by Anthony Accurso
In a decision issued July 22, 2020, the Supreme Court of Minnesota ruled that Minnesota Statutes Section 609.27, subd. 1(4) (2018) (“the coercion statute”) is overbroad on its face, violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and must be struck in its entirety.
John Joseph Jorgenson ...
by Anthony Accurso
The Supreme Court of the State of Colorado reversed its earlier precedent and announced a new set of rules for determining when a defendant should be granted presentence confinement credit (“PSCC”).
Derick Wayne Russell was in community confinement following unrelated convictions in Jefferson County and Douglas County, ...
by Anthony Accurso
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle ruled that the FBI conducted an illegal search of a defendant’s phone by powering it on to inspect the lock screen, resulting in suppression of information obtained from the search.
Joseph Sam was arrested pursuant ...
by Anthony Accurso
A June 24, 2020, article in The New York Times by Kashmir Hill recounts the wrongful imprisonment of a Detroit man due to misuse of facial-recognition software.
In January 2020, Robert Julian-Borchak Williams was working at an automotive supply company when he received what he thought was ...
by Anthony Accurso
Minnesota officials have used a variety of digital surveillance tools to track protestors, but now they openly admit to using contact-tracing apps to do so.
According to Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington, officials in the state have been using contact-tracing to map protestor affiliations and movements. ...
by Anthony Accurso
Researchers have developed a new system that could be used to ensure that the evidence processed in a laboratory is the same evidence that was collected in the field (e.g., from a crime scene).
Engineers from Duke University and NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering have demonstrated a ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
SpyCloud, a company that collects private information on people, mostly info exposed through data breaches, sells access to its databases to anyone willing to pay for it, including law enforcement. While it currently operates in an area of law mostly untouched by precedent, people should be ...
by Anthony Accurso
A study from the UK found that triaging digital evidence can lead to oversights and misinterpretation when the process is not designed or implemented in a way that guards against such failures.
The data, published in the journal Policing and using data collected between January 2017 and ...
by Anthony Accurso
The Supreme Court of California reversed a judgment of the Court of Appeal by holding that a defendant need not be released from custody in order to demonstrate living an ‘‘honest and upright life,” a prerequisite to having his conviction expunged.
Misael Vences Maya was convicted of ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
Police departments are using the coronavirus pandemic to expand their use of surveillance tools in the name of public health and safety. Privacy advocates are concerned about the encroachment of the carceral state on civil liberties, especially in predominantly Black and Brown communities.
In New York ...
