by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that Daniel Donald’s waiver of his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), was not valid where an interrogating officer answered “No” to Donald’s question: “None of this can be used against me, can it?” ...
by Douglas Ankney
In 2008, snitch Shahed Hussain worked as a paid informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”). Hussain met James Cromitie in the parking lot of a mosque in impoverished Newburgh, New York, where a large Muslim population resides. Cromitie, a small-time drug dealer was broke. Hussain ...
by Douglas Ankney
In April 2023, Myles Cosgrove was hired by the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department in Kentucky. But about three years earlier, Cosgrove was fired by the Louisville Police Department (“LPD”). Cosgrove had been one of the three officers who fired their guns during the ludicrous early-morning raid that ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Michigan held that Joshua Lamar-James Stewart’s age and his health, along with the timing of the police interrogation and the officers’ tactics that included promises of leniency, racial slurs, a combative tone, and misrepresentation of the evidence against Stewart rendered his statements involuntary ...
by Douglas Ankney
Protrusions that deviate from the boundaries of otherwise elliptical bloodstains—known as “tails”—may provide additional relevant crime-scene evidence, according to James Bird, scientist and co-author of a study appearing in the journal Physics of Fluids.
A group of scientists from Boston University and University of Utah demonstrated that ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Missouri made permanent its grant of a temporary writ of prohibition and ordered dismissal of the charges pending against Steven Wishom after the Jefferson Circuit Court failed to bring Wishom to trial on those charges within the 180-day limitations period of the Interstate ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that Ronald Rogers was denied effective assistance of counsel when his attorney sat silent after the trial judge admonished a prosecution witness that if he did not change his testimony to implicate Rogers, then the witness would ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, held that U.S. District Courts must either orally pronounce all discretionary conditions of supervised release, including those referred to as “standard” in U.S. Sentencing Guidelines (“U.S.S.G.”) § 5D1.3(c), in the presence of the defendant at sentencing ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of New Mexico held that the holding of State v. Marquez, 376 P.3d 815 (N.M. 2016), wherein the Court ruled that “the crime of shooting at or from a motor vehicle may not serve as the predicate felony in support of a felony murder ...
by Douglas Ankney
Traditionally, police officers are taught to take control of a volatile encounter, ensuring the safety of all officers present by approaching an unstable situation with weapons drawn. The underlying message is: “Make sure that you and your partner go home safe tonight.”
De-escalation training, by contrast, teaches ...
