Symposium: Whatever happens in US v. Microsoft, three themes will persist

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On one level, United States v. Microsoft Corp. presents a fairly straightforward matter of statutory interpretation. The statute in question — the Stored Communications Act — is silent about its territorial reach, which raises at least two questions: (1) Is it an extraterritorial application of the statute to issue a U.S. warrant in Washington state for data that Microsoft holds in Ireland, and (2) does the statute apply extraterritorially? Because the statutory issues are covered at length by other posts in this symposium and in the briefing before the Supreme Court, I thought I would say a few words about what is not in the briefing.

Read More from SCOTUSblog Here

Marlene Johnson mistakes teen for Shirley Pierce in threatening 2013 text message

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Marlene Postell Johnson mistakenly sent a text message in July 2013 to a 15-year-old making threats against someone she thought was Shirley Goodnight Pierce.Two days later, Pierce was found dead inside her Kannapolis home. Rowan County investigators have said Johnson killed Pierce, 62, because she believed Pierce was having an affair with her estranged husband.

Alex Norton, now 20, testified that on the night of July 21, 2013, he received a text from a number that court testimony showed belonged to Marlene Johnson. Norton said he didn’t recognize the number but had received previous messages from the same number.

Read More from the Salisbury Post Here

Suspect acquitted in shooting of homeless man as Norfolk prosecutors lose another murder trial

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Terrence “Chill” Booth escaped a second murder conviction Monday when jurors acquitted him of shooting a homeless man in the head while he slept.

It’s the third murder trial Norfolk prosecutors have lost in the past two months. Six of the past seven murder cases they’ve taken to trial have ended in acquittal.

 Prosecutors accused Booth, 41, of executing Addison “Hollywood” Shearin in July 2016 while the 46-year-old homeless man slept under a gazebo in Lafayette Park.Cellphone records backed up some of Hayes’ testimony. Booth’s phone was in or near Lafayette Park between 10:45 p.m. on July 17 and 12:30 the next morning, police investigator Martin Zelada told jurors.

If the phone had been at his house a third of a mile away, as Korslund said, it would’ve pinged off a different cellphone tower.

But, Korslund said during his closing argument, prosecutors and police don’t even know when Shearin died. It might’ve been at 12:15 in the morning when the cellphone records show Booth’s phone was near the park. Or it might’ve happened at 4 a.m., when the phone was at Booth’s house on 35th Street.

 Read More From the Virginian Pilot Here

Cell phone used in courtroom seized by judge during testimony at Montgomery County murder trial

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There are new questions being raised about a cell phone seized by a judge in a high-profile murder trial in Montgomery County. The person using the phone may have been taking pictures as a witness for the prosecution was testifying in the case of two Northwest High School students killed on the eve of their graduation.

But a couple of days ago on Wednesday morning as testimony was going on, a woman who was sitting in the courtroom was seen using her cellphone to take what appeared to be pictures, and the judge stopped the trial.  The judge then asked the woman to come up to the bench and questioned her. He ended up taking her phone and had her escorted out of the courtroom and told not to return.

Read More From  Fox 5 Here

 

Grace Wight, 19, admits guilt in Lyndeborough motor-vehicle death

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A college student pleaded guilty Friday to causing the 2016 motor-vehicle death of a pedestrian walking in the dead of night on a rural road in Lyndeborough.

The guilty plea of Lyndeborough resident Grace Wight, 19, scuttled a trial in its fourth day in Hillsborough County Superior Court. Family and friends of Wight and the victim, Debess Rogers, 60, filled the courtroom. New Hampshire State Police claimed Wight had been texting and speeding, and she was charged with one count of negligent homicide, one count of reckless conduct with a deadly weapon and vehicular assault, a misdemeanor.

The trial started with Grabazs describing the night but then focused on expert testimony. A cellphone expert concluded Wight was not texting or talking on the phone at the time of the accident.

Read More From the New Hampshire Union Leader Here