News Roundup

Jeff has entrusted me with the virtual keys to the blog while he is away on vacation, and today will be my first crack at rounding up the week's criminal law news. As always there’s a lot going on! 1. According to the annual summary report of uniform crime reporting data released this week, crime in North Carolina has dropped to its lowest level in 33 years. Statewide, the overall crime rate fell by 5.6% and the violent crime dropped 10.2% from 2009 to 2010. County- and crime-specific data are included in the report. As Jeff has discussed previously, experts and pundits disagree on the cause for the decline. A recent editorial in the Washington Post calls it a myth that crime has fallen because incarceration has risen. 2. The Supreme Court of the United States completed its October Term 2010 with a flurry of opinions and certiorari grants. If Jeff were here I feel sure (in light of his twin loves of gadgetry and the Fourth Amendment) that he would mention the Court’s cert grant in United States v. Jones. The case will consider whether the warrantless installation and use of a GPS tracking device on a defendant’s vehicle to monitor its movement on public streets violated the Fourth Amendment. The opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (concluding that the Fourth Amendment was violated) is available here. 3. This piece from the New York Times gives a fascinating behind-the-scenes look into the lengthy sentence imposed on [...]