by Richard Resch
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held the Government breached its plea agreement with the defendant by advocating against an agreed-upon reduction for acceptance of responsibility under U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1.
Tommy Collins pleaded guilty on February 7, 2020, to sex trafficking …
by Richard Resch
The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas announced that the inference-of-falsity framework set forth in Ex parte Coty,418 S.W.3d 597 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014), applicable to state-actor lab technicians and forensic scientists, also applies to cases involving police officers with a proven history of …
by Richard Resch
The Supreme Court of the United States held that the “favorable determination” requirement for a Fourth Amendment claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for malicious prosecution does not require the plaintiff to show that the prosecution ended with some“affirmative indication of innocence.” A showing that …
The Court of Appeal of California, Sixth Appellate District, held the trial court erred by admitting incriminating post-Miranda statements obtained through the use of pre-Miranda statements in a deliberate strategy to circumvent Miranda through the use of a two-step interrogation in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth …
by Richard Resch
In a 9-0 opinion delivered by Justice Kagan, the Supreme Court of the United States held that defendant’s 10 burglary convictions for burglarizing 10 separate storage units all located within the same building constituted a single “occasion,” not 10, for purposes of the Armed Career …
by Richard Resch
In an 8-1 opinion written by Justice Sotomayor, the Supreme Court of the United States held that a trial court’s admission of unconfronted testimonial hearsay evidence because the trial court believed it was reasonably necessary to correct a misleading impression caused by the defendant’s presentation …
by Richard Resch
Periodically, it seems the public (and especially those cops with an authoritarian bent) need a friendly reminder of this. The Eighth Circuit recently obliged.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed a $15,001 award for damages and attorney’s fees in a …
by Richard Resch
Introduction
The criticism and outrage at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s June 30, 2021, decision to vacate Bill Cosby’s convictions, order his immediate release, and bar any retrial are largely ill-informed or just plain misguided. Those decrying the fact that Cosby got released on a …
by Richard Resch
For virtually every person who’s seen the horrifying video of George Floyd’s final moments, his killing feels qualitatively different than the countless other police killings of unarmed individuals that plague America. True, there have been many others that were captured on video, and many involved …
by Richard Resch
As regular readers of Criminal Legal News (“CLN”) will notice, we’ve increased the page count from 48 to 56 pages beginning with this issue. There’s no change in subscription prices, only the number of pages per issue. This is a permanent …
