Baltimore Criminal Law Blog

Criminal defense attorneys know that police officers aren't shy about stopping drivers suspected of DWI.

But here are some surprising statistics: In the past five years there has been a 30 percent drop in DWI arrests, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, DWI arrests are actually at their lowest mark in two decades.

What explains this?

20-year-old Midshipman 3^rd Class Patrick Edmond, a student at the U.S. Naval Academy, was convicted of rape by a seven-member military panel and sentenced to six months in military prison. Edmond was also dismissed from the Navy.

It's not often that you see the words "anti-slavery" in a contemporary article, but Beth Happick and Jeanne Allert, in their opinion piece for the Baltimore Sun, use those words and more in their call for our politicians to continue funding anti-human trafficking and anti-slavery efforts nationwide - and to set a good example for the rest of the world when it comes to sex crimes.

You can understand why you'd spend your time maintaining a website that influences only one person's behavior - it's because you've influenced one person's behavior, and perhaps spared the death of someone else by preventing what otherwise would've been an alcohol-related car accident.

Ken Rossignol does just that (runs a website called DWI Hit Parade) with "probably 20,000 names and probably pushing a thousand pictures. I don't know. I haven't thought about it that hard," Rossignol says, as Jay Korff reports for ABC 7 News. Rossignol publishes the names and faces of anyone charged with DUI/DWI.

In the latest edition of the criminal justice publication "Crime & Public Policy," the editors added a few new categories. Included among the newest categories is one for sex crimes. As Ted Gest for the Crime Report writes, one of the most "authoritative" criminal justice publications is meant for policymakers at high levels, like mayors and governors.

According to Stanford Law School's Joan Petersilia (one of the editors of the publication), a governor, for example, should be able to read the publication and be able to trust it when he or she is making decisions regarding public policy as it relates to criminal law. As Gest reports, Petersilia said, "Public policy goes awry when legislators react in a knee-jerk way."

Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jeremy Guthrie recently published a message on his Twitter account that questioned the difference in consequences among some people in professional baseball who have gotten into some high-profile trouble lately. As reported by Jerry Crasnick on ESPN, Major League Baseball fined White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen a hefty $20,000 because Guillen criticized some umpires.

But the MLB fine for two baseball players arrested for driving under the influence (DUI)? No fines.