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Virtual Reality Creating Jury Reality
FEATURED
January 7, 2025
Virtual Reality Creating Jury Reality
By: James Trusty
A Florida Judge may have unwittingly ushered in a new age of criminal justice, where slickly made virtual reality (“VR”) presentations turn judges and jurors into witnesses, and VR headsets provide subjective “testimony” in a powerful and difficult to challenge manner. Broward County Judge Andrew Siegel agreed to don a virtual reality headset in a preliminary proceeding[1] where the defendant was accused of aggravated assault. Miguel Albisu, the defendant, was accused of waving a gun at wedding guests and he claims self-defense. The defense hired an artist to create a “defendant’s perspective,” and the result is a historical first—the judge took in a defense expert’s testimony about self-defense that included a guided tour of the reality contained on a VR…
How Thick is the Blanket? – Preemptive Pardons as a Presidential Power
December 6, 2024
How Thick is the Blanket? – Preemptive Pardons as a Presidential Power
By: James Trusty
As the presiding judge scolded Hunter Biden’s attorneys this week, “The Constitution provides the President with broad authority to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 1, but nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history.”[1] But what exactly is that history he claims is being re-written? Judge Scarsi was challenging…
Supremely Improbable
July 30, 2024
Supremely Improbable
By: James Trusty
President Biden’s pronounced objectives for Supreme Court “reform” are improbable, politically lifeless under a particularly lame duck presidency, and motivated by transparently November-driven calculations. But even if the proposed changes are doomed from the start, they push public discourse on a couple of issues that are red meat for the democrats. The stated reforms are superficially simple ones: 1) to “clarify” that “there is no…
New DOJ Opinion Paves Way to Legal Online Poker
December 26, 2011
New DOJ Opinion Paves Way to Legal Online Poker
By: Ifrah Law
On December 23, 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that it has reversed a long-held position by stating that the Wire Act applies only to sports betting. This marks a major change in policy for DOJ, which has long contended that the Wire Act prohibits all forms of Internet gambling, including poker. Late that day, the DOJ released a 13-page legal opinion dated September…
New Step for Nevada: Commission Approves Online Gambling Regulations
December 23, 2011
New Step for Nevada: Commission Approves Online Gambling Regulations
By: Ifrah Law
On Dec. 22, 2011, the Nevada Gaming Commission unanimously approved regulations drafted by the Nevada Gaming Control Board that could make Nevada the first state to provide online gambling within its borders. Earlier this year the Nevada state legislature passed legislation allowing for intrastate online gaming. In June, Governor Brian Sandoval, a former Nevada Gaming Commission Chairman, signed the legislation into law. Earlier this year,…
Judge Dismisses Lindsey FCPA Case, Finding Prosecutorial Misconduct
December 12, 2011
Judge Dismisses Lindsey FCPA Case, Finding Prosecutorial Misconduct
By: Ifrah Law
In May 2011, a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted Lindsey Manufacturing Co., its president Keith Lindsey, and CFO Steve Lee, on foreign bribery charges for their dealings with Mexico’s state-owned electricity utility, Comision Federal de Electricidad. The prosecutors claimed that Lindsey Manufacturing retained Enrique Aguilar, a Mexican company representative, after repeatedly failing to win contracts legitimately – and that the defendants knew that the…
More Big Pharma Companies Cough Up Big Dollars in DOJ Settlements
November 30, 2011
More Big Pharma Companies Cough Up Big Dollars in DOJ Settlements
By: Ifrah Law
The parade of major drug companies coughing up nine-digit or ten-digit dollar amounts in settlements with the U.S. government is continuing. GlaxoSmithKline recently broke a record by agreeing to pay the federal government $3 billion to settle an illegal pharmaceutical marketing case. This surpasses the previous record of $2.3 billion paid by Pfizer in 2009 over the marketing of its Bextra painkiller and other drugs….
Convicted of Fraud but Changed Their Lives; Appeals Court Takes Note
November 29, 2011
Convicted of Fraud but Changed Their Lives; Appeals Court Takes Note
By: Ifrah Law
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit recently issued a notable decision in the case of United States v. Robertson, vacating and remanding the sentences of two defendants convicted of a mortgage fraud scheme because the sentencing judge failed to consider unusually strong evidence of self-motivated rehabilitation. In the late 1990’s, Henry and Elizabeth Robertson were involved in a mortgage fraud scheme through…
