by Matt Clarke
Faulty forensics play a major role in causing known wrongful convictions in the United States. Just how big of a role the application of science to justice plays in sending the innocent to prison depends upon your definition of “wrongful convictions.”
The Innocence Project, a national litigation ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana’s vacatur of Bruce Carneil Webster’s death sentence based on newly discovered evidence that Webster was intellectually disabled and ineligible for the death penalty.
In 1998, the U. ...
by John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead, The Rutherford Institute – Commentary
“Police fail to grasp that they are public servants for peace. They should provide a civil service, to enforce the laws equally, without bias and with discretion. They must understand that they do not have immunity or special ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana’s opinion that found a provision of Indiana’s Sex Offender Registration Act (“SORA”) requiring registration of Plaintiffs who relocated to Indiana after SORA’s enactment violated their right to travel ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of Ohio held that applying a harsher version of the state’s sexually violent predator law (“SVP”) retroactively to criminal conduct that occurred prior to that newer version violates the Ex Post Facto Clause of U.S. Constitution.
In 2017, Albert Townsend was indicted on numerous ...
by Anthony Accurso
In its January 8, 2021, opinion, the Supreme Court of Alabama held that a law enforcement agent’s testimony about how historical cell-site data could be used to determine the approximate location of the defendants’ cellphones is scientific testimony, and as such, it must be properly assessed for ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Court of Appeals of Maryland affirmed a decision of the Court of Special Appeals (“COSA”) that held police officers from the Maryland Transit Administration (“MTA”) violated Kennard Carter’s Fourth Amendment protections from illegal searches and seizures when the officers conducted a fare sweep.
Carter was on ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of North Carolina held a trial court erred in refusing to accept a criminal defendant’s tendered guilty plea because he refused to admit that he was factually guilty.
The Court’s December 18, 2020, opinion was issued in an appeal brought by Kenneth C. ...
by Jordan Smith, The Intercept
“I found your baby,” Michelle Durden recalls the police officer saying after her son went missing. “He’s alive. And he’s in jail.”
At first, Michelle Durden thought her eldest son, Cameron Davis, was just going through some early 20s growing pains. He dropped out of ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit determined that Dennis v. Sec’y, 834 F.3d 263 (3d Cir. 2016), altered the Circuit’s jurisprudence regarding “Brady claims” [Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963)] such that the claims are timely filed pursuant to ...
by Anthony Accurso
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that the Article I, Section 8 of the Commonwealth’s Constitution affords greater privacy protections to drivers than the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, reviving the rule that law enforcement must establish both probable cause and exigent circumstances to justify a ...
by Dale Chappell
The Court of Appeal of California, Fourth Appellate District, held that the lack of adequate notice of a time limit to challenge an erroneous placement on parole violates due process.
The error occurred when Bryant Ruiz was released from prison and the California Department of Corrections and ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the use of an un-Mirandized statement against a defendant in a criminal proceeding violates the defendant’s Fifth Amendment rights and may support a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
Terence Tekoh gave a written statement ...
by Dale Chappell
Because the law ambiguously provides that a court must impose the “maximum term” for a prison sentence for someone convicted as a “habitual criminal,” the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, applying the rule of lenity, held that the lack of any language excluding probation thus allows a court ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Hawai’i (SCH) held that a trial court erred when it ruled that the HRS § 702-230(1) prohibition against self-induced intoxication as a defense barred a defendant from raising the defense of amphetamine psychosis resulting in a lack of criminal responsibility even though he ...
by Kevin Bliss
USA Today reports that Denver, Colorado, is showing success with a new program that directs emergency 911 calls that deal with mental health issues, drug abuse, and homelessness to a two-person civilian team composed of a medic and clinician called the Support Team Assistance Response (“STAR”) ...
by Anthony Accurso
The Supreme Court of Kentucky clarified the meaning of the statute that allows a defendant to be eligible for parole after serving 20% of their sentence despite committing a violent crime resulting in death.
Michael Wayne Crowe rented a hotel room with his wife Felicia Walker on ...
by Anthony Accurso
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that evidence of mere possession of drugs together with an officer’s generalized allegations regarding the behavior of drug traffickers did not provide sufficient probable cause to search the photos on a suspect’s cellphone.
Bryan Matthew Morton was ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of California held that Senate Bill 1437 (2017-2018 Reg. Sess.) (“SB 1437”) bars a conviction for second-degree murder predicated on the natural and probable consequences (“NPC”) doctrine, but the ameliorative provisions of SB 1437 are available exclusively via a petition pursuant to California Penal ...
by Anthony Accurso
Law enforcement use of unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs or “drones,” became more common during the pandemic and nationwide protests, but new drone technology being deployed by police departments has troubling implications for civil rights.
Chula Vista, a city of approximately 50 square miles between San Diego and ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that a police officer testified as an expert without first being qualified by the court at the trial of Rod L. Jones, Sr. The Court also held that 42 Pa.C.S. § 5920 overruled, in part, Commonwealth v. Dunkle, 602 A.2d ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Kentucky ruled that an in-chambers hearing held to address questions surrounding defense counsel’s fitness to proceed is a critical stage of proceedings that entitle the defendant to be present with conflict-free representation.
