by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held on April 28, 2020, that eligibility under the First Step Act’s retroactive application of the Fair Sentencing Act (“FSA”) applies to all crack-cocaine offenses “as a whole,” regardless of the amount of crack involved in the offense. ...
by Dale Chappell
In my last column, we went over the general standard for showing ineffective assistance of counsel (“IAC”) in the guilty plea context under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984).
In this column, we’ll go over the showing required to establish prejudice in the different categories ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held on April 20, 2020, that counsel’s erroneous advice that an open guilty plea without a plea agreement would allow an appeal of the denial of a motion to suppress evidence amounted to ineffective assistance of counsel (“IAC”), ...
by Dale Chappell
For the second time in the past year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned a decades-old murder conviction after the federal government admitted that it used faulty hair evidence to secure the conviction.
After almost 50 years of sitting in prison on a ...
by Dale Chappell
In an unusual move, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas rejected the typical remedy under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 and instead opted to grant a “judicial remedy” to allow an out-of-time appeal, where the Court found that counsel was ineffective for failing to ...
by Dale Chappell
The Court of Appeal of California, Fourth Appellate District, held on April 30, 2020, that the trial court abused its discretion when it denied a motion for compassionate release based upon considerations other than those set forth in Pen. Code § 1170, subd. (e).
The Department of ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held on April 8, 2020, that a prior conviction under Georgia’s terroristic threats statute was overbroad and therefore failed to meet the elements clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”).
Najee Oliver was sentenced as an armed ...
by Dale Chappell
A new law enacted in Oklahoma will crack down on unreliable jailhouse informants who testify against others in exchange for lenience in their own cases and sometimes for other benefits.
The law was sponsored by Senator Julie Daniels and Representative Chris Kannady, making Oklahoma the third state ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed habeas relief to two codefendants on April 29, 2020, after an Arkansas state prosecutor (now a state supreme court justice) intentionally destroyed evidence about favorable treatment for a jailhouse informant that influenced the jury’s verdict.
Over 30 ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held on April 23, 2020, that a retroactive change in law that rendered a career offender sentence erroneous required a district court to fix that error when resentencing under the First Step Act’s application of the Fair Sentencing ...
