassment.

Nobody who wrote the Constitution actually thought the Court should have as much power as it does today. (If only Lin-Manuel Miranda had rapped about Federalist 78, more people might understand that the Court has gotten entirely too big for its britches). If anything, this drift is one of the best reasons for Court expansion: If the Supreme Court is going to have the power to simply prohibit laws passed by the people, it simply must be more representative of the people who actually live here. 

Thurgood Marshall, Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor.  That is the full and complete list of people of color who have been allowed into the conversation of how to interpret our Constitution. People of color have had a larger role in adjudicating the rules of hockey than they’ve had in American constitutional interpretation. Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Sotomayor. That’s the full and complete list of women. Louis Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo, Felix Frankfurter, Arthur Goldberg, Abe Fortas, Stephen Breyer, Ginsburg, and Kagan. I have just listed all of the non-Christians, ever, to serve on the Supreme Court. Historically speaking, MAGA rallies are more diverse than the Court. There’s never been an Asian American justice. There’s never been a Muslim American justice. There’s never been an openly LGBTQ person on the court, which is kind of amazing considering the Court claims the power to dictate the precise conditions in which LGBTQ people can kiss or pee or start a family. 

And don’t even get me started on professional diversity. Don’t get me started on educational diversity. This country has one of the most powerful high courts in the world, and it has all the experiential diversity of a yacht flotilla taking a booze cruise off Martha’s Vineyard. This is what the international legal community sees: a multiethnic, multicultural, allegedly pluralist society that cedes democratic self-government to nine unelected high priests drawn from a small ruling class of elites. 

WPR: Oneida County Jail ban on inmate mail from outside called unconstitutional by ACLU.

In a new letter to Oneida County Sheriff Grady Hartman, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Wisconsin writes that the jail's "complete refusal to deliver written correspondence to all people in the jail is clearly unconstitutional."

Oneida County may be the only jail in the state to refuse letters from outside friends and family members. It's a policy Oneida County put in place in 2019 after Hartman said inmates received illegal drugs and contraband cellphones and pornography smuggled through the mail. 

"We had inmates smuggling things in that could potentially kill somebody, and so we took action on that," Hartman said.

The jail replaced paper mail with electronic kiosks in its cellblocks that allow inmates to receive emails and video calls, for a price. The ACLU has requested Hartman turn over all documents relating to its contract with the private vendor that operates the kiosk service.

The New York Times: Prosecutor casts doubt on story of train passengers not intervening to stop a rape.

Vice: Alleged capitol rioters held in a particular jail wing have rituals and fans.

Reuters: Law firm extends racial justice fellowships.

When Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe launched its racial, social and economic justice fellowship program last year in the wake of George Floyd’s death, it sounded almost too good to be true to some associates.

The firm would pay six lawyers their full Big Law salaries for spending a year embedded at nonprofits, working full-time to make the world a better place?

“There was a bit of disbelief, like ‘Is this for real?’” Siobhan Handley, the firm’s chief talent officer told me.

Not only was it for real, Orrick chairman Mitch Zuklie in an exclusive interview said the firm has decided to continue the program for at least three more years. The next class of fellows (there will be five in 2022) will deploy in January.

AL.com: Alabama executes Willie B. Smith despite his mental deficiencies.

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