by Dale Chappell
Every year, innocent people go to prison, or even death row, because of government informants who lie to get a good deal in their own criminal case. The problem, studies show, is the fact that this horse-trading between the informants and the government is largely informal, unregulated, ...
by Dale Chappell
Facebook recently told law enforcement to stop using fake accounts as a ruse to bust people on its service. The social media giant also shut down several law enforcement accounts that violated its policy against phony accounts.
The fake accounts came to light in a ...
by Dale Chappell
Months after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo granted voting rights to most of the state’s parolees, state election websites still say they cannot vote.
More than half the board of elections’ websites expressly state parolees in general cannot vote. In the list of disqualifications on the sites, ...
by Dale Chappell
Overruling its precedent, the Supreme Court of Montana held that venue is not a jurisdictional element and may be waived by a defendant. However, it also confirmed that the State is still required to prove jurisdiction beyond a reasonable doubt, which is not waivable.
Ryan Frankforter was ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that Tennessee third-degree burglary, as interpreted by the Tennessee Supreme Court, cannot qualify as generic burglary under the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”), granting 28 U.S.C § 2255 relief and vacating an 18-year ACCA sentence. In doing ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine held that double jeopardy barred the use of the same evidence used in a first trial that resulted in an acquittal on other charges during a second trial on a different charge.
John Weckerly was indicted in 2012 on, among other ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of Minnesota clarified the rule barring judicial “participation” in plea negotiations, overturning decades of decisions by the court of appeals, which had applied the wrong rule of law in such cases.
When Jetaun Wheeler was accused of murder, the State offered a plea to ...
by Dale Chappell
A study by Northwestern University concluded that by simply reassigning officers with the most citizen complaints could have saved the Chicago Police Department more than $6 million in lawsuit payouts between 2009 and 2014.
“The belief that a small number of officers are responsible for an outsized ...
by Dale Chappell
Citing constitutional problems if a petitioner is denied a remedy where defense counsel was ineffective, the Supreme Court of Iowa announced a new rule to allow a subsequent postconviction review (“PCR”) petition raising the same ineffective assistance of trial counsel (“IAC”) claim even after the statute of ...
by Dale Chappell
In a case where the State failed to prove the complete chain of custody of the evidence it relied on at trial, the Supreme Court of South Carolina ruled the evidence inadmissible and that the conviction had to be reversed.
After Timothy Pulley was stopped by two ...
