More from this issue:

1. Probabilistic Genotyping on Trial: Can We Trust 
the Secret Algorithms Deciding Guilt?, by Michael Thompson
2. SCOTUS Announces Sentence ‘Has Not Been Imposed’ 
for Purposes of First Step Act Retroactivity Upon Resentencing When § 924(c) Offender Sentenced Prior to Act’s Enactment 
but Sentence Subsequently Vacated, by Richard Resch
3. Fifth Circuit Announces When Initial § 2255 Petition Not Decided on Merits and Appeals Court Later Recalls Mandate Dismissing Direct Appeal and Affirms Conviction, Subsequent § 2255 Petition Not ‘Second or Successive’ Under AEDPA, by Douglas Ankney
4. U.S. Sentencing Commission Adopts 2025 Amendments 
to Resolve Circuit Conflicts, by David Kim
5. The Flawed Science of Cannabis Impairment Detection: 
The Need for Evidence-Based Reform, by David Kim
6. Summary of the 2025 Drug Offenses Amendment 
by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, by David Kim
7. Tenth Circuit Announces Motor Vehicles Are Not Per Se Instrumentalities of Interstate Commerce Under Commerce Clause for Purposes of the Federal Kidnapping Statute, by David Kim
8. SCOTUS Announces Courts May Not Consider 
§ 3553(a)(2)(A)—Retribution—When Deciding Whether 
to Revoke a Term of Supervised Release, by Richard Resch
9. Nebraska Supreme Court Clarifies Procedure for Crediting 
Jail Time to Multiple Contemporaneously-Imposed Sentences, by Matthew Clarke
10. First Circuit: Prosecutor’s Breach of Plea Agreement 
Requires Government’s Specific Performance of Agreement, 
Not Specific Performance by District Court, by David Reutter
11. The Quiet Transformation of Government Data 
into a Mass Surveillance Tool, by David Kim
12. California Court of Appeal: Trial Court Misconstrued Elements 
of Implied Malice Theory of Provocative Act Murder Under Current Law and Reverses Denial of Petition for Resentencing, by Sagi Schwartzberg
13. Ninth Circuit: ‘Dominion and Control’ Provision of Search Warrant for Suspect’s Computer That Lacked Temporal or Other Limitation Constitutes General Warrant, by Anthony Accurso
14. Illinois Supreme Court Announces Conviction 
for Attempted First Degree Murder Requires 
‘Intent to Kill Without Lawful Justification, by Jeffrey Cohen
15. AI Honeypots: Police Are Using Chatbots to Pose 
as Teens and Sex Workers to Entrap Suspects, by Michael Thompson
16. The Arrival of REAL ID: National ID Cards 
and Internal Passports in America, by David Kim
17. Eleventh Circuit Announces Sixth Amendment Right to Proceed Pro Se at Sentencing if Defendant ‘Clearly and Unequivocally’ Expresses Desire to Do So After Faretta Inquiry, by Jeffrey Cohen
18. Beyond the City Limits: How Rural Sheriff’s Departments 
Are Driving the Spike in Police Killings, by David Kim
19. DEA’s Secret Phone Surveillance Program ‘Hemisphere’ 
Sparked Internal Warnings—Then a Cover-Up, by Charles "Keith" Wampler
20. Fourth Circuit Announces Sentencing Disparity 
Between Defendant and Co-Defendants Alone Constitutes ‘Extraordinary and Compelling’ Reason Sufficient 
to Justify Compassionate Release, by David Kim
21. News in Brief

More from Richard Resch:

