by Dale Chappell
Refusing to uphold an unconstitutional death sentence, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held on March 22, 2023, that the State’s forfeiture of a procedural defense in a habeas corpus appeal could not be revived after a remand from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Over ...
by Dale Chappell
If you’re filing for post-convictionrelief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, getting the court to grant an evidentiary hearing is a big step toward getting that relief. Successful § 2255 motions are often based on claims asserting facts that are not in the record. Indeed, the primary purpose ...
by Dale Chappell
The slam dunk for federal habeas claims, if such a thing exists, would be a claim that successfully challenges the evidence in a criminal case. By tossing the unlawfully-obtained evidence, not only would the conviction be overturned, but the prosecution wouldn’t have a case for a new ...
by Dale Chappell
Believe it or not, someone proving they’re “actually innocent” of their criminal offense is not enough to win federal habeas corpus relief. That’s because actual innocence, by itself, is not a constitutional violation to allow for federal habeas relief. Instead, it’s only the first step toward relief, ...
by Dale Chappell
District court judges in the federal courts have always had judicial assistants, in addition to law clerks, helping with their caseloads. Long before magistrate judges became what they are today, they were called “commissioners,” who were basically lawyers hired on an as-needed basis.
But in 1958, Congress ...
by Dale Chappell
It’s long been said that a valid guilty plea goes a long way in barring post-conviction relief in the courts. While that can be true for challenges to the guilty plea itself, it’s often not true for challenges to a sentence resulting from that guilty plea. After ...
by Jacob Barrett and Dale Chappell
The general public’s familiarity with the government’s use of informants in criminal proceedings is largely confined to movies and TV documentaries. Yet, every year, the government negotiates tens of thousands of deals “off the record,” which are subject to few restrictions and have little ...
by Dale Chappell
In a decision that further narrows the federal habeas corpus remedy, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that a claim under a new, retroactive U.S. Supreme Court ruling to allow a second or successive (“SOS”) habeas petition was not ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”) held that a federal court may not extend the remedy it created over 50 years ago in Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), which authorized a lawsuit against federal officials based on alleged ...
by Dale Chappell
Expanding the savings clause yet again, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that the one-year time limit for filing a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 rendered the remedy “inadequate or ineffective” to invoke the savings clause and vacated an illegal sentence.
At ...
