The uprisings of 2020 might have finally cracked their invulnerability.
by Samantha Michaels, Mother Jones
As the year 1990 came to an end, a fight broke out during a New Year’s Eve celebration at the Juke Box Saturday Night bar in downtown Minneapolis. A 21-year-old white student grabbed Michael Sauro ...
by Douglas Ankney
In 1976, an all-White jury from Concord, North Carolina, convicted Ronnie Long, a Black man, of raping a White woman and sentenced him to 80 years in prison. He was convicted despite a lack of physical evidence tying him to the rape. In 2005, his attorneys discovered ...
by David M. Reutter
More can be done to enhance the documentation and transparency in plea bargaining, argues Jenia I. Turner’s article in the Notre Dame Law Review. The article reviewed the plea bargaining laws and practices in the U.S. It also proposed “concrete areas in which transparency can ...
by Douglas Ankney
In a case of first impression, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that RICO conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d) does not qualify as a crime of violence under 18 U.S.C. 924(c). The Court also held that a defendant’s sentence of 120 years ...
by Anthony Accurso
The Supreme Court of Nevada held that the district court properly suppressed evidence that resulted from an inventory search because police failed to properly inventory the defendant’s bag.
Kimberly Marie Nye was arrested after refusing to leave a casino in Elko County. She was secured in a ...
by John W. Whitehead, The Rutherford Institute – Commentary
“Anyone who cares for someone with a developmental disability, as well as for disabled people themselves [lives] every day in fear that their behavior will be misconstrued as suspicious, intoxicated or hostile by law enforcement.”
—Steve Silberman, The New York ...
by Douglas Ankney
In its November 5, 2020 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, en banc, announced that panels of the Ninth Circuit may now fashion a remedy after a panel has concluded that a district court has erred in determining the admissibility of expert ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Hawai’i held that a search of a residence was unreasonable where officers knocked and announced their presence four times within 25 seconds and then forced entry.
At 6:15 a.m. on September 4, 2015, officers from the Honolulu Police Department (“HPD”) executed a search ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) of Massachusetts announced that continuous, long-term pole camera surveillance targeting a residence is a search under article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights.
Shortly after an undercover officer made a controlled drug purchase from Nelson Mora, investigators installed pole cameras (a ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Kentucky held that a criminal defendant had the right to be informed of an in-chambers hearing on the fitness and ability of his attorney to try the case and to have conflict-free counsel attend the hearing and represent his interests.
Terrence Downs was ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of Washington held a prosecutor committed flagrant and ill-intentioned misconduct by framing a defendant’s prosecution as representative of the war on drugs.
The Court’s opinion was issued in an appeal brought by Gregg A. Loughbom. He was convicted by a jury in October ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts vacated a defendant’s guilty plea to a sentencing enhancement as involuntarily entered. In doing so, the Court held that “where a defendant makes a good faith claim that a deliberating juror reported that racial bias infected the jury’s deliberations, a ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled on October 9, 2020, that the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming plainly erred by imposing a sexual material prohibition as a condition of defendant’s supervised release without analyzing or explaining how the condition would ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Louisiana affirmed a district court’s holding that declared unconstitutional a state statute compelling registered sex offenders to carry identification emblazoned with the words “SEX OFFENDER.”
The State charged Tazin Ardell Hill with altering an official identification card to conceal his designation as a ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Imagine for a moment, you just lost your job. The lack of income might soon push you into homelessness and a host of other troubles. Out of exasperation, you sit down on the curb, head in your hands, trying to figure out what to do. Seeing your ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona failed in its gatekeeping function when it allowed an ICE agent to testify on the probability of a Mexican drug cartel using a coerced truck driver ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of Arizona held that the Court of Appeals “erred by effectively eliminating a defendant’s right to appeal a probation revocation sentence consistent with a plea agreement stipulation.”
The Court’s August 12, 2020, opinion was issued in an appeal by Demitres Robertson. She was ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held on October 21, 2020, that there was no probable cause to search cellphones found on someone who was found in close proximity to drugs and guns found in a house where he was a guest.
This case of first impression came ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals held that a prosecutor’s repeated statements to a jury that a defendant wasn’t presumed innocent violated the Constitution’s Due Process Clause and granted habeas relief.
The case began in a California superior court in 2012, where Keith Ford stood trial for the ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that a district court’s “categorical” ban on using a witness’ recantation (and confession to the crime) as new evidence to show actual innocence was error and sent the case back for a hearing on whether that evidence ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the special conditions of supervised release imposed by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas that barred Carlos Saul Becerra from using the Internet, computers, and other electronic devices for a period of ...
by Matt Clarke
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment requires dismissal of a count in a federal indictment alleging conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 as it ...
by David M. Reutter
The Court of Appeals of Maryland answered four questions concerning the application of the Justice Reinvestment Act (“JRA”). The Court’s August 24, 2020, order focused on whether defendants whose convictions were based on plea agreements and waived the right to seek modification of their sentence under ...
by Anthony Accurso
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that subject matter expertise alone is insufficient to establish the purity of methamphetamines accurately to support a Guidelines enhancement.
Scott Carnell pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of meth under 21 U.S.C. ...
by Douglas Ankney
Legal Aid Chicago and Chapman and Cutler LLP launched a web application to help expedite the process of clearing criminal records of offenses that are eligible for expungement and sealing.
The Legal Aid Chicago Criminal Records Relief Petitions App (“App”) was built by Chapman’s practice innovations team ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that a probation officer’s warrantless search of a probationer’s cellphone was unreasonable where the probation officer did not have reasonable suspicion to justify the search.
