by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois erred in conflating the scopes of the no-firearms condition of the “safety valve” of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) and the firearms enhancement of U.S. Sentencing Guidelines (“U.S.S.G.”) ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that Maryland’s first-degree assault statute, Md. Code, Art. 27 § 12A -1, is indivisible, and a conviction thereunder is not a “violent felony” for purposes of the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e).
In 2008, Garfield ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that John Miguel Swan’s guilty plea was not knowing and voluntary because “his plea counsel materially misrepresented his right to an impartial jury selected through racially nondiscriminatory means.”
While Swan was being arrested on a domestic violence ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of California held that a jury’s finding that Freddy Alfredo Curiel harbored the requisite intent to kill to find true a gang-murder special circumstance, standing alone, was insufficient for a trial court to find that Curiel had failed to state a prima facie case ...
by Douglas Ankney
A team of scientists from China’s Shanghai Normal University in collaboration with scientists from the United Kingdom’s University of Bath have developed a fluorescent spray that reveals fingerprints in seconds without compromising any potential DNA evidence. The dyes used in the spray are manufactured from “Green Fluorescent ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Court of Appeals of New York held that application of the Sex Offender Registration Act (“SORA”) to Marcus Brown violated his “due process rights by impinging on his liberty interest to be free of the improper designation and registration as a sex offender” because his offenses ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts extended the holding of Diatchenko v. District Attorney for the Suffolk Dist., 1 N.E.3d 270 (Mass. 2013) (sentence of life without parole for first-degree murder committed when defendant was under 18 years of age is unconstitutional), to defendants who are “emerging ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of New Jersey unanimously extended the investigative eyewitness identification safeguards of State v. Henderson, 27 A.3d 872 (N.J. 2011) (articulating a series of variables that can affect the reliability of eyewitness identification evidence and setting forth procedural safeguards), to pretrial preparation sessions and provided ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that an untimely notice of appeal (“NOA”) that provides a reason for the tardiness may serve as a motion to reopen and as a request for certificate of appealability (“COA”).
After Da’Rell Anton Winters’ appeals of his ...
by Douglas Ankney
In a case of first impression, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit announced that the categorical approach applies to the tier analysis of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”), 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a).
Michael Ryan Coulson was convicted by court martial of “forcible pandering” in violation of Article 120c(b) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (“UCMJ”), 10 U.S.C. § 920c(b) (2012). He subsequently failed to register as a sex offender in Iowa and pleaded guilty to violating SORNA. At his sentencing for the SORNA violation, Coulson argued that the categorical approach applied. And because his forcible pandering conviction is defined as forcible “prostitution,” which is further defined as “compelling another person to engage in sexual abuse or sexual contact” (10 U.S.C. § 920c(d)(1)), he argued it is a Tier I offense.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa determined that the categorical approach applied but also found that “the possibility of a prostitution conviction arising from mere sexual contact over the clothing was so unlikely as to be speculative or hypothetical.” The District Court determined that Coulson’s UCMJ conviction is comparable to sexual abuse, 18 U.S.C. § 2242, which is a Tier ...
