by Jessica Brand and Callie Heller, The Appeal
This explainer was produced by The Appeal, a nonprofit criminal justice news site.
In August 2018, the state of Tennessee executed Billy Ray Irick, the first man executed in the state since 2009. He had spent over 30 years on death row. ...
by Chad Marks
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled that a police officer’s continued interrogation after the accused told the interrogator he was done talking violated his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, requiring suppression of both his confession and derivative physical evidence.
On August 7, 2015, Joshua Michael Lukach ...
by Attorneys Kent Russell and Tara Hoveland
This column provides “Habeas Hints” to prisoners who are considering or handling habeas corpus petitions as their own attorneys (“in pro per”). The focus of the column is on “AEDPA,” the federal habeas corpus law, which now governs habeas corpus practice in courts ...
by Matt Clarke
Across the United States, cities are adopting ordinances that effectively criminalize homelessness. The behavior banned includes: sitting, lying down, or placing property on a sidewalk; camping or sleeping in public (including in a vehicle); standing on a roadway median; blocking a sidewalk; loitering; panhandling; and sharing food ...
by Dale Chappell
In a case where the State failed to prove the complete chain of custody of the evidence it relied on at trial, the Supreme Court of South Carolina ruled the evidence inadmissible and that the conviction had to be reversed.
After Timothy Pulley was stopped by two ...
by Chad Marks
In December 2018, President Trump signed the bipartisan First Step Act into law. It’s the most substantial change in a generation to the tough-on-crime prison and sentencing laws that have cost taxpayers billions of dollars and destroyed countless families, sending many non-violent offenders to prison for decades ...
by Ed Lyon
As most jurisdictions do from time to time as need dictates, they change or even completely overhaul appellate procedures, evidentiary rules, and various codes. In 1971, New York state adopted a new Criminal Procedure Law (“CPL”) to replace its aged Code of Criminal Procedure (“CCP”).
In February ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated a drug defendant’s sentence because the district court may have misinterpreted United States Sentencing Guideline (“USSG”) § 3B1.2 and Amendment 794, which allow a court to make a Guidelines adjustment when a defendant played a minor ...
by Dale Chappell
Citing constitutional problems if a petitioner is denied a remedy where defense counsel was ineffective, the Supreme Court of Iowa announced a new rule to allow a subsequent postconviction review (“PCR”) petition raising the same ineffective assistance of trial counsel (“IAC”) claim even after the statute of ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated a prisoner’s sentence because the district court improperly found that Georgia robbery qualified the defendant for the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines career offender designation. The Court sent the case back to the lower court for resentencing.
In 1992, ...
by Chad Marks
The Supreme Court of Washington ruled that the effective date of a certificate of discharge (“COD”) for an offender who is not in Department of Corrections (“DOC”) custody at the time the sentence is completed is the date the offender completes all requirements of the sentence.
Waylon ...
by Dale Chappell
A study by Northwestern University concluded that by simply reassigning officers with the most citizen complaints could have saved the Chicago Police Department more than $6 million in lawsuit payouts between 2009 and 2014.
“The belief that a small number of officers are responsible for an outsized ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of Minnesota clarified the rule barring judicial “participation” in plea negotiations, overturning decades of decisions by the court of appeals, which had applied the wrong rule of law in such cases.
When Jetaun Wheeler was accused of murder, the State offered a plea to ...
by Ed Lyon
The 1970s television show S.W.A.T., along with its resurrection in the movie and TV show by the same name, portrayed police officers in Special Weapons and Tactics (“SWAT”) units as top cops doing a difficult (yet occasionally required) necessary-but-evil job.
According to the conclusions of a recent ...
by Matt Clarke
The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the proper test for whether a district court should hold a pretrial hearing on a motion challenging the seizure of assets is whether the defendant has sufficient unseized assets to pay the reasonable costs of retaining his choice of ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia ruled that a prosecutor’s recommendation that sentences should be served consecutively violated a plea agreement requiring the State to “remain silent on a recommendation at sentencing.” The Court vacated the sentence and remanded the case for resentencing before a ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine held that double jeopardy barred the use of the same evidence used in a first trial that resulted in an acquittal on other charges during a second trial on a different charge.
