Recently in Legislation & Policymaking Category

The National Transportation Safety Board voted Tuesday to recommend lowering the legal blood-alcohol concentration limit to 0.05% for drunken driving nationwide.

The vote came after board members considered a safety report entitled "Reaching Zero: Actions to Eliminate Alcohol-Impaired Driving." The report provided an overview of impaired driving, current efforts to curb DUI deaths, and proposed safety recommendations.

Now that the NTSB has reached its decision, what effect will this have on the nation's drivers?

Military sexual assaults are on the rise, and a new survey suggests the problem may be much more widespread than officially reported.

The official number of sexual assaults in the military rose 6% between 2011 and 2012, when more than 3,300 service members reported such incidents, according to a Pentagon report released Wednesday. But the true number is likely much higher.

The Pentagon estimates as many as 26,000 military members may have been subject to sexual assault in 2012 but didn't report it, according to the Associated Press. So what is the federal government doing to prevent and deter sexual assaults in the military?

Is it illegal to make moonshine? In most cases it is, but that hasn't dampened (or diluted) the spirits of hooch makers across the country.

In the last three years, law-enforcement agencies in Virginia have cracked down on moonshine distribution and production in the state, a multi-million dollar racket, reports ABC News.

With millions of dollars at stake in this traditional industry, making moonshine can potentially make you a lot of money. But there are a few nagging state and federal laws that you have to deal with first.

You may not like your lawyer, but does that really mean that you have a claim for ineffective assistance of counsel? What is "ineffective counsel" anyway, legally speaking?

First off, there's a difference between the legal terms ineffective assistance of counsel and legal malpractice. The two can go hand in hand, but a malpractice claim is one where a client sues his lawyer for falling below the standard of legal professionalism.

Ineffective assistance of counsel, on the other hand, is used in a different way.

Maryland's death penalty has been repealed, making it the 18th state to abolish executions. Instead of the death penalty, the state's harshest sentence will now be life without parole.

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley pledged to overturn the death penalty, citing a variety of reasons, reports The Washington Post. However, proponents of the death penalty argue that life imprisonment may not be enough in certain circumstances.

During legislative debates, lawmakers pointed to some specific flaws with Maryland's death penalty. Here are five of the most signifcant:

A murder conviction generally punishes people who kill others either intentionally or through extreme recklessness. But the "felony murder" rule punishes something different.

Unlike other kinds of murder, in felony murder there's no requirement that the suspect intended to cause death, or that his actions were likely to kill another person.

Committing a crime can lead to dangerous situations, and people can get hurt unintentionally. What if someone dies during the commission of a crime? The law doesn't let the perpetrator go unpunished.

Rape is a crime that most people have at least some understanding of, but do you know what rape by intoxication is?

A Canadian tourist has been charged with rape by intoxication in California, after he allegedly had sex with an intoxicated woman in San Diego last year. Nelson Drake, 39, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday; if convicted, he could face up to eight years in prison, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

So what are the elements of the crime? It's pretty straightforward if you understand the definition of rape itself.

If there's one piece of criminal procedure that's overplayed in crime dramas, it's the police lineup. Sure, it's a real part of criminal investigation, but it's not the drama-filled, nail-biting process that Hollywood makes it look like.

OK, maybe that's not true if you're one of the people in the lineup, waiting to see if you're identified as "the guy who did it." That's especially true if you didn't do it.

In fact, the lineup is so important that courts have come up with a lot of rules about how the process should be done.

The Second Amendment protects the rights of most citizens to buy a gun, but some people are disqualified.

Chalk it up to yet another limit on the right to bear arms. But there isn't much you can do about it, so at least you can know what kinds of behavior would disqualify you.

The rules for buying guns are dictated by both state and federal law. To figure out the state limitations on who can buy a gun, you might have to ask a local attorney. But when it comes to federal restrictions, look no further.

Unless a sentence specifies that parole is not an option, at some point inmates become eligible to at least apply for parole.

Probation comes after the sentence is completed, but parole allows a person to serve the remainder of a sentence outside the prison. That kind of freedom comes with a lot of requirements and it's not available to everyone.

Just like criminal laws, the laws about parole vary by state. But while the specifics may change, the broad requirements are generally the same.