by Douglas Ankney
On an issue upon which the circuits are split, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that district courts may consider the First Step Act’s (“FSA”) non-retroactive changes to sentencing law, in conjunction with other factors specific to the individual defendant, when deciding whether ...
by Douglas Ankney
According to a September 2022 report from AP News, law enforcement agencies from suburban Southern California to rural North Carolina are using an obscure cellphone tracking tool known as “Fog Reveal” that enables the cops to follow people’s movements months back in time. As of September 2022, ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island’s denial of habeas relief where the court found reversible error under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986) (defendant may challenge prosecutor’s peremptory strike of prospective ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that district courts must provide habeas petitioners with notice and an opportunity to be heard before dismissing a habeas petition sua sponte (on its own motion) based upon the limitation of Fourth Amendment claims enunciated in Stone ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed an order of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana that denied absolute immunity to District Attorney Scott Perrilloux and Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Detective Marlon Foster in a suit alleging they fabricated evidence in ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that substantive reasonableness review applies to all proceedings under § 404 of the First Step Act of 2018 (“FSA”), regardless of whether the motion is granted or denied.
In February 2009, the U.S. District Court for the ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed two money judgments totaling $62.5 million after holding Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32.2(b) (“Rule 32.2(b)”) is a mandatory claims-processing rule with which the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky and the Government failed ...
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
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
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 ...
