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Articles by Anthony Accurso

USPS Reveals Social Media Surveillance Program

by Anthony W. Accurso

The United States Postal Service (“USPS”) has been running a semi-secret program monitoring social media site traffic, raising concerns about the purpose or authority for such a program surveilling American citizens.

First reported in April 2021 by Jenna Winter on Yahoo! News, the USPS had published ...

Rhode Island Supreme Court: Conclusory Statutory Language to Describe Purported Child Porn Image Used to Support Search Warrant Affidavit Invalidates Warrant

by Anthony W. Accurso

The Supreme Court of Rhode Island held that the search warrant used to search a defendant’s home was invalid because the officer’s failure to append the alleged child porn video or a still image thereof or even describe the material with anything other than conclusory language ...

Georgia Supreme Court Announces Merger Error Claims During Sentencing May Be Raised for First Time in Habeas Petition

by Anthony W. Accurso

THe Supreme Court of Georgia held that claims of merger error during sentencing may be raised for the first time in a properly filed habeas petition and are not procedurally barred by failure to raise such claims in the trial court or on direct appeal.

On ...

The Clash Between Closed-Source Forensic Tools and the Confrontation Clause

by Anthony W. Accurso

Technology companies and prosecutors are working together to assert the right of the companies to protect their intellectual property in ways that deny criminal defendants their right to challenge the reliability of forensic evidence in criminal proceedings. This assertion of intellectual property rights is done in ...

Wyoming Supreme Court: Fleeing Into Home After Traffic Offense Not Exigent Circumstance Justifying Warrantless Entry

by Anthony Accurso

The Supreme Court of Wyoming held that police lacked exigent circumstances required to justify warrantless entry to a suspect’s apartment where the suspect was fleeing arrest for a traffic offense.

Campbell County Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Kellison attempted to pull over an SUV that he noticed had no ...

Fourth Circuit: Sentence Vacated for Failure to Properly Analyze Leadership Role Factors

by Anthony Accurso

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia committed a procedural error where it applied a leadership role enhancement without performing the proper analysis.

Wayne Thomas Burnley was arrested one night in April 2015 ...

JusticeText Software Helps Defense Attorneys Review Audiovisual Evidence

by Anthony W. Accurso

JusticeText is new software designed specifically for defense attorneys and public defenders who are being overwhelmed by the amount of audio and video evidence they have to review when defending clients.

Devshi Mehrotra was nearing the end of her studies in computer science at the University ...

Wisconsin Supreme Court: Officer’s Retention of Driver’s License Without Reasonable Suspicion to Delay Until Arrival of Drug Dog Constitutes Unlawful Seizure

by Anthony W. Accurso

The Supreme Court of Wisconsin held that an officer who retained a motorist’s driver’s license without any reasonable suspicion of criminal activity—for the purpose of delaying until a drug dog arrived—effectuated an unlawful seizure.

Just after midnight on the evening of November 12, 2017, Sheboygan Police ...

Tenth Circuit: Warrant Authorizing Search for Items ‘Involved in Crime’ Violates Fourth Amendment’s Particularity Requirement, Not Saved by Doctrine of Severability

by Anthony W. Accurso

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that a search warrant authorizing seizure of “any item identified as being involved in crime” lacked sufficient particularity to be valid under the Fourth Amendment.

After a driver fired shots at a pedestrian during a verbal ...

Putting Police Use of Spy Tech Under Community Control

by Anthony W. Accurso

Community control over police departments has become a hot topic since the militaristic response of police departments to protests over the killing of George Floyd and other citizens. Part of that militaristic response has involved new surveillance technologies like drones, facial recognition software, and cell-site simulators. ...

 

 

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