by Douglas Ankney
The New York Court of Appeals clarified when police may lawfully conduct traffic stops, explaining that “stopping a vehicle for a traffic infraction requires probable cause; stopping a vehicle for suspicion of criminal activity requires less: ‘reasonable suspicion that the driver or occupants of the …
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a defendant asking a single objectionable question, without more, was insufficient reason to justify the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada’s termination of the defendant’s right to represent himself at trial.
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by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed that the common-law right to resist an unlawful arrest continues to be the law in Georgia and announced that the right includes the right to use proportionate force against government property to escape from an unlawful detention following the …
by Douglas Ankney
According to a September 9, 2020, report from USA Today, Salt Lake City, Utah resident Golda Barton called police because her 13-year-old son Linden Cameron was having a mental health episode.
Barton told KUTV that she informed police that Cameron has Asperger’s syndrome …
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of North Carolina extended State v. Harbison, 337 S.E.2d 504 (N.C. 1985) (holding per se violation of defendant’s constitutional right to effective counsel when counsel concedes guilt to jury without defendant’s prior consent), to include cases where …
by Douglas Ankney
Bucking the trend among the majority of federal circuits, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit announced that the residual clause of U.S. Sentencing Guidelines (“U.S.S.G.” or “Guidelines”) § 4B1.2(a)(2) – when applied prior to United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 …
by Douglas Ankney
The Innocence Project of New York, along with the Cincinnati, Ohio, law firm of Gerhardstein & Branch (collectively “Plaintiff’s Counsel”), negotiated a settlement on September 14, 2020, wherein the Cincinnati Police Department (“CPD”) agreed to an unprecedented audit of its DNA-based homicide cases.
The …
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts affirmed an order of a trial judge requiring a district attorney to disclose to defense attorneys details of misconduct by two police officers that were disclosed during the immunized testimony of the officers before a grand jury.
In …
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated Seneca Harrison’s sentence because the judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri interfered with plea negotiations and made disparaging remarks about the federal judiciary.
The Government offered Harrison a …
by Douglas Ankney
Division One of the Fourth Appellate District of the California Court of Appeal reversed Rene Quintanilla, Jr.’s murder conviction because the Superior Court allowed as evidence the deceased’s out-of-court statements under the hearsay exception in Evidence Code § 1390.
Quintanilla killed his live-in girlfriend …
