"The information exchange with other bloggers helps me stay current with national trends in criminal law,” [I] said. “ I want to provide a forum for discussion of those issues. Second, I understand that many people find the criminal justice system mysterious — they don’t know how the system works and don’t know what to expect when they or a friend are charged with a crime. I believe that lawyers should work to make the legal process as transparent and accessible as possible, and I believe I am doing my part by publishing the blog."

The day our story ran a lieutenant sent me a text message asking if I could help him get with Ms. Howell. When I talked with her and the DM advisor’s they told Victoria not to speak with the police. We did not want our sources to think that we are an arm of the law, but that we are can be trusted by our sources.

After explaining, via text, to the officer she could not help the investigation I was informed OPD would get a grand jury subpoena in order to obtain the information they wanted...

Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson was charged with failing a sobriety test while operating a 30-foot boat, then resisting arrest before being hit with pepper spray and dragged ashore by officers.

Benson faces charges of boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest after the incident Saturday night on Lake Travis, Travis County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Roger Wade said Sunday.

Benson was released from jail early Sunday on a $14,500 bond. The charges are class B misdemeanors, each punishable by up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine. A call to Benson’s agent was not immediately returned.

Benson was operating the boat with 15 passengers aboard when he was stopped by a Lower Colorado River Authority officer for a random safety inspection. He failed a field sobriety test on the officer’s boat and was uncooperative when the officer tried to take him ashore, the authority said.

The full story can be found here.  Texas criminal law blogger Jamie Spencer is already reacting to the story - see his posts, at the Austin Criminal Defense Lawyer discussing the unfortunate characterization of Benson's past legal troubles here, and at the Austin DWI Lawyer discussing the so called "float test" given to Benson in an attempt to determine whether he was intoxicated here.  I'll leave it to Jamie to keep us up to date as the case progresses. 

For interested in-state boaters, I thought I'd post some information about Mississippi's Alcohol Boating Safety Act.  You can see some text of the Act below - the first thing to jump out at me is the threshold BAC of .10% which is higher than the .08% threshold for a DUI.  Also noteworthy, but not reproduced here, is the fact that a BWI conviction results in significantly lower penalties than those resulting from a DUI conviction.  The Act states the following:

(1) It is unlawful for any person to operate a watercraft on the public waters of this state who:

      (a) Is under the influence of intoxicating liquor;

      (b) Is under the influence of any other substance which has impaired such person's ability to operate a watercraft; or

      (c) Has ten one-hundredths percent (.10%) or more by weight volume of alcohol in the person's blood based upon milligrams of alcohol per one hundred (100) cubic centimeters of blood as shown by a chemical analysis of such person's breath, blood or urine administered as authorized by this chapter.

According to Kelly McMillen with the sheriff’s office, deputies were called to the residence and coroner John Garrison also came to the house and pronounced Alexander dead, apparently of natural causes, according to the coroner’s report.

The body of the deceased was transported to a funeral home in Memphis, Tenn., and then from there carried to Jackson for autopsy, McMillen said. After autopsy, Alexander’s body was returned to Tennessee for burial.

On September 4, 2007, members of the Alexander family from Marshall County and St. Louis, said they were not satisfied with the determination of the cause of death in the autopsy report and asked the sheriff’s department to launch an investigation, Dickerson said.

McMillen said he spoke with Dr. Stephen Haynes [sic], with the state medical examiner’s office in Jackson, discussing with him the families concerns about the cause and manner of death.

“During the conversation, I was advised by the medical examiner that Mr. Alexander’s body had to be exhumed for more tissue samples and testing,” McMillen said. “Then I went to work on getting an order to exhume the body in Shelby County.”

It took six months to get the order to exhume the body and it was removed from the grave in a cemetery on Horn Lake Road in Memphis, Tenn., on March 11.

Mississippi law enforcement officers will be honored in Jackson today in relation to DUI enforcement.  This news from a short blurb in the Clarion Ledger, which states:

Nearly 70 officers from more than 20 departments statewide will be honored at [sic] today for their efforts in DUI enforcement.

The event begins at 11 a.m. at the Jackson Hotel, 1000 E. County Line Road, in salons A & B.

If you delete an old text message, can someone (or his lawyer) still find it?

Probably not—although there are exceptions. Most cell phone carriers don't permanently save the enormous amount of text-message data that is sent between users every day. AT&T Wireless, for example, says it keeps sent text messages for 48 hours only—after that, they are wiped off the system. Sprint, on the other hand, keeps messages on its server for approximately two weeks. A court order could force a carrier to retain certain messages as part of an ongoing investigation, but it would probably be impossible to get the contents of a 2002 text message from most cell phone companies.

But as the Detroit Free Press noted after it uncovered the first trove of messages in January, Kilpatrick got in trouble because he used a government-issued SkyTel pager. SkyTel—which does much of its business through government and corporate contracts—offers message archiving as one of its key features.

• folo
• Austin Criminal Defense Lawyer
• Mississippi Family Law Blog
• OxfordMississippi.com

• The Armchair Anthropologist
• Frisco DWI Lawyer & Attorney Blog
• Alabama DUI & Criminal Defense Law Blog
• DUI Blog
• Y'all Politics

If I missed you, please email me and I'll add you to the next edition of Blogrolling.

