Earlier this summer, I noted here the North Dakota story of a mother who pleaded guilty to child neglect after police found her “extremely intoxicated” while breast-feeding her 6-week-old baby.  As detailed in this new piece...

The party switch of Senator Spector, after big losses in the last two elections, has conservative pundits talking about how the Republican party can get its mojo back.  For example, I heard on...

At least in Washington state, it appears that when the litigation going gets tough, the not-so-tough resign.  That's what I take away from this local story, headlined "State's execution team...

I had a chance to read closely this federal complaint filed last week by the ACLU of Pennsylvania against a local district attorney who threatened three high school girls with child porn charges...

I have not followed closely the crime and possible punishment of Clifford Harris, aka rap star T.I.  But today was his sentencing, and this early AP story provides the basics: A judge has...

The title of this post is the key take-away from the abstract of this new criminology paper on SSRN from Donald Green and Daniel Winik. The paper is titled "Using Random Judge Assignments to Estimate the Effects of Incarceration and Probation on...

CNN has this notable new commentary headlined "Pot acceptable?  Not for young and nonwhite," which is authored by Stephen Gutwillig of the Drug Policy Alliance. Here are extended excerpts from an important piece: This year is a watershed year in...

The title of this post is the headline of this new ABC News piece which seeks to reflect on what the horrific Anthony Sowell case might tell us about modern sex offender regulation efforts. Here are snippets from the piece: As the count of bodies...

Remarkably, in just a couple of months, we can mark the five-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Booker to transform the federal sentencing guidelines from legal mandates to advisory rules.  The the debates over federal sentencing...

As detailed in this local article, which is headlined "Lawyers fight law on sex offenders before Ohio Supreme Court," the latest legal battle over the latest sex offender laws is taking place in my own backyard.  Here are the basics: Thousands...