Protecting Your Rights Throughout Eastern Iowa Since 1981
Back in 2003, baseball great Barry Bonds was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for his agreement to testify before a grand jury. The case came after a raid of a steroid manufacturer called the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or BALCO, by federal agents....
Attorney General Eric Holder is moving quickly to align federal drug enforcement policy with the Administration’s goals he described earlier this month. In a speech before the American Bar Association, Holder denounced the nation’s massive incarceration rate,...
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole are unconstitutional for juvenile offenders. That was a challenge for Iowa, which had until then required that anyone convicted of...
Since the U.S. Department of Justice filed charges of “rampant insider trading” against SAC Capital Advisors and three of its subsidiary hedge funds last week, the financial media has been flooded with stories about the case. Announcing securities and wire fraud...
In a somewhat surprising ruling, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which includes Iowa, recently held that an otherwise unlawful police search was legal because the defendant had a “for sale” sign on his lawn. A Kansas City man has now been...
The Iowa Supreme Court recently issued a holding on whether or not an officer can make a suspected drunk driving stop based solely on an anonymous phone call. According to the Court, an anonymous tip is not enough to justify a stop. The case was brought to the court...
A black person in Iowa is about eight times more likely to be arrested for a marijuana possession charge than a white person, according to a recent study released by the American Civil Liberties Union. This is more than double the national average which showed a...
Advocates for criminal reform in Iowa and across the country might raise the issue of economics: the growing number of convicted individuals serving life sentences has increased steadily in the past 30 years. The current count might be six times as high as it was in...
Iowa City readers know that college graduation parties are an annual occurrence in May, given the proximity of The University of Iowa. Other graduates of technical schools and other post-secondary training programs may also have course completions to celebrate. For...
Iowa City readers may be aware that undocumented or unauthorized immigrants charged with certain criminal offenses might also find themselves in a deportation proceeding -- regardless of whether those criminal allegations result in a conviction or prove unfounded. Yet...