John Weckerly was indicted in 2012 on, among other ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that Tennessee third-degree burglary, as interpreted by the Tennessee Supreme Court, cannot qualify as generic burglary under the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”), granting 28 U.S.C § 2255 relief and vacating an 18-year ACCA sentence. In doing ...
by Derek Gilna
Corrine Franklin, who pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in Missoula, Montana, Municipal Court, was assessed a $25 surcharge by the City of Missoula, earmarked for a fund for the City Attorney’s Office. She objected to that surcharge, and on September 11, 2018, the Montana Supreme Court agreed ...
by Douglas Ankney
On December 7, 2018, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin reversed a decision of the court of appeals that affirmed a circuit court’s denial of a motion to suppress. The Court ordered the challenged evidence be suppressed and instructed the circuit court to vacate the convictions.
In December ...
by Richard Resch
Unreliable bitemark identification evidence used in criminal cases has led to 31 exonerations, forensicmag.com reports.
“The unsupported comparison of such bite marks left in human skin during rapes, murders and other violent attacks should be totally thrown out of forensic science,” says the magazine, citing a scholarly ...
by Douglas Ankney
On December 5, 2018, the Court of Appeal of California, Fourth Appellate District, ruled that a commissioner may not preside over a parole revocation hearing absent a stipulation by the parties.
In June 2017, Brandon Berch was accused of violating his parole. Berch objected to Commissioner Edward ...
by Dale Chappell
Overruling its precedent, the Supreme Court of Montana held that venue is not a jurisdictional element and may be waived by a defendant. However, it also confirmed that the State is still required to prove jurisdiction beyond a reasonable doubt, which is not waivable.
Ryan Frankforter was ...
by David Reutter
The Supreme Court of Georgia granted a habeas corpus petition and held there was insufficient evidence of asportation to support the kidnapping charges of appellant Jessie Mercer.
Mercer was convicted in 2004 of kidnapping Richard and Parchando Love. He also was convicted of armed robbery and two ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that a defendant previously convicted of aggravated sexual battery in Tennessee should not have been classified as a Tier III sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”). The June 8, 2018, opinion vacated ...
by Chad Marks
The Supreme Court of Nevada ruled that a trial court’s failure to properly conduct the three-step Batson analysis when a prospective juror is allegedly dismissed on the basis of race constitutes a structural error necessitating a new trial.
Gregory Anthony Williams was convicted of six counts of ...
by Chad Marks
The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas ruled that defense counsel’s actions conceding guilt against defendant’s express wishes during trial violated his Sixth Amendment rights under McCoy.
Albert Turner was charged with the December 2009 killing of both his wife and mother-in-law. His 12-year-old daughter witnessed the ...
by Chad Marks
Yehudi Manzano, a man in his 30s, was charged with producing and transporting child pornography. Manzano allegedly recorded a sexual encounter with his teenage sex partner. He then saved that video and sent it to and from his own phone.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Connecticut brought ...
by Derek Gilna
Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) agents apparently supplied suspected cocaine-traffickers with smartphones that the users thought were encrypted but instead were modified with eavesdropping technology.
According to Human Rights Watch (“HRW”), it is unknown how often the DEA or other federal agencies have utilized this technique. However, the ...
by Derek Gilna
A U.S. senator has added his voice to those of privacy experts who have expressed concern about the use of cell-site simulators (“CSSs”) also known as “Stingrays.” According to a letter written by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon to then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, “I write ...
by Mark Wilson
The Supreme Court of Montana held that a municipal court violated state and federal double jeopardy prohibitions when it declared a mistrial and ordered a new trial.
James Joseph Huertas was charged in Billings Municipal Court with Partner or Family Member Assault (“PFMA”). The victim was identified ...
by Ed Lyon
During our nation’s formative years, Native Americans faced subjugation and betrayal by the U.S. government. They were torn away from their land and assigned tracts called reservations. Whenever a reservation became valuable because of mineral deposits or a new railroad route, the government would abrogate its treaty ...
by Virginia Griese
The new year brings an end to an archaic Jim Crow-era law in Louisiana that allowed split juries in criminal cases. Felony convictions or acquittals in the state now require unanimous jury decisions, thanks to voters in Louisiana approving constitutional Amendment 2.
