by Doug Ankney
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated a defendant’s sentence for failing to register as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”), holding that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas committed plain …
by David Kim
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that a warrantless protective search of a vehicle under Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032 (1983) (sometimes described as a vehicle “protective sweep”), violated the Fourth Amendment where officers failed to identify any fact …
by David M. Reutter
In an en banc decision, the Supreme Court of Washington held that Anthony Lee’s two second-degree assault convictions based on his beating Amy Groff in the head with a gun and then shooting at her as she fled were part of a single unit …
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of New Jersey unanimously reversed the defendant’s controlled dangerous substances (“CDS”) convictions and ordered a new trial, holding that while no individual error warranted reversal, the cumulative effect of multiple prosecutorial missteps deprived the defendant of his constitutional right to a …
by David Kim
In a matter of first impression, the Supreme Court of Montana unanimously reversed a district court order that would have required a defendant to register as a sex offender based on allegations contained in charging documents that were never proved beyond a reasonable doubt or …
by David M. Reutter
The New York Court of Appeals held that when police employ coercive tactics compelling a suspect to leave a residence, the resulting arrest violates the ban on unwarranted in-home arrests established in Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573 (1980), under a theory of …
by Sagi Schwartzberg
The Supreme Court of Hawaii held that the due process clause of the Hawaii Constitution requires law enforcement to record all custodial interrogations conducted inside police stations and, when feasible, all custodial interrogations conducted outside of stations. The Court defined “recording” to mean a simultaneous …
by Jo Ellen Nott
In the world of modern policing, there is no such thing as a free lunch, only a more expensive and expansive surveillance state. A disturbing trend is sweeping through local governments: the acquisition of high-tech spying tools through “gifts,” pilot programs, and federal grants …
by Douglas Ankney
When Pontius Pilate declared he found “no fault” in the man before him, he sent Jesus to be crucified anyway. Two thousand years later, a version of this practice persists in America’s federal courts. It is called “acquitted conduct sentencing,” and it permits judges to …
