"Sex offenders" but no sex crime? What SORA and VOYRA could mean for your clients: under the original Sex Offender Registration Act, some people who have not committed a sex crime must register as "sex offenders." The legislature addressed the issue last year with a law that creates its own problems. Here's a look at the statutory scheme and what it could mean for your clients.
Most people assume that only pedophiles are included in the Sex Offender Registry in Illinois. (1) They would be surprised to learn that the Sex Offender Registration Act for 10 years defined "sex offender" as one who committed kidnapping or unlawful restraint, even where the crime involved no sexual...

Rethinking Robinson v. California in the wake of Jones v. Los Angeles: avoiding the "demise of the criminal law" by attending to "punishment".
I. INTRODUCTION In its 1962 opinion Robinson v. California, (1) the United States Supreme Court held that a jail sentence of ninety days to one year for the status of being "addicted to the use of narcotics" constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Robinson broke new constitutional ground...

More than zero: accounting for error in latent fingerprint identification.
LOUISE: I never would have guessed that he was selling fake insurance. CANEWELL: That's what the whole idea was ... he didn't want you to guess it. If you could have guessed, then he couldn't have sold nobody no insurance. --August Wilson, Seven Guitars (1996)...

Anti-gang ordinances after City of Chicago v. Morales: the intersection of race, vagueness doctrine, and equal protection in the criminal law.
The rule of law, evenly applied to minorities as well as majorities, to the poor as well as the rich, is the great mucilage that holds society together. -- Justice William O. Douglas, 1972 (1) It seems there are two laws. There's one for this kind of area, and...

Trade secrets, confidential information, and the criminal law.
The author examines the extent to which property offences in the criminal law can be used to police the misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information. After assessing the long-standing debate on whether information can be classified as property, he argues that answering the question one way or the...

'On the take'.
THE above title is generic and a US slang like "on drugs, on life support, on parole, on the house, on a diet, on the sly, on fire, etc." Newsmen on the take? In the late 1920s and early 1930s, in Chicago, Al Capone told...

Presidents from Hollywood.
With a couple of days away from the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, the American presidency is in spotlight again. A recent gathering of surviving ex-presidents, along with outgoing George W. Bush and Obama himself, found its way into a headline-worthy picture, stressing the value of the...

Israel sets vote on plan to halt attacks.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli aircraft pounded 50 Hamas positions early Saturday, maintaining pressure on the Islamic militant group as the country's top leaders prepared for a crucial vote on whether to end Israel's punishing three-week-long campaign against Gaza's rulers. The vote on the Egyptian-brokered...

Three Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RS-68 Rocket Engines Boost Classified Spy Satellite.
CANOGA PARK, Calif., Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, a United Technologies Corp. company, contributed to the nation's security by boosting a classified spy satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Jan. 17. The satellite was onboard a United Launch...

Pampanga PNP head relieved on governor's request.
The leadership of the Philippine National Police (PNP) relieved yesterday Senior Supt. Keith Singian as director of the PNP Pampanga Provincial Office following a request from Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio who earlier accused the officer of being inefficient and overstaying in his post. In a press conference...