Last week, the South Dakota Supreme Court issued a pair of decision upholding severe sentences.  In State v. Shelton, the Court upheld a 25 year sentence for a defendant convicted of three relatively minor drug distribution offenses.  In...

This afternoon I was researching an issue involving a very modern trend: the trafficking of medical marijuana from states where it is legal to those where it is not. As I searched for case law to help my client, I stumbled upon a Colorado case from...

Recently I blogged about the lack of political discourse in our recent campaigns about the crushing financial and social burden caused by the overcriminalization and overincarceration of people in this country. It has been a topic that has been largely...

In the same vein as recent posts on this blog, the New York Times has an excellent article on the financial and societal costs of lengthy prison sentences for non-violent drug offenses: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/12/science/mandatory-prison-s...

In recent weeks, a number of folks have called and asked me questions about the confusing world of criminal procedure. The most frequent areas of concern pertain to preliminary hearings, grand jury indictments, and post-arrest arrest warrants. The...