In a case of first impression, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that, where a defendant’s 28 U.S.C. § 2255 petition was not decided on the merits and the Court afterward recalled the mandate dismissing the direct appeal and affirmed the conviction, a subsequent § 2255 petition ...
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit granted Scott Lewis Rendelman’s motion for authorization to file a successive 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion based on the holding of the Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”) in Counterman v. Colorado, 600 U.S. 66 (2023), that the Government ...
The Supreme Court of Minnesota clarified the standard for determining whether a defendant is entitled to a jury instruction on self-defense and defense of others. Applying the clarified standard, the Court held that the district court erred by not providing the requested jury instructions and that the defendant is entitled ...
by Douglas Ankney
In March 2004, four commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, were bombed. Spain’s National Police recovered a blue plastic bag filled with detonators and traces of explosives. Forensic experts used the standard practice of fumigating the bag with vaporized superglue and staining it with fluorescent dye to reveal ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Connecticut held that the principles set forth in State v. Dickson, 141 A.3d 810 (Conn. 2016), cert. denied, 582 U.S. 922 (2017), regarding eyewitness identification apply retroactively on collateral review. In doing so, the Court also ruled that the “watershed rule” exception to ...
by Douglas Ankney
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina erred when it failed to make the requisite particularized findings required under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines (“U.S.S.G.”) § 1B1.3(a)(1)(B) before imposing the three-level enhancement under U.S.S.G. ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts held that when police secretly make a warrantless audiovisual recording of a suspect’s oral communication in violation of the state wiretap act, G.L.c. 272, § 99 P, the video footage must also be suppressed, not just the audio component, because the remedy ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District, vacated the sentence of Santiago Gonzalo Canales and remanded for resentencing because the trial court imposed an enhanced sentence under a “One Strike” law, § 667.61, that was enacted after the alleged crimes occurred.
Canales was charged by amended ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Nevada reaffirmed that theft offenses and possessing or receiving stolen property offenses are mutually exclusive, and double jeopardy protections precluded a defendant’s convictions for both offenses where charges stem from the same conduct.
Background
In February 2022, the home of Gavin Filarsky and ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Maryland held that when there is “some evidence” in the record to support a requested jury instruction on an evidentiary inference, the trial court is required to exercise its discretion to determine whether to give the instruction, and if the trial court refuses ...
