by Anthony W. Accurso
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona failed in its gatekeeping function when it allowed an ICE agent to testify on the probability of a Mexican drug cartel using a coerced truck driver …
by Anthony Accurso
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that subject matter expertise alone is insufficient to establish the purity of methamphetamines accurately to support a Guidelines enhancement.
Scott Carnell pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of meth under 21 U.S.C. …
by Anthony Accurso
The Supreme Court of New Mexico consolidated two cases on appeal to clarify the meaning of the terms “uniformed law enforcement officer” and “appropriately marked law enforcement vehicle” under N.M. Stat. Ann. 1978, § 30-22-1.1(A) (2003).
Roy D. Montano and William Daniel Martinez both were charged with …
by Anthony Accurso
Disturbing images were coming out of Portland, Oregon, where protesters were being arrested by camouflaged federal agents in unmarked vans and taken to undisclosed locations for “processing.” Lawmakers rightfully called this behavior reprehensible for its utter lack of transparency and similarity to tactics used by authoritarian dictators. …
by Anthony Accurso
Twitter-oriented startup Dataminr markets itself as offering an AI-enabled tool designed to identify “threats” in real-time by scanning Twitter posts. Reporting by The Intercept shows, however, that humans are scanning Twitter feeds and creating “alerts” based largely on racial stereotypes.
Dataminr’s early backers included Twitter and the …
by Anthony Accurso
The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (“EFF”) Senior Investigative Researcher Dave Maass has posted a 25-minute video titled “How To Observe Police Surveillance at Protests.” In it, Maass explains the visible and non-visible tools deployed against protesters.
First and foremost, anything with a camera can be used by police …
by Anthony Accurso
The Supreme Court of Mississippi held that a district court erred when it ordered a mistrial on all three counts of an indictment after the jury had returned an acquittal on two of the counts.
Johnathan Nickson was tried in mid-2018 on two counts of first-degree murder …
by Anthony Accurso
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed a lower court order denying defendant’s evidence suppression motion on the grounds that a photo, which provided very little identifying information, was insufficient grounds to stop and investigate.
On September 2, 2017, Jaquan Walker and Javone Hopkins …
by Anthony Accurso
The Supreme Court of Colorado, proceeding from original jurisdiction on appeal from a district court, held that the district court erred in denying a preliminary hearing to a defendant charged with a class 4 felony DUI simply because he was free on personal recognizance pending …
by Anthony Accurso
In a decision filed on August 26, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit vacated the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky’s order denying a prisoner’s motion for sentence reduction under the First Step Act because the court failed to …
