by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Louisiana affirmed a district court’s holding that declared unconstitutional a state statute compelling registered sex offenders to carry identification emblazoned with the words “SEX OFFENDER.”
The State charged Tazin Ardell Hill with altering an official identification card to conceal his designation as a ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the special conditions of supervised release imposed by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas that barred Carlos Saul Becerra from using the Internet, computers, and other electronic devices for a period of ...
by Douglas Ankney
Legal Aid Chicago and Chapman and Cutler LLP launched a web application to help expedite the process of clearing criminal records of offenses that are eligible for expungement and sealing.
The Legal Aid Chicago Criminal Records Relief Petitions App (“App”) was built by Chapman’s practice innovations team ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that a probation officer’s warrantless search of a probationer’s cellphone was unreasonable where the probation officer did not have reasonable suspicion to justify the search.
Jason Fletcher was sentenced to five years’ probation after being convicted of ...
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 vehicle have ...
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.
Todd C. Engel ...
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 arrest.
Christopher ...
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 and was experiencing ...
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 defense counsel impliedly – rather than expressly – admits the defendant is guilty of a charged offense.
Anton Thurman McAllister repeatedly slapped his live-in girlfriend, Stephanie Leonard, outside a gas station. McAllister then forced Leonard back to their apartment. An attendant at the gas station reported the altercation.
Once inside the apartment, McAllister continued to hit Leonard and twice attempted to suffocate her. McAllister then forced Leonard into the bathtub where he washed the blood from Leonard’s body. Afterward, they went to bed and had sexual intercourse.
The following evening, officers located McAllister. He agreed to accompany the officers to the police station for a non-custodial interview. The interview was videotaped, during which McAllister stated he: (1) pushed Leonard to the ground outside the gas station, (2) backhanded her in the face, (3) smacked her in the lip, (4) grabbed her in the mouth, (5) bit her hand, and (6) “smacked [her] ass ...
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 (2005) – is unconstitutionally vague pursuant to Johnson v. United States, 576 U.S. 591 (2015), and a challenge to a sentence imposed under the residual clause may be collaterally raised via 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f)(3).
In 1997, Anthony M. Shea was convicted in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire, inter alia, of armed attempted bank robbery under 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a) and (d) (“Count 1”) and of using a firearm during a crime of violence [the armed attempted bank robbery] under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) (“Count 2”). But the district court also classified Shea as a “Career Offender” under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a)(2)’s residual clause based on Shea’s prior violent felony convictions for federal armed bank robbery and assault and battery on a police officer in Massachusetts.
Both U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a)(2) and the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. 924(e)(2)(B) (“ACCA”), defined “violent felony” as ...
