by Douglas Ankney
Due to the monumental increase in the number of appeals of bond decisions, the Illinois Supreme Court adopted new appellate rules recommended by a five-person taskforce (“Taskforce”). The Pretrial Fairness Act (“PFA”), implemented in April of 2023, allows pretrial detainees to appeal district courts’ decisions regarding conditions for release. Under the PFA, whether a person remains detained prior to trial is based on, inter alia, whether the person is a flight risk, a danger to the community, and the charges faced by the person. Each of these determinations by the judge may now be appealed.
Prior to enactment of the PFA, a bond was set by the judge. Infrequently, about 17 times each year according to the Taskforce, an appeal of the bond decision was sought. But under the PFA, the number of appeals was projected to total 4,557 annually. And in the five months following the PFA’s enactment, about 1,900 appeals have already been filed.
“That’s just too much of a change in too short of a time,” said Justice Eugene Doherty of the Fourth District Appellate Court and Taskforce member. Among the Taskforce’s recommendations adopted by the Supreme Court …
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois erred in conflating the scopes of the no-firearms condition of the “safety valve” of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) and the firearms enhancement of U.S. …
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that Maryland’s first-degree assault statute, Md. Code, Art. 27 § 12A -1, is indivisible, and a conviction thereunder is not a “violent felony” for purposes of the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”), 18 U.S.C. § …
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that John Miguel Swan’s guilty plea was not knowing and voluntary because “his plea counsel materially misrepresented his right to an impartial jury selected through racially nondiscriminatory means.”
While Swan was being arrested on …
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of California held that a jury’s finding that Freddy Alfredo Curiel harbored the requisite intent to kill to find true a gang-murder special circumstance, standing alone, was insufficient for a trial court to find that Curiel had failed to state a prima …
by Douglas Ankney
A team of scientists from China’s Shanghai Normal University in collaboration with scientists from the United Kingdom’s University of Bath have developed a fluorescent spray that reveals fingerprints in seconds without compromising any potential DNA evidence. The dyes used in the spray are manufactured from …
by Douglas Ankney
The Court of Appeals of New York held that application of the Sex Offender Registration Act (“SORA”) to Marcus Brown violated his “due process rights by impinging on his liberty interest to be free of the improper designation and registration as a sex offender” because …
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts extended the holding of Diatchenko v. District Attorney for the Suffolk Dist., 1 N.E.3d 270 (Mass. 2013) (sentence of life without parole for first-degree murder committed when defendant was under 18 years of age is unconstitutional), to defendants who …
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of New Jersey unanimously extended the investigative eyewitness identification safeguards of State v. Henderson, 27 A.3d 872 (N.J. 2011) (articulating a series of variables that can affect the reliability of eyewitness identification evidence and setting forth procedural safeguards), to pretrial preparation sessions …
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that an untimely notice of appeal (“NOA”) that provides a reason for the tardiness may serve as a motion to reopen and as a request for certificate of appealability (“COA”).
After Da’Rell Anton Winters’ …
