Brain Scans: "Figuring out just what types of neuroscience are ready for the courtroom is one of the goals of a $10 million Law & Neuroscience Project funded by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation," reports David Caruso for AP. Brain scans have become common in murder cases, with impressive looking pictures that may or may not have anything to do with human behavior. While we tend to be skeptical of any effort funded by this foundation, the study group appears to have some appropriately skeptical members, including Stephen Morse of U. Pa. "When people see pictures of the brain, they tend to fall prey to what I call 'the lure of mechanism.' They tend to think that we are all machines," he said.
Re-Entry Court is a program in Allen County, Indiana providing "[r]elease[] from prison early in exchange for electronic monitoring and a structured life," according to this story in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette by Ron Shawgo. We need to experiment with innovative programs, to be sure, but the experiments need to be evaluated with solid methodology and thoroughly checked data, so we can terminate the ones that don't work. "The newspaper’s analysis discovered several errors and omissions in the program’s data...." Evaluation of a program by people invested in it involves an obvious conflict of interest, and claims of savings and success in such evaluations should be regarded with caution.
Hackers interfering with criminal activity on the Internet
According to the Press Association, organized criminal gangs are having a problem with hackers interrupting illegal trade on the web. Sharon Lemon, deputy director of e-crime, says, “Criminals in a way, are policing the environment from the people who used to spread worms because they need the internet to be working.” These criminals are known to pay computer boffins to go through school to be a step ahead of their opponent. Next week in London, businesses, government officials, and police specialists from over 35 countries will come together and discuss what best ways work in stopping online crime.
Alabama: Felons struggling to regain Voting Rights
Inside the New York Times reporter Shaila Dewan writes that Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, founder of a ministry called The Ordinary People Society, helps people with past criminal backgrounds to vote again. According to the state attorney general, people are not allowed to vote if they commit a felony involving moral turpitude. The problem is that neither legislature nor the attorney general office has release a list defining what crimes are under moral turpitude. On a national standpoint, 5.3 million people do not have the right to vote because of criminal history. Ms. Reynolds, who was convicted of drug possession, received help from The Ordinary People Society, and said, “Voting, that’s a part of getting back to normal life.”
CRJ class proposed a bill on Eyewitness ID Procedures
According to the Eastern Kentucky University school newspaper, an advanced law class proposed a bill to help improve eyewitness identification procedures for law enforcement. Ashley Goff, a recent graduate from EKU who helped, said, “The House Bill 298 is to improve the chances of identifying the guilty, while reducing the risk of convicting the innocent by improving the accuracy of eyewitness identification in criminal cases.” If passed, it will be the first legislation of its kind in Kentucky.