Terrence Downs was tried on numerous felonies, including murder, for the ...
by David M. Reutter
Having a fall partner presents many hazards when faced with law enforcement interrogations or during court proceedings. One of those hazards is when the Government offers a plea bargain that is wired to both defendants accepting the plea offer.
In the case under review, the District ...
by Anthony Accurso
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated a defendant’s conviction after the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued jury instructions that implied the defendant had a motive to lie on the stand.
Juan Solano was arrested after transporting a ...
by Matt Clarke
The Court of Appeal of California, First Appellate District, reversed a man’s convictions for forcible rape, digital penetration, and misdemeanor battery of a 15-year-old girl when he was 19 years old because the prosecution withheld evidence that could have been used to impeach the testimony of a ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina’s special conditions of release that banned legal pornography and all internet access were overbroad and not reasonably related to the objectives of 18 U.S.C. § ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Kentucky reversed a woman’s convictions for first and second-degree arson and six counts of attempted murder, four of which were enhanced as hate crimes, because the prosecutor engaged in “flagrant” misconduct by misleading the jury in closing arguments on a material issue in ...
by Casey J. Bastian
Over 250 Black police officers have sued the U.S. Capitol Police (“USCP”) since 2001 over allegations of racism and discrimination. ProPublica’s January 14, 2021, article by Joshua Kaplan and Joaquin Sapien highlights how this past history may have led to the January 6, 2021, riot at ...
by Ed Lyon
After the U.S. Civil War and followingthe 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution that banned slavery, laws designed to disadvantage Black people were passed throughout former Rebel states. Those legislative acts became known as Jim Crow laws. None were fair. Some of the more insidious live ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Nevada reversed Thomas Randolph’s conviction for murdering his sixth wife because the trial court erroneously admitted evidence of the similar murder of the man’s second wife for which he had been tried and acquitted 20 years earlier.
Randolph told police he shot and ...
by Douglas Ankney
In a case of first impression in the Supreme Court of Washington, the Court, sitting en banc, adopted the federal standard enunciated in Lawrence v. Florida, 549 U.S. 327 (2007), and held that the misconduct of a petitioner’s own attorney in a habeas proceeding can ...
by Jayson Hawkins
No one was surprised when Florida again topped the list of “battleground states” in the run up to the 2020 presidential election, but the media narrative most frequently heard as November approached was not about hanging chads or turnout in Miami-Dade County. Instead, there was significant coverage ...
by Michael Fortino, Ph.D.
In South Carolina, if your career plan is to become a licensed barber, you will need to satisfy about 1,500 hours of coursework. However, in this same state, if you aspire to be a state court judge, you will find that a law degree, or any ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Undercover operations to combat street prostitution are standard fare in pop-culture depictions of big-city police work, but the reality is often seedier than television dramatizations.
A 2020 investigation by journalists at ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization, revealed that New York Police Department (“NYPD”) vice operations routinely target ...
by Jayson Hawkins
A little-known tech company in Texas has dramatically altered the landscape of digital police surveillance. Hawk Analytics, headquartered in Bartonville, Texas, has developed software that streamlines the process police use to turn the huge quantities of information they obtain from cellular companies into intelligence while simultaneously gathering ...
by Michael Fortino, Ph.D.
Agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (“TBI”) and officers with the Dickson Police Department would be well advised to take the time to read the Constitution of the United States, namely the First Amendment. In January of this year, investigators from these departments teamed up ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Gallup began measuring American attitudes about criminal justice in 1992. As the U.S. was in the midst of a wave of media sensationalizing violent crime, it should come as no surprise that 83% of Americans in that year believed the criminal justice system was not tough enough. ...
by Casey J. Bastian
On December 16, 2020, Termaine Hicks received what he calls “the best news I’ve heard in all my life.” Hicks learned that, after 19 years in prison for crimes he did not commit, he was finally going home.
Hicks was in South Philadelphia on the early ...
by Anthony Accurso
After being identified by faulty facial recognition software, a New Jersey man spent 10 days in jail and forfeited his savings to beat the charges.
Nijeer Parks, 33, had two previous convictions for selling drugs and had served six years in prison. But he turned his life ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2021
published in Criminal Legal News
April, 2021, page 49
A 73-year-old man serving a 505-year sentence in federal prison without parole was granted compassionate release by his sentencing judge in November 2020, citing the risk of death from COVID-19 as the reason he should be at home and not in prison.
Juan Carlos Seresi was sentenced in 1991 after ...
by Douglas Ankney
Today’s RoboCops are not armed predators (yet), but they read license plates, track cellphones, and report “suspicious” persons. According to the Electronic Freedom Frontier, companies like Boston Dynamics and Knightscope market robots to law enforcement. About 100 robots from Knightscope are deployed in America’s shopping malls, grocery ...
Loaded on
March 15, 2021
published in Criminal Legal News
April, 2021, page 50
California: A federal jury awarded a man who suffered severe head and face injuries in an encounter with a San Diego detective $1.5 million in November 2020. San Diego’s City Council, meanwhile, is expected to “approve a $2.5 million settlement, the money awarded by the jury and nearly $1 million ...
