by Dale Chappell
In a case where the same lawyer represented two codefendants and advised both to plead guilty, with one fingering the other, evidence showing a possible conflict of interest in counsel’s representation required an evidentiary hearing, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held. ...
by Dale Chappell
The Maryland Court of Appeals held that evidence of a valid prescription constitutes non-hearsay and is admissible as a “verbal act” when being admitted into evidence as the basis of a statutory defense.
In a case where most of the drugs involved those that would be legal ...
by Dale Chappell
In a rare move, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit found that a sentence imposed for a violation of probation in a child pornography case was “substantively unreasonable” and that the sentencing court failed to explain why it imposed such a heavy sentence. ...
by Dale Chappell
It took a jury just nine minutes to come back with a verdict of “not guilty” in the trial of a man charged with blaring the 1988 N.W.A. rap song in the direction of police performing a traffic stop at a gas station in Pontiac, Michigan. ...
by Dale Chappell
A Dallas County, Texas, judge who cops said would sign a blank warrant allowing them to do whatever they wanted was called into question by the District Attorney’s Office, which chose to drop the issue. But not before at least one case was dismissed because of ...
by Dale Chappell
In a case where defense counsel, the Government, and the court all dropped the ball and led a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 movant to believe he did not face the possibility of deportation, his guilty plea based on that advice is invalid, the U.S. Court of Appeals ...
by Dale Chappell
An experienced Kentucky trial attorney who found himself on the wrong end of counsel’s table was granted a new trial by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit after the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that he wasn’t entitled to the assistance of counsel simply ...
by Dale Chappell
It has been illegal for Los Angeles County to charge juveniles and their families the cost of their incarceration since 2009. But, until recently, the county kept trying to collect nearly $90 million from 52,000 accounts that still owed the $24.00 per day charge for time spent ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled that secretly recording the police in public is protected by the First Amendment and that a Massachusetts law forbidding such activity is unconstitutional.
When Boston police arrested Simon Glik for filming the police while they beat ...
by Dale Chappell
Reaching a conclusion that most people already knew, the New Jersey Judicial Commission issued a report finding that suspending someone’s driver’s license when they fail to pay a court fine does not work, and it makes it even harder to pay the fine.
The report faults the ...