Last night I ran across this report from the Associated Press which purports to detail rates of "drunken driving" or "driving under the influence" throughout the country.  Some highlights:

The upper Midwest has the worst drunken driving rates in the country, according to a government report that says 15 percent of adult drivers nationally report driving under the influence of alcohol in the previous year.

The report on drunken driving relies on data obtained from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The survey, based on a scientific random sample of households, asked 127,283 adults in 2004, 2005 and 2006 whether they had driven under the influence in the past year.

Interesting.  Seems that a government researcher asked a bunch of adults if they have had a drink and driven, about one in seven reported they had.  Well, drinking and driving isn't necessarily illegal.  Only at the very end does this story qualify the "data" by stating:

It's illegal to drive with a blood alcohol level of 0.08 percent or higher.

In the past decade, the number of impaired drivers involved in alcohol-related crashes has remained relatively stable — from 12,348 in 1996 to 12,491 in 2006. Those figures cover drivers with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent or higher.

The AP story simply adds to the negative press surrounding alcohol and driving, ignoring the fact that there are responsible adults all over the country who may have one or two drinks after work and head home - with their BAC under the legal limit.  In Mississippi, as in the rest of the country, a DUI arrest doesn't have to lead to a DUI conviction.  If you have been charged with a DUI, you need to evaluate your rights and your options.  Feel free to call me at 662.638.4089 or visit my website at www.kevinwfrye.com.

This post will begin a continuing series about bills passed by the 2008 Regular Session of the Mississippi Legislature concerning both substantive and procedural criminal law. 

House Bill [HB] 19 - Intensive Supervision Program Extended

This bill extended the "house arrest" program (an alternative sentence to incarceration in a prison facility) until June 30, 2012.  It also raised the program fee to $80/month.

HB 359 - Justice Court Expungement Fees

Section 25-7-25 of the Mississippi Code allows the Mississippi Justice Courts to charge $50.00 for the dismissal of any criminal charge, complaint or affidavit.  The 2008 amendment will allow them to also charge the $50.00 fee for expungements.

HB 519 - Registered Sex Offenders

Section 45-33-25 of the Mississippi Code requires convicted sex offenders to report where they live as well as restricting where they may live.  The 2008 amendment forbids convicted sex offenders from living within 1,500 feet of a residential child-caring agency, a children's group care home or any playground, ball park or other recreational facility utilized by persons under the age of eighteen (18) years. Limited exceptions are incorporated into the bill and include: (a) having established the residence prior to July 1, 2008, (b) the offender is serving a sentence at a jail, prison, juvenile facility or other correctional institution, (c) the offender is subject to an order of commitment, and (d) the offender is a minor or a ward under a guardianship.

More summaries of laws passed during the 2008 Regular Session of the Mississippi Legislature will be posted soon.

As always, should you find yourself in need of legal advice or assistance, please feel free to call me, James B. Justice, at the law office of Justice & Alexander, P.A. in Oxford, Mississippi at (662) 234-4747.

Excerpted from today's Oxford Eagle Crime Report:

    A Lafayette County woman was arrested Monday and charged with drive-by shooting
for an incident that occurred Saturday, according to the Lafayette County Sheriff's
Department.
    Kimberly Johnson, 37, of Suncrest Drive was picked up on a warrant Monday by
deputies and taken to the Lafayette County Detention Center where she was booked
without a bond pending a first appearance hearing.
    Investigator Scott Mills said Johnson was one of two suspects being charged with
shooting at a female victim in the Brittany Woods subdivision on Saturday, although no
one was injured.

According to Mississippi Statute Section 97-3-109, a person is guilty of the felony of drive-by shooting if she attempts, 
other than for lawful self-defense, to cause serious bodily injury to another, or causes such injury purposely, knowingly 
or recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life by discharging a firearm 
while in or on a vehicle. A person convicted of drive-by shooting shall be punished by a prison term not to exceed thirty 
(30) years and a fine not to exceed Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00).

Yesterday I posted a video of an apparent assault on the Ole Miss campus with information relating to the difference between simple and aggravated assault.  The Oxford Eagle (Alyssa Schnugg) provides additional information:

...Marisha M. Porter, 19, of Columbus was charged with aggravated assault for using what police believe was a box cutter to cut three fellow students, according to a statement released late Wednesday by the university. She was taken to the Lafayette County Detention Center and booked on a $20,000 bond. She was bonded out at about 3:30 p.m.

The fight took place at about 11:30 a.m. in the Circle. An ambulance was dispatched to the scene and transported three female victims to Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi where they were treated for lacerations to the face and arms and released, according to hospital officials.

University Police Department investigators say the brawl was part of an ongoing personal dispute among the women that has been brewing for several days, and may have involved UM basketball player Terrence Watson who was apparently “involved” with two of the women in the fight...

Full story found here.  The Daily Mississippian has this report.  Note that Ms. Porter has been charged with aggravated assault.

• A DUI Second Offense conviction for a minor is a misdemeanor and will result in a fine of not more than $500.00 and a driver's license suspension of 1 year.  The driver's license suspension may be reduced if the minor successfully completes alcohol and/or drug abuse treatment.

• A DUI Third Offense conviction for a minor is a misdemeanor and will result in a fine of not more than $1,000.00 and a driver's license suspension lasting either until that person reaches the age of 21 or for 2 years, whichever is longer.  Additionally, alcohol and/or drug abuse counseling is required.