by Douglas Ankney

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reaffirmed its longstanding precedent that a District Court cannot sua sponte dismiss an untimely petition for a writ of habeas corpus without giving the petitioner prior notice and an opportunity to respond.

Background

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by Douglas Ankney

The Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District, reversed a superior court’s denial of Misael Padron’s motion to vacate his conviction for carjacking because he failed to “meaningfully understand, defend against, or knowingly accept” the immigration consequences of his plea.

Background

In …

by Douglas Ankney

The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine vacated Rochelle Gleason’s conviction for aggravated trafficking of a scheduled drug that caused the death of a person after applying the holding of Smith v. Arizona, 602 U.S. 779 (2024), in which the United States Supreme Court rejected the …

by Douglas Ankney

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts held that “art. 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights prohibits the police from executing an anticipatory search warrant absent compliance or equivalent compliance with the future triggering event, regardless of whether the factual allegations in the warrant affidavit …

by Douglas Ankney

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the untruthful responses of Namrata Patnaik and Kartiki Parekh on visa applications could still be found by a jury to be fraud if the government relied on those responses when deciding to issue …

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 …

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 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 …

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 …

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” …