by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of the U.S. reinstated the death sentence of an Alabama man who had been convicted of murder. The Eleventh Circuit had reversed, in part, the conviction based on the incorrect claim that Alabama had established a categorical rule requiring post-conviction habeas corpus applicants claiming ...
A team of researchers at the University of Birmingham’s School of Psychology in the U.K. developed interactive lineup software that allows witnesses to view lineup photographs from different angles. They tested the software to see if it improved eyewitness identification and concluded that it may improve identification accuracy. They also discovered ...
The Supreme Court of Nebraska reversed a lower court’s denial of a criminal defendant’s motion for absolute discharge based on statutory speedy trial grounds.
A complaint was filed against Douglas P. Jennings in the county court for Douglas County, Nebraska, charging him with Class I misdemeanor stalking of his former ...
by Matt Clarke
Child abuse is the leading cause of trauma-related deaths in children. In 2017, around 3.5 million children were referred to social services due to reports of abuse and neglect; 1,720 of them died. Over 70% of those who died were not yet 3 years old. Yet physicians ...
by Matt Clarke
The Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District, Division Eight, held that a felony-murder conviction was invalid when guilt was determined prior to the enactment of Senate Bill 1437 (“SB 1437”), which was passed in the 2017-2018 regular session of the Legislature, but sentencing occurred after ...
by Matt Clarke
Two recent reports by the Proteus Fund and Greenpeace show that organizations associated with law enforcement—mostly police unions—are the main drivers of the unprecedented number of new anti-protest bills introduced in state legislatures in 2021.
When Connor Gibson undertook research for the Proteus Fund to see which ...
by Matt Clarke
On April 13, 2021, Police Chief Tim Gannon from Brooklyn Center, Minnesota (a city bordering Minneapolis), said he believed then-Police Officer Kim Potter’s fatal shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was unintentional. His sister, Diamond Wright, reacted by telling ABC News, “You don’t accidentally grab ...
by Matt Clarke
On March 25, 2021, the New York City Council voted to end qualified immunity for police officers. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he will sign the measure making New York the first city in the country to end the judicial doctrine that shields police ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Wisconsin held that a Wisconsin Department of Corrections (“DOC”) database of persons the DOC evaluated for civil commitment as a sexually violent predator (“SVP”) is subject to discovery in SVP commitment proceedings.
In 2016, the State petitioned a circuit court to commit Anthony ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Illinois held that a petitioner for a certificate of innocence under § 2-702(g)(3) of the Code of Civil Procedure need only prove innocence of the offense as it was originally charged, not every possible theory of criminal liability.
The apartment of William Helmbacher ...
