I started three blog posts this week (besides the two that were actually published) but life got in the way of my good times.  So, instead of three separate posts, I thought I’d do a weekly roundup and tell you what I was gonna say in those three posts.

By now, you all should know that I love Supreme Court Day!  Scotusblog is not just for lawyers.  Seriously.  Check it out.  They do a liveblog on decision days that is funny and fun to read.  It gives you a rundown of how the nomination process of our newest Supreme Court Justice, Elena Kagan, is going.  It’s not written in horrible legal-ese and the summary of the decisions are easy to read and understand.

This week on Supreme Court Day (which was yesterday, by the way) the Court decided that Jeff Skilling might get a shot at a reversal on some of the counts on which he was convicted.  Who?  Come on, you remember Jeff Skilling – Enron?  Remember 2001? A lot of shit went down that year, including Enron and Jeff Skilling (remember Ken Lay?).  I didn’t post a link to the decision, because its 114 pages long and I haven’t read it, but if you are so inclined and need some beach reading, you can find it on Scotusblog.

In other news, the Baltimore City Police Department settled a case with the NAACP and ACLU for ‘quality of life’ crimes.    A friend asked me “what is a quality of life crime” and I half jokingly replied “being black and sitting on your stoop in Baltimore city”. That was before I read the article in the Baltimore Sun, which says that my half joke was actually no joke.  Now, I knew about all of this because I represented people who did nothing more than sit on their front stoop, got arrested, got searched (incident to arrest) and had marijuana on them.  Yes, marijuana is illegal.  I know. And yes, I’ve also represented people who had crack on them.  And yes, crack is illegal.  But sitting on your stoop shouldn’t be the basis for arrest.  What it is is a pretext, just a reason to stop and round people up.  Because you know, when black people are outside it could potentially affect your quality of life.  Most of these cases got dismissed because the basis for the search was no good.  So, at the end of the day, the cops didn’t do anything except prevent a crack or pothead from taking a few puffs for a day or two.  The circle of the life of crime continued unimpeded.

But, according to the article in the Sun, folks like Tyrone Braxton did nothing more than stand on a sidewalk.  He didn’t even have marijuana or crack on him.  He spent 36 hours in Central Booking (probably the worst place on earth) before he was released.  His charge was impeding the flow of traffic, because as humans we take up space and, um, when we stand somewhere people have to walk around us.

In 2005, the police made over 100,000 arrests (the Sun reports that is one arrest for every 6 people in Baltimore.  FYI, Baltimore’s population is 64% black)

In addition to giving a whopping $870,000 dollars for all plaintiffs (there were 13 who were brave enough to step forward and this sum includes attorney’s fees and $240k for an independent auditor who will review the city’s quality of life arrests over the next 3 years), the Baltimore Police agreed to implement new policies and reforms like not arresting people for being black low level crimes but issuing citations instead, and  training the officers in the law and on the constitution.  If you think I am kidding, you are mistaken. Let me repeat myself:  The Baltimore City Police Department is implementing reforms.  The officers are now going to get training on the law. Oh ye who reside within the Baltimore city limits, sleep well tonight.  Your finest will soon know what the fuck they are doing!  Governor O’Malley, who was Baltimore City Mayor at the time says this is really all no big deal, and that the settlement was not a rebuke.  There, that should make you feel better, right?

I also wanted to follow up on my original post on the Maryland Wiretapping statute and the prosecutions.  When I talk to people about this they are incredulous.  Wait, what do you mean they can tape me but I can’t tape them?  Well, it seems that it is continuing to happen. Last week a woman was arrested for taping a police officer talking to other people in the neighborhood.  Yvonne Nicole Shaw was standing about 12 feet away and was recording the officer’s interaction with the neighbors.  She says she wanted to show how the cops harass folks in the neighborhood. The officer confiscated her cell phone and when they played it back, they could hear their voices on the recording (remember, the statue only deals with audio, not video).  Now, I’m not so good with numbers, but I’m assuming if you could be heard from 12 feet away then you probably weren’t whispering. The prosecutor is quoted as saying:

 “Cell phones are so pervasive,” the prosecutor said, “that recording something that occurs in public raises a question of whether or not it’s unlawful. If I’m convinced this was a public encounter that just happened to be recorded, I probably will not proceed with the prosecution. The facts will probably bear out that it was not a private one-on-one conversation.” 

Now readers, remember last week we talked about the fact that the statue covers those conversations where you have a reasonable expectation of privacy.?  The prosecutor in this case answers his question by stating that the recording occurred “in public”.  If something happens “in public” do you have a reasonable expectation of privacy?  I think not.  Or, at least we citizens don’t.  And the prosecutor here seems to get it.  But the fact is that Ms. Shaw was arrested, she was put into the system, and even if the case is thrown out she still has to follow up with getting it expunged so it doesn’t show up on her record forever.  If she applies for a security clearance she’ll have to tell them about the arrest.  It’s not as if the prosecutor, in electing not to prosecute the case, puts Ms. Shaw in the position she was in before the arrest.   Maybe the St. Mary’s County police need to get on that training about the law that the Baltimore City Police are going to get.

So, there you have it, my friends – Not Guilty’s first weekly roundup.  To be honest, this took me a really long time so it’ll probably be the last.