by Matt Clarke
Expunction of criminal records is a traditional method of protecting those falsely arrested, falsely convicted, or deemed deserving of a second chance after completing probation. But with the prevalence of mugshot sites and other Internet-based methods of disseminating public information, which are not subject to expunction ...
by Matt Clarke
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that neither the definition of “positional isomer” set forth in 21 C.F.R. § 1300.0l(b) nor the specific inclusion of ethylone as a positional isomer of the temporary-scheduled substance butylone on the ...
by Matt Clarke
The fatal shooting of a 7-year-old black girl who was riding in a car on a Houston highway, along with her mother and three sisters, is a tragedy that starkly illustrates the problems with eyewitness identification — unreliability.
Jazmine Barnes was struck by one of many ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Kentucky held that a court erred when it denied a death-sentenced prisoner’s post-conviction motion alleging intellectual disability without a hearing based solely on the prisoner’s IQ exceeding 70. It held that prevailing medical standards should always take precedence in a court’s ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Connecticut held that a criminal defense attorney was ineffective for waiting to convey to his client a plea-bargain offer until after it had been withdrawn two and a half days later.
Jennifer Helmedach was charged with felony murder and related crimes. She faced ...
by Matt Clarke
The NYPD’s practice of using a crime victim or witness’ description of a perpetrator to generate a search of the department’s mugshot database, often generating hundreds of hits, has caused controversy and resulted in wrongful arrests.
New York City resident St. Clair Steward, 43 ...
by Matt Clarke
Recently revealed internal training documents from the Bronx District Attorney’s Office show that prosecutors are being trained in courtroom techniques designed to delay trial, undermining defendants’ speedy trial rights and extending the pretrial incarceration of those unable to afford bail.
New York’s C.P.L ...
by Matt Clarke
Criminal Legal News and its sister publication, Prison Legal News, have long covered prosecutors’ use of questionable forensics and unscientific lab techniques to secure convictions [PLN Oct. 2010, p. l; Apr. 2015, p. l, and CLN Jan. 2018, p. l; July 2018, p. 36].
Reports ...
by Matt Clarke
On July 12, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ordered that habeas relief be provisionally granted in the case of a Pennsylvania death row prisoner whose attorney failed to sufficiently investigate and present mitigation evidence regarding his abusive childhood and mental ...
by Matt Clarke
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that an Ohio federal district court erred when it doubled a defendant’s cocaine-possession sentence from the recommended 60 months to 120 months based on an online news article on the increase in drug overdose deaths ...
