Monday, February 17, 2003

eBay Is Willing to Look Past Privacy Concerns and Will Turn Over Customer Records Without a Subpoena eBay volunteers customer records to police. Lawmeme has the scoop on eBay's willingness to hand over customer records to law enforcement personnel, without requiring warrants or subpoenas. There are any number of problems with this: forged requests from people claiming to be police, requests made by real police for personal reasons, genuine requests that would otherwise be illegal or invalid. What's puzzling is eBay's motive for being so cooperative. Complying with a law enforcement demand for information is costly... [vigilant.tv] As a former federal prosecutor myself, I can't help but suspect that the cavalier attitude of eBay towards custormer records and information is due in part to its ever-increasing employment of former Feds such as Rob Chestnut and Joe Sullivan who come to the company long on government experience, and short on senstivity to privacy concerns. 9:59:03 PM    comment [] The Brave New World of Crime Fighting . . . You've Got Mail! . . . And The Feds Have a Subpoena For It A digital smoking gun. Fortune Magazine has an article today on how e-mail is more often becoming Exhibit #1 in corporate prosecutions. (Via Resource Shelf) [Inter Alia] 9:41:47 PM    comment [] The Rap Music - Drug Trade Connection:  Can the Feds Be Trusted On This? Rap probe casts convict in familiar role [CNN - LAW]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff had checked into a luxury hotel in Miami late last year when detectives showed up at his door.  They arrested McGriff on a weapons charge -- but only as a pretext. By then, he was a key suspect in a secret investigation into alleged ties between the rap music industry and drug trafficking. Federal prosecutors heading the investigation have refused to discuss McGriff -- a convicted crack cocaine kingpin who spent a decade behind bars -- or any other aspect of a case that has shaken the rap world.  But law enforcement sources, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said authorities are investigating McGriff's involvement with the Murder Inc. recording company.  Investigators are trying to determine whether drug proceeds could have been funneled into the popular label, headed by McGriff's childhood friend, Irv Gotti, and home to Grammy-nominated stars like Ja Rule and Ashanti, the sources said. This headline story on the Rap Music - Drug Trafficking connection leaves me scratching my head as usual.  Prehaps my reaction is shaped by my experience defending rap duo Kane & Abel when they faced federal drug charges in New Orleans in 1999.  During my representation of the rappers, I saw the prosecution shift from being hell bent on pinning my clients with the drug dealer label and a sentence of 10 to life in prison, only to later accept a plea to a lesser charge, in which there was no hint of the rappers dealing drugs and serving approximately a year in prison for not reporting a crime to the Feds.  I could not help then, nor can I help now suspecting that their music was more than a small part of the problem.  Obviously, I don't know the truth about McGriff's case, but I do suspect that the rap connection is more a motivator to the feds, than a simply coincidental fact. 9:06:45 PM    comment [] Death Penalty Results In An Interesting International Imbroglio . . . The International Court of Justice orders U.S. to hault execution of Mexican Nationals. A death penalty duel [National Law Journal] 5:22:44 PM    comment [] Jurors Are Naturally Disturbed to Discover They Participated in Convicting the Innocent Effect of Wrongful Convictions on Jurors. Maurice Possley and Steve Mills, two of our favorite investigative journalists writing for the Chicago Tribune --often on plight of... [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime] This article causes me to reflect on my recent post on the Reasonable Doubt Standard.  Clearly, the our increasing awareness of the risk of wrongful conviction should force a review the standard and our efforts to explain it to juries.  It is likely that it is not necessarily the standard which is flawed, but our efforts to make its meaning clear.  We can also hope that focusing a bright light on the wrongful conviction problem will give more jurors the courage to stand in the way of group decisionmaking and not to fold under the pressure of the process when they harbor doubt. 5:06:18 PM    comment [] But Of Course The New Orleans Based 5th Circuit Is Closed On Mari Gras Day! Today is the federal holiday of Presidents' Day. Today is the federal holiday of Presidents' Day: As a result, most every federal and state appellate court will be closed today, with the exception of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (details here). In honor of the holiday, I'm pleased to make reference to one of the greatest songs and music videos of all time, "Lump" by The Presidents of the United States of America. [How Appealing] 4:08:05 PM    comment []

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