by Dale Chappell
Missouri Governor Mike Parson signed into law in early July reforms to the state’s sentencing and parole laws that may help hundreds of prisoners obtain early release. The new measures allow prisoners convicted of nonviolent offenses the chance for earlier parole and could make some prisoners eligible ...
by Dale Chappell
After the case had been sitting in the courts for seven years, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina granted relief under the “savings clause” of 28 U.S.C. § 2255, vacating a mandatory life sentence.
Ian Persaud filed his savings clause petition back ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held on August 2, 2019, that the failure of a state court to notify a petitioner that his state habeas petition was denied tolls the one-year clock for filing his federal habeas corpus petition, excusing an 18-month delay ...
by Dale Chappell
Finding that a South Carolina state court violated a state pre-trial defendant’s right against double jeopardy by granting a mistrial when the State wasn’t prepared for trial, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit granted federal habeas relief on June 21, 2019, barring retrial.
Broderick ...
by Dale Chappell
Thanks to technology, judges’ decisions in the thousands of sentences they impose each year get isolated in an unsearchable database called PACER — Public Access to Court Electronic Records. While the public may be able to access a judge’s sentencing decision on PACER, they can only do ...
by Dale Chappell
A public records request by the Chicago Tribune found that the Chicago Police Department has been doing background checks and creating files on citizens who speak at weekly meetings of the city’s police disciplinary board. A police spokesman admitted it goes back to at least 2018.
Documents ...
by Dale Chappell
In a case applying a newly minted U.S. Supreme Court decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that an appeal waiver in a plea agreement did not relieve counsel of his duty to consult with his client about filing an appeal.
When the ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California granted postconviction relief on June 12, 2019, to a federal prisoner serving a mandatory life sentence, holding that the so-called “residual clause” of the federal three-strikes law is unconstitutional.
The case came before the Court in a ...
by Dale Chappell
In a case that may have lowered one of the hurdles erected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to stop the flow of relief being handed to federal prisoners under Johnson v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 2551(2015) (“Johnson 2015”), the Court held ...
by Dale Chappell
A sharply divided Supreme Court of the United States narrowly held on June 26, 2019, that the revocation provision of the federal sex offender supervised release statute is unconstitutional because it violates the right to trial by jury under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments – so a ...
