Prison Overcrowding Case to Get Extended Argument at SCOTUS

Did you know that at any given moment, up to 2.3 million citizens are confined in our prisons in the United States?  Unfortunately, we lead the world in the incarceration industry.This week, the Supreme Court will hear extended oral argument (80-minutes) in the case of Schwarzenegger v Plata.  You may recall that the governor of our largest state, Arnold Schwarzenegger, declared in 2006 that acute prison overcrowding had reached a crisis stage, "that gets worse with each passing day."In California, there are approximately 160,000 men and women behind bars.  The prisons in that state are operating at 195% capacity meaning that two inmates occupy a space designed for one.If petitioners are successful, a favorable ruling from...

Read more »

Posted in: Attorney General Mike Cox,constitutional law,convicted convicts,criminal defense,habeas corpus,prison,prisoners,Schwarzenegger,SCOTUS

Oakland County's Ax-Murdering Teacher-Housewife Receives Habeas Relief

Sorry about that headline.  But this case was all-over your evening news back in 2004, when kindergarten teacher Nancy Ann Seaman axed her long-time husband to death on Mother's Day.Earlier this month, a federal judge granted Seaman's petition for Habeas Corpus.  Habeas relief is considered when a convicted inmate, having exhausted her state court appeals, sues the warden of her prison in federal court on the theory she is being illegally detained by the State of Michigan in light of constitutional errors in a state court criminal proceeding. Ms. Seaman was jury convicted of first degree murder before soon-retiring Oakland Circuit Judge John McDonald.  Seven-months after her trial, Judge McDonald reduced Seaman's conviction...

Read more »

Posted in: Attorney General Mike Cox,battered spouse syndrome,defense attorney,habeas corpus,homicide,Judge John McDonald,Lawrence Kaluzny,murder,Nancy Ann Seaman,Oakland County Prosecutor

Thanksgiving Dinner Conversation: SCOTUS Style

LawBlogger Editor's Note: This post is from Andrew Cohen, the Legal Analyst of the excellent blog Politics Daily. This is a fantasy recounting of a potential conversation between the Justices of the United States Supreme Court on the occasion of Thanksgiving Day, 2010. Cohen's humorous and tastefully irreverent insight is spot on; he also mentions several of the cases and issues covered by this Blog over the past year. Having stood before this august body of jurists last June, this blogger could actually see this conversation taking place. Enjoy: The nine learned Americans, six men and three women, six Catholics and three Jews, all of them over 50 and one of them black, sat down for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. They said their prayers,...

Read more »

Posted in: Andrew Cohen,Chief Justice John Roberts,Elena Kagan,Law Blogger,Michigan Supreme Court,SCOTUS

Spending Her First Years in Prison

Law Blogger Editor's Note:  From time to time, this blogger visits clients in Michigan's prisons as a roster attorney for the Michigan Appellate Assigned Counsel System.  This blog post is the original content of the CorrectionsOne web site.  It is an interview with Deborah Jiang Stein who was born heroin-addicted in a federal prison in West Virginia and spent the first year of her life there.  Today, she tours women's prisons to speak of hope and rehabilitation to both inmates and prison staff.What can you say about spending your first year of life in prison? How did that shape you?I was born and lived my first year in the Federal Women’s Prison in Alderson, West Virginia. I embrace that year as a primal sensory memory,...

Read more »

Posted in: corrections,Deborah Jiang Stein,MAACS,Michigan Appellate Assigned Counsel System,prison

Overreaching, Post-Divorce Style: Michael Douglas' Ex Demonstrates "Greed is Good"

Michael Douglas divorced his ex-wife, Diandra, in California back at the turn of the century.  She reportedly received $45 million as well as rights to half Douglas' earnings from the "spinoffs" of his completed movie work.Demonstrating the chief principle from Douglas' hit movie Wall Street, that "greed is good", Diandra filed suit in Manhattan last summer seeking half the actor's royalties from the reprise of Douglas' character, Gordon Geckko. A Manhattan Supreme Court Judge dismissed the case on procedural grounds, finding that venue was improperly laid.The judge got it right.  Diandra's rights to Douglas' earnings would come from the terms of their divorce decree or prenuptial agreement rather than a separate cause of action filed...

