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Federal Crime

Corona Virus Closes Missouri Courts

Missouri Supreme Court Reacts to Corona Virus The corona virus and the associated COVID-19 has upended daily life in the St. Louis area and throughout Missouri. Finally after days of uncertainty surrounding court dockets and schedules, the Missouri Supreme Court handed down a sweeping declaration on Monday, March 16th, closing courts statewide until at least April 6th. There are few exceptions to the closures, mostly for emergency situations, and a few for confined defendants. Although confined defendants will continue to have some dockets, they will only be seen by video and will not be transported to court. There are two main concerns...

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Drug Sniffing Dogs As Accurate As a Coin Flip, Study Says

Drug Lawyer St. Louis

Drug Sniffing Dogs Score Poorly in Testing Drug sniffing dogs are often used by law enforcement to try to locate drugs during traffic stops, at houses, in postal packages, among many other situations. Historically, the courts have viewed these highly trained dogs as an important factor when determining whether there was probable cause to allow law enforcement to take the next steps, often a search that would be illegal in the absence of probable cause. Two problems with these drug sniffing dogs have come to light. One, which I will write about more in depth next week, has to do with...

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Woman Who Grows Marijuana Convicted of Money Laundering

federal prison

On June 29, 2015, Marlene Black was sentenced in federal court in St. Louis to three years of probation for money laundering. This concluded a case that highlights some of the problems with legalized marijuana in some states while marijuana is still illegal in most states and under federal law. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana. Included in those twenty-three states are Colorado and Washington where state law has fully legalized marijuana.   Marlene Black had never smoked marijuana before her doctor in California prescribed it to her for chronic pain she experienced from several preexisting injuries....

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