• Formally Available, Rarely Granted: A State Prisoner’s Guide to Federal Habeas Relief, Sept. 1, 2026
• Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Announces Postconviction Forensic Testing Statute Permits Digital Forensic Analysis of Cellphones, Holding Chapter 278A Not Limited to Tangible Evidence Testable for Biological Material, Aug. 1, 2026
• Relevant Conduct: How Federal Sentencing Law Punishes More Than the Crime of Conviction, Aug. 1, 2026
• New Mexico Supreme Court Announces Article II, Section 10 Exclusionary Rule Governs Admissibility of Evidence Seized Outside State by Non-New Mexico Officers, Aug. 1, 2026
• Surveillance for Sale: The Data Broker Loophole and the Fourth Amendment After Chatrie, July 1, 2026
• Retroactive Guideline Amendments: The Narrow Path to a Federal Sentence Reduction, July 1, 2026
• SCOTUS Announces Accessing Google Location History Data Constitutes a Fourth Amendment Search, Holding That Neither Brief Duration Nor Third-Party Storage Negates Reasonable Expectation of Privacy in Cellphone Location Information, July 1, 2026
• Your DNA Was at the Scene, But You Weren’t: How Touch DNA Is Convicting the Innocent, June 1, 2026
• U.S. Sentencing Commission: 2026 Amendments to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, June 1, 2026
• SCOTUS Announces Sentencing Disparities Created by Nonretroactive Statutory Amendments Cannot Constitute Extraordinary and Compelling Reasons for Compassionate Release, June 1, 2026

More from these topics:

• Federal Habeas Quick Reference Guide for State Prisoners, Sept. 1, 2026. Retroactivity, Habeas Corpus, AEDPA, Actual Innocence/Claim of Innocence, Cause and Prejudice.
• Michigan Supreme Court Announces Betts Decision Invalidating 2011 SORA as Ex Post Facto Punishment Applies Retroactively to Defendants on Collateral Review, July 1, 2026. Sex Offender Registration, Retroactivity, Ex Post Facto, Constitution, state, Constitutional Challenges/Law.
• California Supreme Court Announces Amended § 1170(b) Applies Retroactively to Plea-Bargained Upper Term Sentences, July 1, 2026. Retroactivity, Sixth Amendment, Statutory Construction/Interpretation, Grounds For Withdrawal, Validity of.
• SCOTUS Announces Sentencing Disparities Created by Nonretroactive Statutory Amendments Cannot Constitute Extraordinary and Compelling Reasons for Compassionate Release, June 1, 2026. First Step Act, Mandatory Minimum Sentence, Statutory Construction/Interpretation, Sentencing Disparity, Compassionate Release.
• Eighth Circuit Dismisses Federal Prisoner’s Challenge to BOP Denying His Request for Expedited Transfer to Prerelease Custody, June 1, 2026. Release and Reentry, Habeas Corpus, First Step Act, Community Confinement/Home Detention, Credits.
• California Supreme Court Announces § 189(e)(2) Requires Nonkiller to Aid the Actual Killer in the Lethal Act, Resolving Appellate Split, May 1, 2026. Murder/Felony Murder, Resentencing, Essential Elements of Crime, Statutory Construction/Interpretation, Accessories and Accomplices.
• Fourth Circuit to BOP Prisoner: Any “Disqualifying Offense” Means Zero FSA Credits, April 1, 2026. First Step Act, Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Statutory Construction/Interpretation, Credits, Concurrent and Consecutive Sentences.
• Six Years of the First Step Act: Federal Prison Data Reveal Treatment Gains, Persistent Disparities, and Unanswered Questions, April 1, 2026. Racial Discrimination, Systemic Medical Neglect, First Step Act, Drug Treatment/Rehab, Confinement in Segregated Housing.
• Pennsylvania Supreme Court Announces Mandatory Life Without Parole for Felony Murder Unconstitutional Under State Constitution, Holding Article I, Section 13 Provides Broader Protections Than Eighth Amendment, April 1, 2026. Life without Parole (LWOP), Constitution, state, Constitutional Challenges/Law, Resentencing, Cruel and Unusual Punishment.
• Fourth Circuit Holds Federal Prisoner Does Not Earn First Step Act Time Credits While in Transit Between Prisons, March 1, 2026. Rehabilitation/Recidivism, First Step Act, Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Credits.