by David M. Reutter
For persons inexperienced with the criminal justice system, it seems incomprehensible that an innocent person would plead guilty. The threat of a trial penalty, however, pushes many innocents to do just that. The cases of Pamela Moses and Levonta Barker illustrate how prosecutors abuse their discretion ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of New Jersey held that a defendant’s youth may be considered only as a mitigating factor in sentencing and cannot support an aggravating factor as to whether the defendant would commit another offense under N.J.S.A § 2C:44-1(a)(3).
That holding was issued in an ...
by David M. Reutter
In a case of first impression in any circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), it was procedurally unreasonable for the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas to impose a harsher sentence upon a ...
by David M. Reutter
Success in having a court record expunged may shroud it from public records disclosure, but where one lives determines if there is a right to be forgotten. Some states have automatic expungement laws, but the right to be forgotten by the media is another matter entirely. ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of Michigan held that defense counsel was ineffective for failing to request a defense-of-others jury instruction for defendants who were on trial for home invasion and felonious assault.
Jeremiah and Micheline Leffew moved to Michigan in September 2017 and moved in with Jeremiah’s ...
by David M. Reutter
Prosecutors are empowered with unparalleled and nearly unchecked discretion in making charging and plea-bargaining decisions. Their decisions have been called a “black box” for their inscrutability. A recent study casts some light onto the how and why of those decisions.
The role of prosecutorial discretion has ...
by David M. Reutter
Systematic “lying at plea bargaining allows defendants the opportunity to negotiate fair resolutions to their cases in the face of a deeply unfair system, even as that lying makes way for—and sustains—the problematic system it seeks to avoid,” wrote Thea Johnson, an associate professor at Rutgers ...
by David M. Reutter
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held the Government violated a plea agreement by arguing for a sentence that exceed the Guidelines. It remanded for resentencing before a different district court judge.
The Court’s opinion was the second time the issue was before ...
by David M. Reutter
A counseled plea bargain is the fastest and most economical resolution to a criminal case. The American justice system has come to tolerate and encourage plea bargains because of these attributes. Recent studies, however, find that a defendant who enters a plea with the assistance of ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of Iowa reversed a conviction where the trial court allowed the prosecutor to amend an information at trial and abandon the original charge to bring a more severe charge.
The Court’s opinion was issued in an appeal by Jameesha Renea Allen after a ...
