Ken Strutin

September 24, 2013 | New York Law Journal

In his Criminal Law column, Ken Strutin, director of legal information services at the New York State Defenders Association, writes: Until recently, search and seizure law relied on a snapshot approach that measured expectations of privacy frame by frame. But as technology blurs lines of perception, the Supreme Court has endorsed a persistence of vision that takes account of the unity of people, places, and things in time.

By Ken Strutin

16 minute read

November 13, 2012 | New York Law Journal

In his Criminal Law column, Ken Strutin, director of legal information services at the New York State Defenders Association, writes that the Internet is providing new information streams for client advocacy rooted in the print world, and inmate letters and newspaper stories have established patterns that can carry over to the new media.

By Ken Strutin

12 minute read

September 25, 2012 | New York Law Journal

In his Criminal Law column, Ken Strutin, director of legal information services at the New York State Defenders Association, writes that scientific truth continues to take a back seat to legal necessity. Yet, relief from forensic injustice can be fashioned in the forge of executive clemency or tempered there for judicial review and legislative action.

By Ken Strutin

14 minute read

July 24, 2012 | New York Law Journal

In his Criminal Law column, Ken Strutin, director of legal information services at the New York State Defenders Association, writes: The timeline of rehabilitation policies has had its peaks and valleys, usually keyed to the underlying philosophy of the period. Still, the U.S. Supreme Court has recently reminded us that rehabilitation is always relevant. At the same time, the latest discoveries about the brain's operations and effective behavioral treatments are igniting another peak in the progress of the rehabilitative ideal.

By Ken Strutin

11 minute read

October 19, 2012 | New York Law Journal

Ken Strutin, director of legal information services at the New York State Defenders Association, writes: Bringing to mind the moral hazard of "too big to fail," mass incarceration represents a catastrophic failure of penal philosophy unsupported by changing societal values. The cost of this mind-set has become too high in human and societal terms. And a remedy is needed to bring the justice system back from the precipice.

By Ken Strutin

14 minute read

March 20, 2012 | New York Law Journal

In his Criminal Law column, Ken Strutin, director of legal information services at the New York State Defenders Association, writes: "In the courtroom, science is not science but a species of proof that must satisfy legal realities. Thus, it falls to defense counsel, as well as others in the justice system, to assure that legal reality does not trump scientific truth."

By Ken Strutin

13 minute read

May 22, 2012 | New York Law Journal

In his Criminal Law column, Ken Strutin, director of legal information services at the New York State Defenders Association, writes that, for the accused, their DNA is the essence of "privacy and dignity," and without recognition of those values, criminal investigations could turn into catch and release programs in pursuit of the quintessential metric.

By Ken Strutin

16 minute read

April 20, 2012 | New York Law Journal

Ken Strutin, director of legal information services at the New York State Defenders Association, writes: 'Clemency (mercy), pardon (absolution), commutation (substitution), amnesty (forgetting), and reprieve (suspension) are drawn from the language of compassion. And today, they operate in a scheme of constitutional rights that overarches and subsumes notions of mercy and leniency.'

By Ken Strutin

11 minute read

January 11, 2005 | New York Law Journal

Ken Strutin, director of legal information services for the New York State Defenders Association in Albany, writes that judges today are ordering defendants to unplug their computers as part of probationary sentences. At the same time, they have acknowledged that access to online services is integral to functioning and thriving in our society. Courts attempting to formulate condign punishments need to take into account the Internet's central role in communication, information, business and government.

By Ken Strutin

7 minute read

May 15, 2008 | Law.com

In photo comparison identification cases, prosecutors have argued against the science or the appropriateness of biometric evidence. But a defendant has due process and compulsory process rights to present a defense to a critical element of the state's case, identification.

By Ken Strutin

11 minute read