Second Circuit: District Court’s Failure to Offer Explanation for Its Sentence Constitutes Plain Error by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a district court’s failure to offer an explanation for its sentence was plain error in violation of 18 U.S.C. …

South Carolina Supreme Court: Failure to Give Logan Instruction Not Harmless Error Where Evidence Almost Entirely Circumstantial by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney The Supreme Court of South Carolina held that a trial court’s failure to charge the jury with the circumstantial evidence instruction from State v. Logan, 747 S.E.2d …