Browse By Tags

MI Approves Confiscated Property Bill Package The MICHIGAN Senate approves a seven-bill package (HBs 4500, 4503, 4504, 4506, 4507, 4499 and 4505) that collectively increase civil asset forfeiture reporting requirements for law enforcement agencies and make it harder for the government to keep confiscated...

Crime In CA Prison officials in CALIFORNIA unveil a new lethal injection method that for the first time in state history calls for the use of only one drug to execute condemned inmates. The new method must still undergo a public comment period and a public hearing before it could be adopted (SACRAMENTO...

CA Fails SB 966 A sufficient majority of the CALIFORNIA Senate fails to endorse SB 966 , which would have repealed mandatory sentencing enhancements for someone convicted of the sale, possession for sale, distribution or transportation of drugs such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and PCP. The...

Crime & Punishment in CT The CONNECTICUT Supreme Court upholds its own earlier ruling that it would be unconstitutional to execute inmates on the state’s death row given the state abolished the death penalty in 2012. The court’s decision means that the sentences of all prisoners remaining...

The DELAWARE Supreme Court rules that the First State’s death penalty law is unconstitutional because it allows judges, and not juries, the final say on whether to impose a death sentence. Legislation to bar capital punishment passed the Senate in 2015 but failed in the House (NEWS JOURNAL [WILMINGTON...

California Approves SB 443 The CALIFORNIA Assembly approves SB 443 , which would shield people arrested for but not convicted of crimes from having police seize less than $40,000 of their cash assets. The bill returns to the Senate (SACRAMENTO BEE). Crime In Massachusetts The MASSACHUSETTS Supreme...

California Approves AB 2888 The CALIFORNIA Assembly gives final approval to AB 2888 , which would mandate that anyone convicted of rape in the Golden State must receive jail time. The law removes a loophole that allowed judges the discretion to sentence a perpetrator whose victim was unconscious or...

California Signs SB 839 CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signs SB 839 , a portion of which makes it a crime for an individual or corporation to breed killer whales, or orcas, in captivity, punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 (LEXISNEXIS STATE NET).

Crime In Massachusetts The MASSACHUSETTS Supreme Judicial Court orders Bay State courts to consider whether a black person who walks away from a police officer is attempting to avoid the “recurring indignity of being racially profiled” and not doing so because the person is guilty of a...

CA District Court A CALIFORNIA appeals court strikes down a Golden State law requiring prosecutors, rather than secret grand juries, to decide whether a police officer who kills someone should be charged with a crime. The Third District Court of Appeal said the law, the first of its kind in the nation...

California Approves SB 439 The CALIFORNIA Senate approves SB 439 , which would ensure that counties treat juvenile offenders 11 or younger in the child services system instead of the juvenile courts. It moves to the Assembly (ASSOCIATED PRESS). Texas Approves SB 12 The TEXAS House approves SB...

Crime In California The U.S. Supreme Court rules that police cannot be held liable for injuries they caused as part of a search unless the search itself is “unreasonable.” The decision overturns a lower court’s ruling in a CALIFORNIA case (GOVERNING). Vermont Vetoes SB 22 VERMONT...

California Signs SB 725 CALIFORNIA Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signs SB 725 , which clarifies that current and former military members who suffer from service-related mental health issues may be diverted to a treatment court in lieu of jail when charged with driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol...

California Governor Signs Marijuana Bill Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signs a bill ( SB 65 ) banning the smoking of marijuana or ingestion of marijuana products while driving or riding in a vehicle, starting Jan. 1 when recreational pot becomes legal in the state. It was already against the law to drive under...

California will have the highest cybercrime losses of any state this year, according to analysis of data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Insurance Information Institute by Website Builder Expert. The website development adviser estimates that total cybercrime losses by individuals in...

In the third and final of our annual three-part series looking ahead to the coming legislative year, SNCJ Senior Advisor Lou Cannon takes a look at some of the challenges and opportunities that await lawmakers in 2019. This is also our final issue of 2018, so from all of us to all of you, have...

California would have the fifth largest economy in the world if the state was a separate nation. And ever since Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States, the Golden State has behaved as if it really is a separate country, standing up to Trump and repeatedly suing the federal government...

The impending California Consumer Privacy Act and other state data privacy laws have done more than motivate companies to rethink how they manage consumer data; it also has many organizations thinking more than ever about how they manage their cyber insurance coverage. Once considered a niche product...