Recently in Discretion Category

Bystander Apathy

| 3 Comments | 0 TrackBacks
When I was in a social psychology class, we learned about the bystander effect. This is simply the fact that when with others, individuals act differently than they would alone. A huge case involving the bystander effect is the murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964. Kitty was 21 years old living in New York City. She managed a bar close to her apartment. One night, she was walking home late from work. Right outside her apartment, she was attacked and stabbed twice. She screamed but no one came to help her. The perpetrator left but returned 10 or so minutes later to find Kitty lying, barely conscious, by the back door. He continued to stab her, rape her, steal her money, and then leave. One man saw the first attack on Kitty and didn't call the police. Quite a few of the other tenants in the apartment building heard Kitty's screams but did not call the police either. This is the reason why this case is so well known. Many of the apartment tenants said they didn't want to get involved.

Four years after the murder, two psychologists did a study to try and figure out what the effect of bystanders had on people. They placed people in one room and were to speak through a microphone to the person in another room. The person on the other side, the confederate of the experiment, started to pretend he was having a seizure and even mumbled the words about dying. The psychologists found that the more people that were present, the longer it took for someone to act for respond to the person having the seizure. The people who didn't report the seizure said that the reason they didn't report it was because they wanted to abide by the rules of the experiment by staying in the other room apart from the confederate.

I think the bystander effect relates a lot to psychology and law. If someone is witnessing a crime, it's way less likely they'll report it if other people are present. It makes me wonder though if the bystanders being strangers has an affect on if people act or not. If I was surrounded by my friends, I think I would almost always react to someone getting murdered or having a seizure. People care a lot about what others think and sadly, this can have some negative effects.

This website is where I read about the bystander effect.
"April 15, 2010

Next week the U.S. Supreme Court takes up a question near and dear to digitally proficient texters: whether their personal messages are private when transmitted over an electronic device supplied by an employer."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125998549

An NYPD officer uses a phone to send text messages on a New York sidewalk.

     Most of us understand that when your employer gives you something to use, its still theirs, and a certain level of "acceptable behavior" comes with the privilege of using said allowance.  HOWEVER, we have all heard about people downloading explicit material at work, engaging in illicit chat room conversations on company laptops, and making long-distance phone calls to your family in Japan on the company's dime.  

     With this context in mind, the article linked above describes a situation involving cellular phones distributed to police officers in Ontario, California.  When the phones were distributed to police officers, the lieutenant responsible for the equipment informed the users that the message content was private, and officers would be required to pay out of pocket for messages exceeding the 25,000 character limit per month.  

     A problem arose however, when officers DID exceed the limit, and the lieutenant described feeling like a "bill collector".  He grew weary of this responsibility, and when he requested transcripts of the message content being transmitted by his officers, he was surprised to find explicit language being used between one particular officer, his estranged ex-wife, and another police officer.  

     I circle back now to my first point.  Most of us understand that this kind of behavior is not acceptable on company time, and especially with company money.  However, the officer and others who allegedly sent the "sexy" text messages sued the department for breaking their privacy rights.  

     If this situation only involved police issued equipment, then I'd probably side with the department on this one.  HOWEVER it doesn't, as the estranged ex-wife DOES NOT use a department issued phone.  What about her privacy rights?  

     George Washington University professor Orin Kerr provides the following insight: 

"Does the government violate your rights when they take those messages off the server, even though you're not the government employee?" asks George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr. "And what does that mean for the rest of us, who do have privacy rights, when the government wants to get copies of those communications?"

     If this were an isolated case without possible influence on the rest of the country, that would be fine.  However this same kind of situation will inevitably continue to arise with other agencies, organizations, private companies and the like.  What is reasonable privacy?  What sort of protections can citizens and employees expect regarding their personal lives?  What will prevent the government or others from getting into your "dirty little secrets"?  

     I submit the following guidelines:  WATCH YOUR BACK JACK.  Its sort of like the advice you get from an old sage like your grandparents, "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all".  Obviously the issue only came to trial because of the DISCRETION used by police administrators to view transcripts of transmitted messages.  

Discretion, its all around us! 

