by Matt Clarke

The New York Court of Appeals held that the prosecution’s failure to turn over fundamental discovery items that were in its possession and control prior to filing a Certificate of Compliance (“COC”) with its statutory disclosure obligations pursuant to Criminal Procedure Law (“CPL”) 245.50(1), (3) rendered the ...

by Matthew T. Clarke

There is nothing new about corporations that produce technology designed to enable law enforcement surveillance (snoop tech) composing press releases for law enforcement that promote both the brand and the equipment. There is also nothing new about media quoting at length from the snoop-tech-provided releases as ...

by Matthew Thomas Clarke

The Human Rights Committee (“HRC”) of the United Nations, an independent body that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”), issued a report on its review of U.S. compliance with ICCPR, which is one of only four human rights treaties ever ...

by Matt Clarke

Millions of people have submitted oral cheek (buccal) swab samples to companies like 23andMe and Ancestry hoping to use their DNA to trace their ancestors and locate relatives in a process known as genetic genealogy. By comparing their DNA to that of other customers, the companies can determine whether, and to what degree, two customers are related. By comparing the DNA to that of known historic figures and their descendants, the companies can determine whether a customer has a famous ancestor. It is also possible to determine what geographic regions the customers’ ancestors came from and susceptibility to some diseases.

More recently, law enforcement has been using the information in the same genetic genealogy companies’ databases to establish the identity of unidentified human remains (“UHR”) and identify suspects using DNA collected at a crime scene. This “off-label” use of genetic genealogy, known as forensic genetic genealogy (“FGG”) or investigative generic genealogy, has been used to solve decades-old cold cases. FGG has also raised a red flag about the privacy of information stored in massive databases by internet-based companies

What Is DNA?

DNA is a complex molecule made up of chemical units known as nucleotides. Only four ...

by Matthew T. Clarke

A report published in January 2024 by the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey School of Law revealed that false positives in presumptive field test used in drug arrests are one of the most common, and possibly the most common, cause of wrongful arrests and convictions. The report, entitled “Guilty Until Proven Innocent: Field Drug Tests and Wrongful Convictions,” utilized a nationwide survey of law enforcement agencies and forensic drug labs to make its determinations.

Using data from the survey and national estimates of drug arrests, the report estimates the impact of (1) false positives in field drug tests on wrongful arrests, (2) racial inequity in arrests, (3) the subsequent prosecutions, and (4) criminal convictions. It reported that approximately 773,000 of the over 1.5 million annual U.S. drug arrests involve the use of color-based presumptive field tests. Although the exact error rate for the tests is unknown because they require a subjective determination by the arresting officer, available data suggest around 30,000 people are arrested in the U.S. each year due to false positives of the field tests.

“Presumptive field drug test kits are known to produce ...

by Matt Clarke

The National Institute of Justice and independent research consultant Dr. John Morgan collaborated “to analyze and describe the impact of forensic science on erroneous convictions that the National Registry of Exonerations classified as being associated with ‘false or misleading forensic evidence.’ … Findings from this work led ...

by Matt Clarke

The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine reversed a defendant’s domestic violence conviction after finding her attorney was ineffective for opening the door to prejudicial evidence about her parenting and failing to object to the prosecutor’s improper introduction of evidence about having a child removed from her home. ...

by Matthew Clarke

The Supreme Court of Nebraska held that a term of probation cannot be extended beyond its expiration date based on the mere fact that an Information for Revocation of Probation (“IRP”) had been filed and a revocation hearing could not reasonably be scheduled prior to the expiration ...

by Matt Clarke

The Court of Appeal of California, Sixth Appellate District, issued an opinion reversing a trial court’s refusal to apply Senate Bill (“SB”) 483 to a previously-remanded sentence. It also held that the trial court was not required to strike a prior serious felony enhancement.

An 86-count indictment ...

by Matt Clarke

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that the policies and practices of Wayne County, Michigan, in pursuing the civil forfeiture of vehicles seized by police violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause because prosecutors took months to decide whether to proceed with forfeiture ...