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US Supreme Court rules reckless offenses do not qualify as ‘violent felony’

JURIST

Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch, wrote the opinion of the court, concluding that any offense with a mens rea or mental state of recklessness does not qualify as a violent felony under the ACCA. The Supreme Court reversed that judgment and remanded the case.

Felony 161
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Could the Road to an AKS Violation Be Paved with Good Intentions? Pfizer Asks SCOTUS

FDA Law Blog

The Second Circuit’s Interpretation of the AKS and its Mens Rea Element. The Court instead interpreted the term, as used in the AKS, to mean an intentional violation of a known legal duty, but concluded that “the mens rea element goes no further.” Pfizer’s Petition to SCOTUS.

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‘Search Warrants Rot Law Enforcement’: Paper

The Crime Report

“When police rammed the door of Breonna Taylor’s home and shot her six times in a hail of thirty-two bullets, they lacked legal justification for being there,” Blanche Cook, the paper’s author, details. All of this can be traced back to the Supreme Court’s legal doctrine that created the conditions for this botched search warrant execution.

Laws 131
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New Orleans Police Seek Arrest of Dispatcher Under Novel Criminal Charge

JonathanTurley

The statute itself reads like criminalized negligence. It uses the language of criminal scienter in requiring an intentional act. The mens rea element is merely eliminating involuntary failures like illness or force in the failure to perform. However, it is intent to “refuse or fail to perform” a duty.

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Amid overdose crisis, court will weigh physician intent in “pill mill” prosecutions and more under the Controlled Substances Act

SCOTUSBlog

They also argue that Congress, elsewhere in the CSA, meaningfully deviated from the “knowingly or intentionally” language to impose a lower standard for certain actions undertaken “knowingly or recklessly,” thereby showing that Congress knew how to criminalize merely reckless behavior when it wanted to.

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Why Do We Treat Sex Crimes Differently Than Other Violent Crimes?

The Crime Report

In “ Sex Exceptionalism in Criminal Law, ” Gruber argues that treating sex crimes differently than other crimes is not natural or neutral but rather has a political history that should be examined. Gruber asked.

Mens Rea 140
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No Walk in the Park: JAMA Editorial Calls for More Park Prosecutions; We Disagree

FDA Law Blog

Last, because of the tremendous power given government prosecutors under this strict liability misdemeanor statutory framework, it is critical that those prosecutors exercise prosecutorial discretion, which is why the Justice Manual identifies a host of factors that prosecutors should consider before bringing any criminal charge.