This article is about the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback being accused of sexual assault for the second time. I think this ties into the class because the case has been dropped from the DA for the lack of any evidence, so it seems that it is all hearsay evidence. This could be a case where the girl was trying to take advantage of the superstar by accusing him of assualting her, or it could be a case in which the prosecution just didnt have enough evidence to satisfy the burden of proof to convict Ben. Either way he is not going to get in trouble by the law for whatever happened however he may be suspended by the league for violating the players code of conduct policy. Ben has been accused of assaulting a girl before and it makes people wonder if girls are just trying to take advantage of a celebrity or is he getting away with these assaults because of lack of evidence. The prosecution pretty much said in their press conference that they are confident that Ben assaulted the girl but cannot prove without a reasonable doubt to a jury that he is responsible, also it did not help that the girl, for some reason, did not want to press charges. The medicial examiner said they found male DNA but not enough to make a DNA profile. I think this would have come to a different outcome if they were in fact able to get a DNA profile from the sample.The case shows that there is in fact a burden of proof that needs to be satisfied for the DA to persue a case, and do not just go after people to punish them for supposably committing crimes.  

Discretion is Necessary

| 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

I think discretion is necessary in our legal system because if the employees of our judicial system took a complete legalistic approach everyone that got caught breaking the law would be fined, sent to jail or punished in some way. That sounds like a good idea for serious offenses, but that policy would have to apply to ALL offenses, including speeding tickets, a headlight out, etc.

I have greatly appreciated the discretion I have been shown by state troopers when I have been pulled over for speeding. The couple times I have been stopped for speeding and given warnings I wasn't going more than 10 over. The officers saved me a lot of money by giving me warnings instead of tickets, and I really appreciated it. The members of law enforcement are there to keep us safe, not bankrupt us with fines and court costs, their use of discretion shows us that they are really working to make society a safer place by punishing acts that are dangerous to others.

I don't think I have ever used legal discretion with another individual, but I guess there have been times when I have given people the benefit of the doubt and not reported every law violation I see to the authorities. I'm not saying that I have witnessed serious crimes and not called the police, but just minor violations that I hoped the people didn't do on a daily basis and weren't going to harm another individual.

How is Sentencing Figured

| 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks


 

When you watch law shows or observe a proceeding in a court room you hear people being sentences to a certain amount of year in prison at the discresion of the judge and due to the severity of the crime. However, have you every wondered how those numbers are configured?  With this idea in mind I search articles on the internet that discussed how sentencing works. On the website indicated below I found information on sentencing guidelines. One of the nice things about this website is that it is written for everyone to understand and uses terms in which everyone can interpret.

            When reading through this article it identified five different categories that are taken into consideration when sentencing a criminal.

1.      Offense level-level of seriousness

2.      specific characteristics

3.      adjustments/multiple court adjustments

4.      acceptance of responsibility

5.      criminal history

 

Offense level is based on a scale from 1-43. level 1 is the lowest and less serious of the crime and 43 is the most serious and most severe. This level serves as the base level predicting the amount of punishment that will be rewarding if found guilty. The next category is that of the specific characteristics. The specific characteristics are used in order to determine whether or not more levels should be added due to the severity of the specific crime. On the website they use the example of theft. Theft alone is a level seven crime resulting in 20 years or more. However, if there is $6,000 that the victim loss then the level increases by two, if the loss of the victim is $50,000 then the level jumps up by six.  Robbery is another example used on the website. Robbery with a firearm is a level 20.  If the firearm is shown to the victim during the crime the level increases by five, in the firearm is discharged during the crime then level increases by seven.

            In addition to the characteristics, adjustments are also considered. These adjustments are at the discretion of the judge. There are three factors that influence adjustments; minimal level of participation-decreased 4 levels, vulnerability of the victim by age, physical or mental health-increases by two levels, obstruction of justice-increases by two levels.  If there are multiple adjustments or crimes at hand then the baseline level is figured from the more severe of the two crimes; however, the judge can use discretion with this and lower the level if they feel the criminal accepts responsibility for the offense by admitting, restitution before there is a guilty verdict, or pleading guilty.  This idea is most likely the driving force for interrogators in the criminal justice system that use these adjustments as a way to get people to release information to them by promising they will have a less sever punishment (when in reality it is up to the judge, not the criminal justice/FBI investigator. The last factor has to do with criminal history. How recent ones last conviction is on a scale from one to six can also produce a less severe punishment.

            As one might guess after reading this article, there a lot more information that goes into sentencing than one internet webpage can offer, however, this is  good website to get a general idea of how the process works.

