A Houston, Texas, man has been charged with possession of a banned bump stock. He is believed to be the first person in the U.S. charged with this crime.
Bump stocks have been banned since last March following the Parkland, Florida, shooting. The ban was effected through an executive order by President Trump. Legal challenges to the bump stock ban are ongoing.
The Houston man is alleged to have had a bump stock attached to a Colt AR-15 rifle.
Astronaut Anne McClain is being accused of the first ever crime committed in space. McClain, who is currently married to Summer Worden, is accused of logging into Worden’s personal bank account while aboard the International Space Station (ISS). She is not accused of taking money from the account, however. McClain has not actually been charged with a crime by a prosecuting entity though. Worden has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Comission and the Inspector General of NASA. But the situation is making waves for its novelty.
McClain and Worden are married separated a year ago after Worden filed for divorce. Worden has a son from a previous relationship that the two were raising together. They are currently fighting over the custody of the child. McClain never legally adopted Worden’s child and Worden is arguing that she has no parental rights.
Worden alleges that McClain accessed her personal bank account in order to affect the outcome of the child custody dispute. It doesn’t appear that McClain moved any funds or took any funds from the account, but merely accessed it.
Michigan is the first state to legally ban flavored E-cigarettes. Governor Gretchen Whitmer states the ban will prohibit sales of flavored E-cigarette products in stores and online. This does not apply to flavoreless nicotine E-cigarettes. This is the result of the Michigan administrative rules process. The ban will be effective in a few weeks and last six months.
After six months the ban can be renewed. Businesses that sell flavored E-cigarette products will have one month to comply with the ban once it goes into effect. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) will be responsible to enforce the ban.
MDHHS constitutes youth vaping as a public health emergency. Governor Whitmer states E-cigarette companies are targeting Michigan’s youth be creating candy flavored E-cigarettes, while advertising that they are safe. Whitmer will also limit flavored E-cigarette marketing campaigns in the state. Unfortunately, 81% of children who currently vape started with a flavored E-cigarette or vape cocktail. She states she will fight to keep Michigan’s youth safe.
The Ghost Ship was a warehouse in Oakland, California, where an artist collective resided. During a party, a fire started and 36 people died. many people who lived in the Ghost Ship did so in violation of zoning laws.
The case became a spotlight for a city’s failure to enforce building codes in a place with a high cost of living that lead so many people to live in an old warehouse. A fire station was less than 200 yards away from the building.
Two people were charged with 36 counts each of involuntary manslaughter in the case. The first is Derick Almena, described as the master tenants and leaseholder. The second is Max Harris, who is described as Almena’s property manager.
Texas enacted a series of new of new firearms laws which will loosen current restrictions. Below is a list of the new laws:
House Bill 1143 – School districts cannot ban licensed gun owners from keeping a gun or ammunition in their vehicles on school grounds. The school district cannot regulate the manner in which the gun is kept in the vehicle. The firearm and ammunition must not be in plain view. This applies to school employees as well.
House Bill 1387 – Rolls back restrictions on how many armed marshals a school district can have.
Lance Mason plead guilty to the murder of his ex-wife Aisha Fraser. Mason fatally stabbed Fraser in November of 2018. Mason was a former Cuyahoga County judge in Cleveland, Ohio. Fraser, a school teacher, was killed by Mason when she dropped off the couple’s children at his home. In 2015 Mason was charged and plead guilty to domestic violence charges.
The accusations alleged that he had punched Fraser multiple times and slammed her head into the car dash board. The violent attack left Fraser with a broken orbital bone. The incident occurred with the then couples daughters in the back seat. He was sentenced to two years at the Lorain Correctional Institution and six months in jail. He was released after serving nine months. Due to Fraser’s tragic, violent death lawmakers have formulated a bipartisan bill that aims at protecting victims of domestic violence it is appropriately called, “Aisha’s Law.”
Niki Clum, who works in the Ohio Public Defender’s office, is hesitant about the new bipartisan bill. This is because if someone is accused, not just convicted the accusation is still admissible. This unfortunately completely goes against our justice system; innocent until proven guilty. In addition, if a defendant of aggravated murder has a previous conviction of domestic violence they are eligible for the death penalty.
It is so easy to be angry at a parent when a child is hurt from being left alone in a hot car. Getting angry is understandably our first impulse. But what if these cases are truly accidents? Case studies show that these accidents are very human to make.
Juan Rodriguez, a father from upstate New York, dropped off his 4 year old son at day care and then proceed to work a full day at a local hospital. At the same time, he forgot to drop off his 1 year old twins to a different day care during that same morning. Rodriguez went to work and left the twins in the car all day.
The twins died as a result of the heat while they sat strapped in their car seats. Rodriguez states he swears he dropped off his twins to day care that day. It was only when he started to drive home that he realized the deceased twins were still in the back seat.
The rapper Meek Mill may finally get out of the legal quagmire that has snagged him for over a decade.
This Wednesday, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania granted Meek Mill a new trial and a new judge following a 2008 conviction.
That conviction stemmed from a 2007 arrest in which an officer claimed Meek Mill pointed a gun at him. The case involved drug and gun charges. It went to a bench trial – trial by judge and not a jury – and resulted in a guilty verdict. The only witness against Mill was the arresting officer.
A new Michigan bill would provide relief to people with low-level marijuana misdemeanor convictions. This includes convictions for marijuana use and possession of small amounts of marijuana. This law would automatically erase those convictions – people wouldn’t be forced to go through a court process to erase the convictions
The bill would also provide a path for expungement (legal word for getting rid of a conviction) through the court process.
There are currently 235,000 Michiganders with marijuana use and low-level possession charges on their records. This is an astonishing number considering how many people have probably received marijuana convictions but the convictions are non-public through HYTA or 7411 (legal mechanisms to make convictions non-public – these people wouldn’t need relief from this bill because their convictions are hidden from public view). Presumably, there must be many more people in addition to the 235,000 with convictions we don’t know about because the convictions are not public.
It’s been 16 years since the federal government has carried out an execution.
President Obama called for a review of execution policy and procedures following a botched 2014 execution in Oklahoma. The Department of Justice has said that review is completed and executions will resume. A new procedure for lethal injection will be put in place that replaces the drugs previously used with a single drug – pentobarbital.
The federal government has executed three people since 1988. The most recent federal execution was in 2003, of a man convicted of kidnapping, rape, and murder. Although the federal government hasn’t executed anyone since 2003, the government has asked for the death penalty in certain cases. Federal courts have sentenced some defendants to death despite there being no active executions for some time.
Ann Arbor Criminal Defense Blog