Before the November 6, 2018 ...
by Derek Gilna
The recent investigation and arrest of the suspect in the 2018 mail bomb incidents targeting Democratic and liberal figures have focused attention on a virtually unknown federal government surveillance program that has caught the attention of privacy experts.
The so-called “mail cover” program carried out by the ...
by Virginia Griese
The use of private, gun-carrying university campus police is raising concerns about the accountability and transparency of these forces.
“No Justice/ No Peace/ No Private Police” was the chant that protesters used at the Maryland General Assembly in spring 2018 when Johns Hopkins University announced its support ...
by Ed Lyon
Duke University’s Institute of Brain Sciences recently partnered with the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation to study the effect of crime severity on jurors’ psyches prior to hearing evidence. The study’s full results were published in the October 29, 2018, issue of Nature Human ...
by Betty Nelander
Washington Governor Jay Inslee aims to nip draconian marijuana incarceration in the bud — at least for those behind bars for possessing a small amount of it.
“We shouldn’t be punishing people for something that is no longer illegal in Washington state,” he tweeted. “It is time ...
by Kevin Bliss
A paper by Bowling Green State University (“BGSU”) researchers titled “Police Integrity Lost: A Study of Law Enforcement Officers Arrested” attempts to document police crime across the country, but it is incomplete because of lack of reporting.
For example, the paper reveals that from 2005 to 2011, ...
by Betty Nelander
Anew Illinois law aims to bring transparency to the use of jailhouse snitches, which are the main cause of wrongful convictions nationwide and the cause of at least 17 wrongful convictions in that state alone.
Dubbed the “nation’s strongest jailhouse informant bill,” Senate Bill 1830 requires reliability ...
by Betty Nelander
Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin of Altamante Springs, Florida, was recently exonerated and freed after spending 14 years in prison, including 10 on death row, for double murder.
“An innocent man was almost executed for a crime he did not commit,” said Josh Dubin, one of the lawyers representing Aguirre-Jarquin. ...
by Steve Horn
In the aftermath of her testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford was hailed by legal scholars, legal practitioners, and laypeople alike as a “credible witness.”
Blasey Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University, testified at a hearing September 27, 2018, set ...
by Kevin Bliss
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has dismissed about 45,000 charges in more than 30,000 drug cases prosecuted in the state due to misconduct by chemists Sonja Farak of Amherst drug lab and Annie Dookhan of Hinton drug lab.
Both were found to be falsifying records. Farak was also ...
by Derek Gilna
The city of Detroit, Michigan, has settled a Section 1983 federal civil rights suit filed by Kenneth Savage and Ashley Franklin after police unnecessarily shot three dogs while confiscating potted marijuana plants from the owners’ enclosed yard.
The $225,000 settlement was the most recent payout by the ...
by David Reutter
“Americans actually have no idea” how often police use force, former FBI director James Comey said in 2016. They also have no inkling how often police officers commit a crime. The reason for that is the federal government does not track such activity.
The Department of Justice ...
by Kevin Bliss
Former Balch Springs, Texas, police officer Roy Oliver was recently found guilty of murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison. The outcome of this case is notable not only because Oliver is a white officer who responded to a call with his partner in suburban Dallas ...
by Kevin Bliss
The U.S. Supreme Court made targeting by law enforcement of people based on race unconstitutional over 130 years ago, yet the practice still runs rampant in police departments nationwide, says Ezekiel Edwards, director of the ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project.
He said San Francisco has a particularly ...
Loaded on
Jan. 18, 2019
published in Criminal Legal News
February, 2019, page 42
California: A detective assigned to handle child molestation cases in the Special Victims Bureau at the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department was arrested on November 16, 2018, on charges of raping a 14-year-old girl, the latimes.com reports. Neil Kimball, a 20-year department veteran, was “booked on suspicion of rape by force ...
