by David Kim
The Supreme Court of Oregon, sitting en banc, held that Oregon Rule of Civil Procedure (“ORCP”) 59 B, which applies in criminal cases through ORS 136.330, requires a trial court, at the conclusion of trial and before the jury retires to deliberate, to orally state …
by David Kim
The Supreme Court of Colorado, sitting en banc, unanimously held that the prosecution’s second pretrial appeal, challenging a county court evidentiary ruling under CRE 401, 402, and 403, did not qualify as an “interlocutory appeal” under Colorado’s speedy trial statute because the prosecution’s assertion that …
by David Kim
The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas reversed a suppression order and held that a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel terminates when charges are dismissed, rejecting the argument that the right persists indefinitely after a grand jury no-bill. The Court clarified that its prior …
by David Kim
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the denial of a defendant’s motion to suppress and vacated his guilty plea, holding that a U.S. Forest Service officer exceeded the permissible scope of a traffic stop by abandoning the stop’s stated purpose …
by David Kim
The Supreme Court of California held that Penal Code § 189, subdivision (e)(2) requires a nonkiller participant in a qualifying felony to have aided or abetted the actual killer in the lethal act itself. Proof of aiding the underlying felony alone is insufficient to sustain …
by David Kim
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that the “presence or view” language found in multiple warrantless-arrest statutes requires an officer to actually perceive the offense through his or her senses, and an officer who arrives at a crash scene 40 minutes after the fact …
by David Kim
The Supreme Court of Louisiana held that when a defendant on collateral review alleges defense counsel prevented him from testifying, the claim must be evaluated under the two-prong standard set forth in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984), requiring proof of deficient performance and …
by David Kim
The Supreme Court of Connecticut unanimously held that a prosecutor’s Brady obligations may extend to impeachment information about a State witness known within the same State’s Attorney’s Office, even when it arose in an unrelated case. The Court rejected the Appellate Court’s conclusion that the …
by David Kim
Introduction: A Booking Procedure That Does Not End at Booking
In late January 2026, a Minneapolis resident identified only as Ben drove with his wife to a street where federal immigration officers had been spotted. He stood on the sidewalk and filmed. According to …
by David Kim
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts unanimously held that amending an indictment to change the subsection of the aggravated child rape statute under which a defendant was charged constituted an impermissible substantive amendment that violated Article 12 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. Reversing the …
