by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that Kelvin Brown’s disparate sentence of 30 years on two convictions for violating 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) created an “extraordinary and compelling reason” for his early release, and the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) sentencing factors overwhelmingly favored a sentence ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed Elliott B. Graham’s 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) conviction for “using a firearm during a crime of violence” because (1) the conviction was predicated upon a kidnapping conviction, (2) kidnapping is no longer considered a qualifying predicate crime of ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that a Fourth Amendment seizure occurred when an officer, with emergency lights activated, pulled in behind Jacob Boone Wright’s vehicle and almost simultaneously ordered him to remain in his car to which Wright sufficiently complied.
Officer Jakobsohn ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that because Ohio’s aggravated robbery statute, Ohio Revised Code § 2911.01(A), does not contain a mens rea requirement of knowing and purposeful use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force, a conviction under that statute can be ...
by Douglas Ankney
The people of Maine have made a bold step in corralling the “unaccountable power of fusion centers” with the passage of HP 947, An Act to Increase the Transparency and Accountability of the Main Information and Analysis Center. The Main Information and Analysis Center (“MIAC”) is ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Montana held that retroactive application of Montana’s Sexual or Violent Offender Registration Act (“SVORA”), as amended beginning in 2007, violates the ex post facto clause in Article II, Section 31, of the Montana Constitution.
Richard D. Hinman was convicted in 1994 of ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the abstention doctrine of Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (1971), is inapplicable where a petitioner moved for a stay of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition for writ of habeas corpus and that the petitioner ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of California reversed a judgment of the Court of Appeal (“COA”) and remanded because the COA incorrectly applied the harmless-error analysis of People v. Aledamat, 447 P.3d 277 (Cal. 2019), where the jury was instructed with both a legally valid theory and a ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit explained the “cause and prejudice” framework of Martinez v. Ryan, 566 U.S. 1 (2012), in the context of a federal habeas proceeding where a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel at trial (“Trial IAC”) in a state ...
by Douglas Ankney
A recent study by researchers from Arizona State University (“ASU”) “found that 85% of cartridge cases that were judged inconclusive by forensic firearm examiners were actually fired by two different guns. In an actual crime scene investigation, that would mean that the cartridge cases did not match ...
