by Douglas Ankney
In a case of apparent first impression within the circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a district court’s decision that set aside a guilty verdict in a case where the jury rendered irreconcilably inconsistent verdicts.
A jury found Janine Plaza Pierce guilty ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed a district court’s conditional grant of a petition for writ of habeas corpus on grounds that the state court violated the petitioner’s right to present a complete defense when it excluded two exculpatory statements.
When Parish Hickman ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Washington affirmed the warrantless search of Bisir Bilal Muhammad’s real-time cell-site location information (“CSLI”) based on exigent circumstances. However, the Court also held that Muhammad’s convictions for first-degree felony murder predicated on rape and for first-degree rape violated double jeopardy.
In November 2014, ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that the general threat of harm required in every bank robbery under 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a) does not justify the two-level “threat-of-death” enhancement of U.S.S.G. § 2B3.1(b)(2)(F).
In March 2017, an unarmed Roberto Arturo Perez entered a ...
By Douglas Ankney
In a case of first impression, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that compelling a suspect to disclose the access password to his lawfully seized, but encrypted, personal computer violates the Fifth Amendment’s privilege against self-incrimination.
In 2015, agents from the Office of the Attorney General (“OAG”) ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Washington announced procedural rules for trial courts to follow when a post-verdict motion for new trial alleges implicit racial bias of a juror or jurors.
The day after Tomas Mussie Berhe was convicted of murder and other crimes, Juror 6 contacted the trial ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Indiana announced the analytical framework for courts to use when determining whether a punitive in rem forfeiture violates the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. [Note: An action in rem is brought against “a thing or property” as ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that a district court violated the Ex Post Facto Clause when it applied the 2016 Guidelines Sentencing Manual to an ungrouped offense committed in 2001. This case of first impression in the First Circuit “concerns the interaction ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Tennessee reversed Brandon Cole-Pugh’s conviction because the trial court refused to instruct the jury on the defense of necessity.
According to witness Michael Douglas, while Cole-Pugh was inside The Gold Line Market, he saw that a Ms. Thomas was arguing with two men. ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the judgment of a district court that denied safety-valve relief under U.S.S.G. §§ 5C1.2 and 2D1.1(b)(17) to Nestor Barron.
In July of 2017, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at the residence of Lara Salas in ...
