Wednesday, October 10, 2007

21 U.S.C. section 860(a)

US v. Powell, No. 05-3202
Conviction for violating 21 U.S.C. section 860(a), which enhances a sentence for drug offenses occurring within 1000 feet of a public or private elementary, vocational, or secondary school or a public or private college, junior college, or university, is vacated where the government concedes did not present evidence to show that the school near the intersection where the police arrested defendant was of a type covered by section 860(a)

Monday, October 01, 2007

police failed to scrupulously respect her demand to remain silent by putting her in an interrogation room

US v. Lafferty, No. 06-1901
In a prosecution for offenses arising from a burglary, denial of defendant's motion to suppress statements she and an alleged confederate made during a custodial interrogation is reversed as: 1) police failed to scrupulously respect her demand to remain silent by putting her in an interrogation room with her alleged confederate after she had invoked her right to remain silent and after he promised to give a confession; 2) no valid and meaningful waiver of her rights occurred; and 3) a ruling that the confederate's statements were admissible against her as adoptive admissions was improper as a court errs in permitting the government to use a criminal defendant's silence in the face of police interrogation