An Honest Look at Child Pornography – PA

Too many law enforcement officials are trolling the Internet aiming to catch suspected child pornography users. Investigators have the capacity to track what you are doing on the Net. Big Brother is indeed looking over your shoulder and if he wants to find something, he generally will.

You need to be particularly careful about what you download from the Net and with whom you share any images, especially those involving children. For instance, recently more than 100 investigators from across 20 law enforcement organizations worked together with the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force to catch 10 men charged with suspected child pornography. The task force was able to detect child pornography users and distributors through electronic and other means, including tracking their IP (Internet Protocol) addresses.

61 Child Porn Task Forces Across the Nation

The task force that arrested these individuals is just one of 61 such task forces nationwide that target peer-to-peer file sharing online in particular. This sort of investigation is more sophisticated than the chatroom decoy investigations that were a hallmark of many previous child porn and molestation police investigations.

The fact of the matter is no one is immune from a child pornography charge. For instance, a popular music teacher and former theater director in Olympia, Washington, was arrested and tried in the media for allegedly having child porn on his home computer and work computer at the theater. Evidently, he inadvertently downloaded child pornography, but the witch hunt is on and his good name and reputation are in ruins despite the charges being dropped due to an illegal computer search.

Excessively Harsh Sentencing in Child Porn Cases

In another troubling case in West Palm Beach, Florida, a 50-year-old engineer is facing 3,000 years’ jail time for 200 videos found on his hard drive that was attached to his own laptop. In another horrific miscarriage of justice, former Arizona high school teacher Morton Berger is facing a mandatory minimum jail sentence for possession of just 20 images that he was found with in 2003. There is a miscarriage of justice when a person receives a life sentence just for looking at a forbidden image, even if the image is upsetting.

Take Immediate Action If Arrested or Under Investigation for Child Pornography Charges — Criminal Defense Lawyers in PA

Please contact the Harrisburg, PA, law firm of Laguna Reyes Maloney, LLP to schedule a free case evaluation with Roger Laguna or Laura Reyes Maloney: 717-233-5292. You may also contact us online.

Jailhouse Lawyer Success Stories – PA

Jailhouse lawyers represent themselves and other people who are in prison after they have been tried, convicted, and sentenced. Once you are locked up behind bars, you no longer have the right to a free defense attorney or public defender provided by the state. Most jailhouse lawyers are free.

Jailhouse lawyers, for the most part are inmates who practice the law – primarily criminal defense, for obvious reasons – for themselves and for others in difficult predicaments. Shon R. Hopwood, is one such jailhouse attorney, now a free man. He was convicted of five robberies in rural Nebraska back in the nineties, sentenced to more than a decade in federal prison.

Studying Law in the Prison Library Paid Off

Hopwood focused much of his prison time in the prison law library. Interestingly, he has been far more effective as a jailhouse attorney than as a bank robber. In fact, he is most well known for successfully petitioning the Supreme Court to hear an appeal for John Fellers, a fellow inmate in prison.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. This was one of just eight petitions, of over 7,000 filed by prisoners that same year. The Court thankfully ruled wholly in Fellers’ favor! Shon Hopwood has written a book about it, called Law Man.

Supreme Court Hears Case

Hopwood typed up the first Petition for Certiorari, as it is called, or request for the Court to hear the case, on a jail typewriter. Seth P. Waxman, former U.S. solicitor general who has argued some 50 cases before the Supreme Court, said that it was one of the best “Certs” he had ever read.

In fact, Mr. Waxman agreed to take the case without payment on the condition that Shon also worked with him. The two men, solicitor general and prison inmate consulted on all aspects of the case, winning a 9-0 victory that reduced Fellers’ sentence by four years.

Meantime, Shon has been busy. He was granted a second petition that vacated a lower court’s decision and sent the case back to the courts. He has helped inmates throughout the Midwest, including Indiana, Nebraska, and Michigan; get reductions in prison time from three to 10 years.

There are many online resources that offer a guide to becoming a jailhouse lawyer, including the Jailhouse Lawyer’s Manual.

If Your Juvenile Child Has Been Arrested — Experienced Juvenile Criminal Defense Attorney

Please contact the Harrisburg, PA, law firm of Laguna Reyes Maloney, LLP to schedule a free case evaluation with Roger Laguna or Laura Reyes Maloney: 717-233-5292. You may also contact us online.

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