Little Rock Criminal Law Blog

Courts rely on solid evidence to convict a person of a crime. Yet sometimes, it’s difficult to extract proof of the crime from the evidence at hand. Other times, evidence that seems to point in one direction is altogether misleading. This can unfortunately lead to wrongful convictions.

While some pieces of evidence may be dependable enough to convict you, certain evidence can sometimes be dubious and not as reliable as you may think.

The financial schemes plotted by foreign actors might feel far away from Arkansas, but international money laundering operations can involve people in the United States. The recent charges filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against a university professor illustrate this point. Federal investigators claim that the 73-year-old laundered money derived from bribes and other corrupt practices that stole money from Venezuelans.

According to a press release from federal prosecutors, the professor had access to multiple bank accounts that received funds from overseas accounts in the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland. Prosecutors assert that he received about $200,000 every month. After depositing the money, he routinely transferred 90% of it to his personal accounts. Federal investigators estimate that he handled roughly $2.5 million from November 2017 to October 2018.

On Oct. 22, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill that would make it a federal crime to commit certain acts of animal cruelty in Arkansas and around the country. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., and Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla.

The Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act of 2010 criminalized making and distributing animal crush videos. The new Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, or PACT, expands on that law by making it illegal for any individual to knowingly participate in any abusive behavior toward animals, including crushing, drowning, burning, impaling or suffocating, if the animals or abuse in any way involve interstate or foreign commerce. If passed, the law would not conflict with local animal cruelty laws.

Arkansas, like most other states, has a program in place that requires defendants convicted of some sexual offenses to register with law enforcement authorities as a sexual offender. There are many facets to this program and the nature of a person's registration and what is involved may vary based, at least in part, on the nature of the offense for which they were convicted. In some cases, even a person who is acquitted of a sex crime offense may still be required to register as a sex offender. 

One of the elements of the sex offender registry program is the ability of people in the general public to look up individual registrants. The Arkansas Crime Information Center indicates that a search may be conducted by a person's name, county, city, zip code or even a specific street address. It is not known how many searches take place, but this remains a common part of most registry programs.