by Douglas Ankney
The Court of Appeals of New York reversed Deshawn Deverow’s murder conviction after concluding the trial court’s evidentiary rulings deprived him of “a meaningful opportunity to present a complete defense.”
At 12:30 a.m. on December 29, 2012, a woman identified as B.M. called 911 to report that ...
by Douglas Ankney
In August of 2022, a Bronx district attorney dismissed 133 cases linked to disgraced former NYPD Narcotics Detective Joseph Franco. Franco, a 20-year-veteran of the NYPD, was hit with 26 criminal charges in 2019, resulting in the dismissal of 90 cases. As the corruption continued to ooze ...
by Douglas Ankney
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) upgraded its National Software Reference Library (“NSRL”) to make its data easier for law enforcement agencies to access in searches during criminal investigations.
As of March 2022, the dataset of the NSRL contained more than a billion “hash records.” ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Indiana held that trial courts are to follow the two-pronged definition of Trial Rule (“TR”) 26(B)(3) to determine whether a police report is protected from discovery by the work-product doctrine. In so doing, the Court expressly overruled State ex rel. Keaton v. Cir. ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas held that possession of a firearm by a convicted felon is a “circumstances offense;” consequently, simultaneously possessing multiple firearms is one offense.
Floyd Woods was charged by two indictments with the offense of unlawful possession of a firearm by a ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit remanded to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois for resentencing where that court’s inoculating statement regarding a potential Sentencing Guidelines miscalculation failed to satisfy the conditions enunciated in United States v. Abbas, 560 ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Michigan announced that a forfeited structural error automatically satisfies the third prong of the plain error standard without a showing of prejudice and creates a rebuttable presumption that the error seriously affected the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings.
On the ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that coram nobis relief is the appropriate remedy to achieve justice where the petitioner had completed service of the sentence imposed on conviction of offense for which he was actually innocent.
In November 2011, Brooks Prentice Lesane ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit clarified the framework for application of the minor-role adjustment of U.S. Sentencing Guideline (“U.S.S.G.”) § 3B1.2(b).
A man identified as “Gordo” overheard Jesus Ezequiel Rodriguez complaining that employment was hard to find during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gordo offered ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit clarified its uniform procedure for disposition of cases in which a plea agreement includes an appeal waiver and the defendant nevertheless files a notice of appeal.
Dinish Watson pleaded guilty to federal charges pursuant to the terms of ...
