San Jose Criminal Defense Law Blog

The news organization ProPublica and The Washington Post have been investigating how the Office of the Pardon Attorney comes to make its recommendations to the president of the United States on whose applications for a pardon should be granted or denied. ProPublica has revealed that bias -- even if unconscious bias -- may be a part of decisions because white people are four times more likely than minorities to be granted a pardon.

A case that was recently highlighted by ProPublica involves a man who was sentenced to three life sentences after he was convicted of drug conspiracy. The man was in college when he was arrested. He had introduced a drug dealer to a drug supplier, was present during the sale of cocaine and the conversion of cocaine into crack, and was paid $1,500 for his role.

Previous posts have discussed the federal criminal trial of John Edwards. The former candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination was accused of violating federal campaign finance laws. Edwards used money donated to him during the campaign for the nomination to cover up an affair he had been having with a campaign videographer, and later to cover up the fact that he had had a child with his mistress.

The central question of the trial was whether those funds had been given to Edwards as gifts or whether they were meant to influence the campaign. Edwards' defense argued that the $925,000 was given by the two benefactors as gifts and would have been given regardless of the campaign as the money was meant to hide the affair from Edwards' family, rather than to keep the campaign on track. On Thursday, the trial ended in a mistrial because the jury deadlocked on five of the six complicated federal charges.

A new national registry has been created to track wrongful convictions in the U.S. The researchers who put together the list believe that studying the convictions will help prosecutors learn why the wrong people get convicted in order to avoid these mistakes.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the registry found that, since 1989, more than 2,000 people were released from prison after it was discovered that they were wrongly convicted of crimes. Some of the people in this group were released after DNA evidence found that they had not committed the rape or murder they were convicted of committing.

As discussed in the previous two posts, the former professional cyclist Floyd Landis is currently under investigation by federal authorities in California. Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after he tested positive for synthetic testosterone. Landis continues to dispute the positive result of that test, but has admitted to doping regularly in his years as a professional cyclist and admitted to doping by other means than synthetic testosterone during the 2006 Tour de France.

Landis lived outside of San Diego when he set up the Floyd Fairness Fund to raise money to cover his legal costs in disputing the positive test result. Landis continued to deny doping and wrote a book titled, "Positively False."

In 2010, he sent emails to cycling authorities admitting to doping and also detailing the alleged doping practices of others on his team. Authorities are investigating his fund to see whether fraud was involved. Floyd did not have direct access to the fund and it was audited by an outside firm, and it is unclear what crime the authorities suspect Landis of committing.

As discussed in the previous post, former professional cyclist Floyd Landis is currently under investigation for federal fraud crimes by authorities in California. Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after testing positive for synthetic testosterone. Landis initially disputed the finding and insisted he was innocent.

He set up the Floyd Fairness Fund to raise money for his defense, eventually raising about $1 million through the fund. In 2010, Landis wrote emails to different authorities in cycling admitting that he had doped regularly during his cycling career. Landis asserted that doping was rampant in cycling and that others had been doping as well, including Lance Armstrong. Now the authorities are examining whether fraud could have been committed in the establishing and using of the fund.

Floyd Landis, the former professional cyclist, is currently under investigation by federal authorities in California for possible fraud. The federal authorities have been apparently looking into Landis' now-defunct Floyd Fairness Fund, which was established by Landis in 2006 in order to help raise money for his defense against doping charges, to see whether all was legal or whether any crimes were committed.

Landis tested positive for synthetic testosterone after he won the Tour de France in 2006 and was stripped of his title. Landis proclaimed in the media until 2010 that he was innocent of the charges. He wrote a book called, "Positively False," about how he was innocent. He also set up the fund and raised $1 million from donors around the country to help with his defense.

In California, police officers are required to have legal basis to pull you over before any traffic stop. This could include swerving, running a red light or speeding. Actor Matthew Fox was allegedly swerving last Friday before being stopped and charged with driving under the influence. The 45-year-old husband and father of two is best known for his role on ABC's "Lost."

Apparently, law enforcement officials stopped Fox and an unidentified passenger who were reportedly on their way to pick up fast food at about 2:30 a.m. According to the police report, Fox allegedly swerved out of his lane and failed to use appropriate turn signals, which led to the traffic stop.

In California and around the country, hundreds of police-manned drones could soon be flying through the air collecting data on those the police suspect of committing crimes. According to the Los Angeles Times, the FAA must come up with rules by May 14 on how these drones can operate safely in the nation's airspace.

Drones are unmanned planes that can carry sensing devices and cameras, and the FAA will be making rules regarding drones that are about the size of a model plane. These drones are smaller than 4.4 pounds and are flown below 300 feet in daylight.  Drones operated by police could collect information on drug trafficking, traffic violations and other information.