Judicial Conduct/ Death Sentence

The California Supreme Court, Monday, upheld an Orange County conviction of Gregory Allen Sturm on three counts of murder with special circumstance, but reversed the death sentence imposed.

Sturm, an addict charged with three counts of murder committed during a robbery, and attempted escape, was defended back in 1992 by a Sacramento public defender. Sturm did not contest the convictions, but asserted multiple incidents of reversible error at sentencing, including the trial court’s judge’s “repeatedly disparaging the defense lawyer, berating defense witnesses, and making objections in the case on behalf of the prosecution,” according to a Law.com article this morning.

· People v. Sturm, Case S031423, Supreme Court of California, March 6, 2006

Internet scams, phishing & AOL suits

The Securities & Exchange Commission Monday has issued a warning to the public about “paid autosurf’ web sites. There are numerous such sites on the Internet. Some of them are legitimate, but others—especially those promising to pay “members” huge profits— can be scams, an article in the Wall Street Journal (subscription) said yesterday.

Paid “auto-surf” programs are an enormous industry on the Internet, but can also sometimes be used to set up scams. A “member” goes to the site, clicks on an automatic surfer which leads to a set or series of ads, and then receives some sort of monetary credit… maybe.

These types of scams, the article commented, “wouldn’t be possible without the help of legitimate, mainstream Internet businesses, raising the question of whether these companies are—wittingly or unwittingly—playing a role in the growing scourge of Internet-based frauds.”

The Security & Exchange Commission has an “auto-surfing” informational bulletin posted as well as one on “Avoiding Internet Investment Scams


Related, an article on Silicon.com recently reported research done by the Office of Fair Trading in England that said “nearly half of the UK population—or 20 million consumers over the age of 15—have been targeted by a scam,” and, contrary to expectations, the main focus of scammers is not necessarily the obviously more vulnerable groups of older people or those more isolated from social networks such as workplace environments.

Time Warner/America Online, Monday, filed lawsuits against “phishers” charging them with attempting to trick AOL subscribers with fake websites of legitimate companies in order to obtain personal information. The cases ( 1:06-cv-00206-CMH-BRP, 1:06-cv-00207-CMH-BRP, and 1:06-cv-00208-CMH-BRP), filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia are seeking a combined judgment of $18 million. (Pacer)

Ohio Judges Now Allowed to Get Tough, Not Say Why

In a unanimous decision from the Ohio Supreme Court, judges no longer have to justify handing out punishment that is tougher than the minimum sentence required by law. This ruling potentially affects thousands of felons, who will have to be resentenced. Furthermore, it raises questions about the consistency of future criminal sentences throughout Ohio. There are fears that sentencing among the courts will not be consistent with one another. Will one court impose a harsher sentence for a crime than another would for the same crime? This question remains to be answered.

Read the opinion: State v. Mathis (2006-Ohio-855):
http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/rod/newpdf/0/2006/2006-ohio-855.pdf