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A lot of people make mistakes when they are teenagers. Some of these mistakes may even lead to criminal charges for juveniles. While it might seem like a minor issue at the time, a conviction in one of these matters could lead to life-long complications. A recent Minnesota Supreme Court case highlights the problems that have resulted due to having a criminal record as a juvenile.
It’s no secret that law enforcement authorities significantly step up drunk driving patrols during certain holidays. This year, with St. Patrick’s Day in the rearview mirror, more Minnesotans than ever are facing a drunk driving charge.
Protecting the right of people to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures is at the heart of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Minnesota mirrors the protections of the Fourth Amendment in article I, section 10 of the state constitution. State and federal courts frequently must decide if evidence seized by law enforcement officers and used to prove criminal charges violates the Minnesota and federal constitutional protections.
In March, four Democratic U.S. Senators, Harry Reid, D-Utah, Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Tom Udall, D-N.M., drafted a letter requesting that Apple, Google and Research in Motion (or RIM) eliminate the applications (user-friendly computer programs for specific tasks) on mobile communication devices that warn drivers of the locations of drunk-driving checkpoints.
The Minnesota Sex Offender Program confines and treats high-risk offenders after they have completed their prison sentences. Politics in Minnesota reports that the state has the highest per-capita rate of civil commitments in the country, with more than 650 men currently enrolled in the program. Only two individuals have been discharged from the program over the past two decades. According to The Mankato Free Press, sex offenders are confined to high-security treatment facilities at an annual cost of approximately $120,000 per offender.
In March of 2011, several spring break revelers at a party in Blaine, Minnesota were hospitalized after overdosing on a synthetic designer drug known as 2C-E. One of them, 19-year-old Trevor Robinson, was killed.
A serious criminal conviction can be a challenging thing to live with. Even long after repaying your debt to society, your past can come back to haunt you, impairing your ability to get a good job, obtain a professional license or find suitable housing.
It took more than a decade to change one of the biggest inequalities in U.S. drug sentencing laws: the 100 to 1 ratio sentencing disparity for federal crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses. Prior to the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act on August 3, 2010, those convicted of trafficking as little as five grams of crack cocaine received a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison. The sentence doubled to 10 years for those with 10 grams in their possession.
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