Read more »

Posted in: attorney,Diandra Douglas,divorce,family law,Michael Douglas,Wall Street

Macomb Woman Obtains Divorce From the Grave

In a recent case originating from Macomb County, the Michigan Supreme Court held that a woman, scorned by her long-time but absentee husband, could effectively divorce him from her grave. The case, Tkachik v Mandeville, reversed the Court of Appeals' decision that ruled she could not do so.In this case, the wife became ill and died of breast cancer after nearly three decades of marriage. Although the long-married couple was estranged at the time of wife’s death, they never filed for divorce or legal separation (known as separate maintenance in Michigan).Because her husband had abandoned her during the 18-months she battled breast cancer, the wife executed a trust and will which left him nothing and appointed her sister as personal representative...

Read more »

Posted in: abandonment,attorney,decedent,equitable contribution,Macomb Probate Court,Michigan Court of Appeals,Michigan Supreme Court,Surviving Spouse,trust,unjust enrichment,will

Privacy & Intellectual Property on Facebook

This post is the original content of Geoff Livingston, a blogger from the Washington D.C. area recognized as a social media and blogging "expert" by the Washington Post.  His 2007 book, Now is Gone was hailed by the WSJ as a valuable resource for those interested in mining social media.The topics of privacy and intellectual property relative to Facebook are intertwined and receive recurring attention.  Here is Geoff's recent post:Have you read Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities? I decided to after talking to a Facebook IP lawyer. There are some serious dangers for content marketers on Facebook:“For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (“IP content”), you specifically...

Read more »

Posted in: attorney,electronic criminal lawyer,Facebook,Geoff Livingston,intellectual property,Now is Gone,privacy rights,social media

Michigan Supreme Court May Adjourn Oral Arguments as it "Resets" After Election

Soon-to-be-Former Justice Alton DavisThe Michigan Supreme Court has nearly 20 oral arguments scheduled for December on a wide-variety of important cases.  Whether those arguments will be heard as scheduled is now in question due to circumstances arising from the mid-term election results.Some background is needed here.  When I clerked for the Michigan Court of Appeals back in the late 1980s, recently-elected Court of Appeals Judge Betty Weaver was one of the few judges that took the time to stop by and discuss issues with us lowly clerks.  She made no secret of the fact that she was Supreme Court-bound; she was elected to the court in 1995.After 15-years on the high court, Justice Weaver, a "moderate" Republican, abruptly resigned...

Read more »

Posted in: Governor Granholm,Justice Alton Davis,Justice Diane Hathaway,Justice Elizabeth Weaver,Justice Robert Young,Michigan Supreme Court

Progressive Marijuana Initiatives Lose Ground

California's Proposition 19 lost by a vote of 56% to 44%.  If successful, the proposed law would have been the first in the country to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.In Arizona, the medical marijuana proposition was too close to call as of Thursday, with the nays leading by less than one half of one percentage point.  That contest will most likely be called sometime today; looks like Arizonans will reject medicinal marijuana after all.In California, the pot initiative lost because too few voters under age 26 turned out and moderate voters rejected the initiative.  Recent violence with Mexican drug gangs in both California and Arizona did not help either initiative.Mixed messages float around the issue here in Michigan. ...

Read more »

Posted in: Arizona,California,marijuana,medical marijuana,Michigan Medical Marihuana Act,Nolan Finley,Proposition 19

Cheating Spouse App Gets Pulled by Droid

A controversial new application for Motorola's popular Droid phone has apparently been pulled before it had a chance to hit the cell phone application market-place.The idea behind the "Secret SMS Replicator" application is to forward text messages from the target phone to a designated phone.  What's more, the application on the target phone is invisible and cannot be detected.Similar applications have failed Apple's application store approval process.  In the case of the SMS Replicator, Google said the covert application violates the "Android Market Content Policy."Just because this application did not make it to market does not mean it won't be applied.  The technology is available to those who do not mind installing rogue applications.In...

Read more »

Posted in: adultery,Android,attorney,cell phone,divorce,Droid,infidelity,SMS Replicator,spouse