Jason Fletcher was sentenced to five years’ probation after being convicted of ...
by Anthony Accurso
The Supreme Court of New Mexico consolidated two cases on appeal to clarify the meaning of the terms “uniformed law enforcement officer” and “appropriately marked law enforcement vehicle” under N.M. Stat. Ann. 1978, § 30-22-1.1(A) (2003).
Roy D. Montano and William Daniel Martinez both were charged with ...
by Douglas Ankney
The New York Court of Appeals clarified when police may lawfully conduct traffic stops, explaining that “stopping a vehicle for a traffic infraction requires probable cause; stopping a vehicle for suspicion of criminal activity requires less: ‘reasonable suspicion that the driver or occupants of the vehicle have ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held on October 6, 2020, that a savings clause petition was the proper avenue to attack an illegal sentence under a retroactive Supreme Court decision handed down while a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 was on appeal. ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a defendant asking a single objectionable question, without more, was insufficient reason to justify the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada’s termination of the defendant’s right to represent himself at trial.
Todd C. Engel ...
by Casey J. Bastian
For human beings suffering from mental illness, living a safe and productive life can be extraordinarily difficult. Far too often, and all across America, thousands end up in prison as a result of their conditions. Beginning in the 1950s, psychiatric institutions were criticized as inhumane and ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Traveling with large amounts of cash is perfectly legal, even on a commercial airliner, so Stacy Jones and her husband were unconcerned about putting over $40,000 in their carry-on luggage when they had to cut their casino vacation short. The unsuspecting couple had no fear of robbers, ...
by David M. Reutter
When Chris Nocco was appointed sheriff of Florida’s Pasco County, he said the agency would be “proactive” in reducing property crimes. His intelligence-led policing model would use data to predict where future crimes would take place and who would be likely to commit them. An investigation ...
by Jayson Hawkins
There is growing concern across society about the emergence of a surveillance state. The capacity of police to monitor phones, email, and other communication has been highlighted in recent incidents, but the most ubiquitous and invasive form of surveillance is cameras. There are cameras everywhere now – ...
by Dale Chappell
Coming up on the two-year anniversary of the First Step Act passed in 2018 to undo unfair sentencing practices and ease overcrowding in federal prisons, the numbers show, at best, a modest result for those who have received relief under the Act.
As expected, the largest group ...
by Anthony Accurso
Disturbing images were coming out of Portland, Oregon, where protesters were being arrested by camouflaged federal agents in unmarked vans and taken to undisclosed locations for “processing.” Lawmakers rightfully called this behavior reprehensible for its utter lack of transparency and similarity to tactics used by authoritarian dictators. ...
by Jayson Hawkins
A 1999 Michigan state law provided for properties with unpaid taxes to be seized and rapidly resold by county treasurers. While this practice is not uncommon across the nation, a peculiarity of the Michigan statute has proven to have had unforeseen consequences, namely the part that let ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed that the common-law right to resist an unlawful arrest continues to be the law in Georgia and announced that the right includes the right to use proportionate force against government property to escape from an unlawful detention following the arrest.
Christopher ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Documentaries about crime, especially murder, have been around for a very long time, but most merely seek to entertain or touch the nerve that compels people to watch tragedy unfold. These documentaries, regardless of whether they are feature-length films or one-hour television programming, typically wrap every element ...
by Michael Fortino, Ph.D.
American law has a system of checks and balances to keep corruption and wrongdoing by those in power from overwhelming the system. When it comes to police misconduct, it seems there is a double standard for prosecution.
Such checks and balances on the judicial front are ...
by Anthony Accurso
Twitter-oriented startup Dataminr markets itself as offering an AI-enabled tool designed to identify “threats” in real-time by scanning Twitter posts. Reporting by The Intercept shows, however, that humans are scanning Twitter feeds and creating “alerts” based largely on racial stereotypes.
Dataminr’s early backers included Twitter and the ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Michigan held that a showup identification of the alleged shooter in a murder case was impermissibly suggestive and unreliable. Because the prosecution’s case was “significantly less persuasive” without the identification, it was not harmless. Therefore, the Court reversed the murder conviction and remanded ...
by Jayson Hawkins
One of the many new elements in the recently energized movements for social justice and criminal justice reform is the call to “defund police.” Often misconstrued as a desire to do away with law enforcement altogether, defund advocates are actually focused on changing the way local governments ...
by Ed Lyon
Lauren Mestas of Austin, Texas, is an avid supporter of social justice and equality. She attended Black Lives Matter protests in Austin and was an eyewitness to the shooting of AK-47-toting Garrett Foster at the intersection of Fourth and Congress in late July 2020. Rattled, she forgot ...
by Kevin Bliss
The New York Police Department’s (“NYPD”) Enterprise Operations Unit, also known as “the hip-hop police,” is accused of racially targeting rap bands. They surveil certain rappers, halt their video shoots, and stop their shows in an attempt to prevent violence. Instead of being called “crime stoppers,” they’re ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2020
published in Criminal Legal News
January, 2021, page 50
Alaska: A plan to shift the response to mental health crises away from police and into the hands of mental health professionals made strides in November 2020. The Assembly approved money to launch a mobile crisis intervention team. In Anchorage, it would operate at the fire department and be ...
by Douglas Ankney
According to a September 9, 2020, report from USA Today, Salt Lake City, Utah resident Golda Barton called police because her 13-year-old son Linden Cameron was having a mental health episode.
Barton told KUTV that she informed police that Cameron has Asperger’s syndrome and was experiencing ...
