Welcome back to the Friday News Roundup. It’s been an interesting week for criminal law news. Without further ado, here are a few of the top stories:
Raleigh considers curfew to combat teen takeovers. As WRAL explains here, Raleigh experienced two large nighttime gatherings of young people over the Independence Day weekend. One was at a shopping center while the other took place in a district full of bars and restaurants. Violent incidents took place at both, leading the city council this week to discuss a possible juvenile curfew. Under the proposal, “a person 18 or younger would be in violation . . . if they were in a public place between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Exceptions would include young people traveling to or from work, home, school or a religious activity; participating in a First Amendment-protected activity; accompanied by an adult; or experiencing an emergency.” No vote was taken. The Carolina Journal reports here that Raleigh is one of several North Carolina cities considering enacting or tightening curfews in response to concerns over “teen takeovers.” I wrote about curfews a while back in this blog post.
Government response to motions in Comey case. Recall that former FBI Director James Comey has been charged in the Eastern District of North Carolina with threatening President Trump after Comey posted on social media a photograph of seashells arranged in the shape of the numbers “86 47.” This week, the AP reported here on litigation over pretrial motions in the case. The Government recently filed a response to Comey’s motion to suppress certain evidence. In the filing, the Government argues that “[t]here is no serious dispute that an objective viewer of Comey’s post could read it to mean ‘Kill President Trump,’” citing a definition of “86” taken from Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang. I hadn’t heard of that reference work, but Amazon touts it as containing “unparalleled coverage of everything from 18th-century cant to contemporary gay jargon.”
Fauci adviser pleads guilty to hiding COVID-19 research records. Staying with the federal courts, the AP reports here that Dr. David Morens, who served as a senior adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci while the latter was leading the national response to COVID-19, has pled guilty in federal court in Maryland to the felony of conspiring to defraud the United States government. According to the AP, “Morens is accused of using his private email account to intentionally circumvent public records laws. . . . The Justice Department alleges that he concealed or destroyed records of discussions related to COVID-19 research grants, including an effort to revive a controversial coronavirus grant.” The Guardian reports here that the matter is connected to the dispute over the origins of COVID-19: “Prosecutors said that Morens’ plea related to [a] decision to cancel a research grant related to bat coronavirus, based on allegations that Covid-19 emerged from [a lab in Wuhan, China, that had done some work under the grant]. Prosecutors said that Morens pledged to help restore the bat coronavirus grant and counter the narrative Covid-19 leaked from a lab.”
Durham woman accused of murdering her children gives notice of insanity; her lawyer sees the case as “eerily similar” to the Lindsay Clancy case. WRAL has the story here. In brief, Andrea Faust has been charged with murder and attempted murder after allegedly killing one of her children and attempting to kill another earlier this year. Concerns about her mental state have been prominent in the case, with allegations of a suicide attempt in jail and litigation over her capacity to stand trial. This week, her attorney filed a notice of intent to present an insanity defense. In a statement to the media, the lawyer compared the matter to the ongoing trial of Lindsay Clancy in Massachusetts, where the defense has focused on what it contends was temporary insanity as a result of postpartum psychosis. According to Faust’s attorney, “Andrea and Lindsay's cases are eerily similar, though not entirely the same. Both women were known to be loving, doting, responsible mothers who were worried about and caring for their children up until the very-second they decided to kill them.”
Can a strategy that reduced murders stop petty crimes connected to homelessness? The strategy of focused deterrence has been credited with reducing drug activity and violence in urban areas across the country. The strategy includes identifying a small group of likely offenders, meeting with them to communicate the certainty of criminal justice punishment, and offering support and services to help the individuals change their behavior. I wrote about the work of criminologist David Kennedy, a key proponent of the strategy, here. Now, according to this piece by The Marshall Project, the police department in Tucson, Arizona is trying to use the same strategy with a group of 50 homeless people frequently involved in “quality-of-life misdemeanors, such as trespassing, loitering, solicitation and standing in a street’s median.” It is not yet clear whether the strategy is working, and there is a great deal of context and controversy around the new initiative.
State Senator receives suspended sentence for DWI. Back in North Carolina, NC Newsline reports here that this week in Wake County, Sen. Norm Sanderson from Pamlico county “received a suspended 30-day jail sentence and a year of probation for an October drunk driving charge.” Reportedly, Sanderson’s BAC at the time was 0.16. He has characterized the incident as a regrettable mistake for which he takes full responsibility. Have a good weekend and we’ll see you next week.