 

 

 

http://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/federal-sentencing-guidelines.cfm

Zero Tolerance Gone Mad

| 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks
When many people, myself included, think of zero tolerance policies in schools we think weapons. Clearly bringing a weapon to school is not something that should be handled by a stern talking to and a don't do it again. However, a 12-year old girl was arrested, as in handcuffs taken to the station the works, for doodling on her desk. Yeah. The was not any profanity or death threats it wasn't even scratched into the desk just written in green marker. Now I'm not saying that there shouldn't be some punishment for this but this is something that should be handled by say making her clean it up and missing recess not a public arrest in front of her classmates and a three day suspension. In the article I read this in there are several more stories of schools engaging in what I can only call disproportionate retribution the punishments unleashed on these students hardly fits the crime. I have great faith in the people who become police officers but it is things like this that remind me why it is best that there be rules in place to keep the police on there leash. You can read the whole story here

False Statistics Mislead Communities

| 1 Comment | 0 TrackBacks

This is an interesting article I had to read for a Criminology class regarding the discussion of the Uniform Crime Report, and what police chiefs did in order to make their cities seem safer then they were. To do this they downgraded a lot of fleonies to misdemeanors and other crimes they simply just didnt report. Since then those official have obvioulsy been releaved of their duties and one new official told his community that when he enters office the crime rate will be a lot higher but at least it will be the correct one that they can work hard at to minimize. I guess the take home point of this type of article is to bring awarness in the dependece of statistics because they can be very misleading and in some cases just made up.

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/03/us/as-crime-falls-pressure-rises-to-alter-data.html?scp=3&sq=senior police officials around the nation&st=cse

Get the Lead Out!

| 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks
"It was the largest smokestack in the country, and there were people in town who proudly proclaimed we live in a place with the largest smokestack," Jim Kelly says.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122779177

Aerial view of the Asarco plant in El Paso, Texas, in 1985.

How is it that nearly every time I look into an environmental issue, there is a LARGE population of people that support such abuses?  Imagine your child is experiencing slowed reflexes, a reduced IQ, and motor impairment caused by the smoke and chemicals being released by another country?  Yet, while this was occurring there are folks just across the border that were "proud" of the one thing that is causing your child to suffer.  Please read this article, because it may serve to instill a line of questioning that is desperately needed.  Where is the psychology in this.  How is it that a multi-billion dollar corporation can get the majority of a city to support something that is hurting their neighbor?  Why was this place in business for nearly 100 years?  Why weren't our laws protecting these people?  DISCRETION?


Last year I took an honors course on Japan. While we never discussed or directly explored the Japanese court system, the professor slipped out a tidbit of information that always struck me as interesting. She said that in Japan, if you sincerely apologize for your actions, you will receive a greatly reduced sentence. I've had a hard time finding any information to back this up, but I did come across this article which seems to substantiate the claim. Sheila Johnson explains that this forgiveness after an apology occurs throughout the culture. Can you imagine if we let Blagovich or Spitzer off because they apologized? Johnson says that the difference in this regard between our two cultures is that we live in a "guilt" society and Japan lives in a "shame" society. When the Japanese apologize, they feel extremely shameful and believe that they have dishonored their family. And since, in Japanese culture, your family includes every family member who came before you and all of your descendants, this is a pretty big deal.

The importance and weight of an apology is also felt in their business world. If an employee acts unethically, their supervisor or the head of the company will often take the blame for them, sometimes even quitting or suspending themselves.

It's hard for me to imagine what our culture would be like if a murderer apologized and was sentenced to only 10 years in prison. We would have murderers and rapists out walking the streets, which frightens me. I greatly prefer our system, where you are punished for your crime, and your apology carries little weight.

Subpoenas

| 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

While choosing which role I was going to do for one of our class projects, I starting thinking about subpoenas and what happens when people don't comply.  So for this post I decided to focus on subpoenas: What are they exactly?; Compliance v. non-compliance; and what to do once you have received one.

What exactly is a subpoena?

A subpoena is a legal order commanding a person or organization to give sworn testimony at a specified time and place about a matter concerned in an investigation or a legal proceeding.  A subpoena usually requires a person's presence at a trial or requires the presentation of tangible items in a specific legal setting.  Subpoenas are often sent to witnesses, commanding them to appear before a court and testify for the party named in the subpoena.  This subpoena is specifically called a subpoena ad testificandum. 

Non-compliance

If you do not comply with the subpoena or respond in the proper, timely manner to it, you can become in "contempt of court," which simply means that you have not complied with certain court orders regarding a court trial or hearing, and that possible punishments/sanctions may be imposed for not complying with the court.  The judge involved with the case has discretion to decide what is contempt and how to punish it.  Jail or prison time is a possible and likely sanction for being in contempt of court, depending on the severity of the person's role in the case/trial. 

