by David Kim
When a 4-month-old girl known to the public only as “Baby Kate” vanished from a small Michigan town in 2011, detectives eventually found themselves staring not at a crime-scene photograph or a cell-tower map, but at a smear of dried mud on the bottom of …
by David Kim
In an issue of first impression, the Opinion Announcing the Judgment of the Court (“OAJC”) concluded that a person who conducts general, unprotected internet searches has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the records generated by those searches under either the Fourth Amendment or Article …
by David Kim
The Supreme Court of Delaware held that when defense counsel moves to withdraw after a client expresses a desire to withdraw a plea, the trial court must resolve counsel’s motion before addressing the plea-withdrawal request, because plea-withdrawal proceedings are a critical stage at which the …
by David Kim
The Supreme Court of Iowa held that generalized expert testimony concerning psychological factors affecting eyewitness identification accuracy and witness confidence should “ordinarily” be admitted when a criminal prosecution relies in part or whole on eyewitness testimony. Providing the first guidance on the boundaries of trial …
by David Kim
he Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed the exclusion of expert testimony regarding Shaken Baby Syndrome/Abusive Head Trauma (“SBS/AHT”) in cases alleging shaking without impact, holding that the State failed to demonstrate the necessary general acceptance under the Frye standard. The Court reasoned that because …
by David Kim
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada’s dismissal of a federal habeas petition as untimely, holding that equitable tolling applied under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”) where …
by David Kim
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that while the abandonment doctrine applies to cellphones, courts must analyze the intent to abandon the physical device separately from the intent to abandon its data – and should not reflexively conflate the two. …
by David Kim
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that the one-year time limit for filing a sentence-reduction motion under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 35(b)(1) is a nonjurisdictional claim-processing rule that may be waived, overruling its decision in United States v. McDowell, …
by David Kim
The Supreme Court of Minnesota held that a buccal swab collected from a criminal defendant pursuant to a district court discovery order under Minnesota Rule of Criminal Procedure 9.02, subdivision 2(1)(f), rather than a search warrant, constituted an unconstitutional search requiring suppression of the resulting …
by David Kim
The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine held that waiver of the privilege against compelled self-incrimination under article I, section 6 of the Maine Constitution must be “clear and unequivocal,” and under this standard, the defendant did not waive his privilege because his responses during the …
