Rizio and Nelson California Law Blog

CA Gun Laws – More Confusion

According to an article posted recently on pe.com of the Press-Enterprise, new federal gun laws allow visitors to bring firearms into national parks. However, the federal law left it up to each individual state to apply the new law. The author, John Asbury, writes, “…how the new federal law will be applied in California is unclear, according to the state attorney general’s office.”...

When in trouble – know where to turn

The criminal justice system categorizes crimes by two types for statistical purposes: Part I crimes and Part II crimes. The FBI records the information in the Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Agencies that contribute to this data, such as police departments, submit the information to the FBI once a month. They write, “In 2002, law enforcement agencies active in the UCR Program represented...

Juvenile Facilities are Downsizing Too

According to a February 22 article on the Department of Justice Website, the Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility has been closed. The article states, “At its peak, it housed approximately 2,000 youth, nearly a fifth of the 10,000 youth committed to state custody.” Gordon Hinkle and Bill Sessa write, “Closure of the facility in Chino, which had been the state’s largest for juvenile...

Terrorism – The Importance Of A Solid Defence

The United States of America is aggressively pursuing prosecution of anyone they suspect is involved in terrorist activity. The punishments are harsh, with some states employing the death penalty in severe cases (the Timothy McVeigh case, for example). Even pranksters can find themselves in front of a jury for making criminal threats and face up to $250,000 USD and five years in a federal correctional...

Solicitation of a Prostitute

Solicitation of a prostitute is in reference to a person attempting to incite lewd conduct from another person. Solicitation to engage in lewd conduct is characterized by a specific intent to engage in that conduct. Specific intent is intent specifically seeking a particular result. In a prostitution case, the result is an act of lewd conduct. Lewd conduct is the specific intent to sexually arouse,...

Lewd/Lascivious Conduct

While the crime of lewd and/or lascivious conduct is classified as a misdemeanor and is subsequently a somewhat minor charge, a conviction still generally results in a criminal record and the possibility of lifelong registration as a sex offender. For this reason, like all sex crime charges, it must be taken extremely seriously. Prosecutors will generally argue that the accused person committed certain...

PVDMI

With the focus of reducing California’s recidivism rate, and the mandate that the prison population be reduced, a risk assessment system is used to determine if a criminal should be released on parole, or be returned to prison. It’s called the Parole Violation Decision Making Instrument, or PVDMI. According to an article in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR)...

California’s Early Prison Release

Effective Monday, January 25, 2010, the new law providing early release for non-violent criminals will allow approximately 6,500 inmates to be set free. Under the new law, which was signed into effect last fall, only those prisoners who have completed educational and vocational programs, and who have been selected as not likely to commit another crime, will be released. The Federal Court had ordered...

Probable Cause vs. Burden of Proof

In a criminal trial, the two main hearings before a judge and/or jury are the preliminary hearing and the trial. In the preliminary hearing, the prosecution must convince the judge that there is enough evidence against the defendant in order to bring them to trial for the crime that they have been accused of. This type of hearing is much less strict in that it is not bound to the rules of evidence....