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Contempt+of+Court

If you have received a subpoena...

You should contact your lawyer immediately or get a lawyer if you don't already have one.  You can contest a subpoena if you don't think it is valid or reasonable, but you must inform the court about your decision to challenge it.  If you decide to accept it, and comply, most transportation costs should be covered.  Costs and fees set according to the rules of the court should be named in the subpoena.  You should receive cash or check before you appear in a civil case.  You should receive an attendance fee and travel reimbursement after you testify in a criminal case. 

 

This is only a brief overview of subpoenas and your options if you receive one.  These are a few websites that were helpful in creating this post. 

http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/responding-subpoenas

http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/s083.htm

 

 

Polanski and Discretion

| 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks
For those who don't know Roman Polanski is a director of some very well regarded movies. He has also spent the last few decades on the run after being pleading guilty to raping a 13 year old girl. After the prosecution decided to lower the charges they brought against Polanski in exchange for a guilty plea. However Polanski had heard that the judge was thinking of rejecting the short prison term the prosecution had agreed to and throwing the proverbial at the director. In light of this Polanski ran. He has spent years on the run carefully avoiding countries with extradition agreements with the US.

After his arrest last year in Switzerland his lawyers have tried to argue that he does not need to be extradited to the US. The judge disagrees even throwing out a request from the victim of Polanski's crime that the case be dropped. Discretion is all over this case from the prosecutions decision to lower the charges against Polanski, to Polanski's own judgment to flee justice. The story I read can be found here.

Teen Strip-Searched for Ibuprofen

| 3 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

 I am not sure if any of you have heard of this case or not, but I came across it while I was looking up cases for one of my activities and it caught my eye.  In October 2003, a 13-year old girl, Savana Redding, was strip-searched for alledgedly possessing ibuprofen.  At her school, Safford Middle School in Arizona, there is a zero-tolerance policy for all prescription and over-the-counter medication without prior written permission.  One student was found with ibuprofen in her possession, so in order to avoid punishment, she accused Redding of providing it to her.  Redding was an honor student and had no prior disciplinary problems.  However, after finding nothing in her backpack, Redding was further searched by her school nurse and vice principal's assistant, both female.  Redding was searched down to her underwear and bra.  Still no drugs were found.  After the incident, Redding and her family sued the school.  The court said the school had gone to far.  The school appealed to the high court.  Arguments are expected to be heard in April.

Some of the psychological factors that come into play with this case is the potential traumatic effects it could have on Redding.  In addition, this may cause Redding to have trust issues with authority.  The psychological scenario of obedience to authority is also relevant in this case because Redding stripped when told.  She chose to obey authority; however was authority correct in pushing Redding that far?

 I thought this case related to our class in the sense that the strip-search could have been extremely traumatizing for Redding, especially for her age and its excessive intrusiveness.  This also relates to our recent class discussion of discretion.  The school applied its discretion in believing they had probable cause to strip-search Redding.  

Posted below are a few links to articles I came across while researching the case  

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/16/teen.strip.search/index.html 

http://civilliberty.about.com/od/equalrights/p/Stafford-v-Redding-School-Strip-Search-Case.htm

 

 

 

 

Police Shot Waterloo Man

| 1 Comment | 0 TrackBacks

In the discussion of discretion, a case came to mind from about six months ago that involved a police officer shooting a perpetrator of a domestic dispute gone bad and included the two police officers having to try and restrain the man but failing to do so.  The fact that the officer shot the man in the chest multiple times caused many to question his discretion of the situation. 

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/59182472.html 

This is the a follow up article that expalins a bit more.

http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2009/09/16/news/latest/doc4ab13a23c5668718303507.txt#vmix_media_id=9763234

Discretion

| 27 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

Discretion is the power to make decisions that affect others. We talked about in class how discretionary decisions occur at all points of the criminal justice timeline and greatly impact your progress through (or out) of the system. We also mentioned briefly how discretionary decisions can be impacted by biases that can positively or negatively impact the individual whom the decision affects. Please post a comment describing an instance where you exerted discretion over another person, and an instance where discretion was used for or against you. These may be legal situations, but do not have to be. Be clear about what the discretionary decisions were, who had the power, the outcome of the situation, and what if any biases were operating.

Here is a link also to the criminal justice timeline we discussed in class.

http://www.fsu.edu/~crimdo/cj-flowchart.html

Categories