by Dale Chappell
An officer from the Detroit, Michigan, Police Department who fabricated evidence in order to convict a 14-year-old boy of murders he didn’t commit were not on the list of problem officers that prosecutors shouldn’t call as witnesses. Now the family wants to know why.
Davontae Sanford was ...
by Dale Chappell
Hackers dug into servers of a hosting company in Texas used by law enforcement and found that hundreds of thousands of documents from more than 200 agencies contained private user data on Google's customers. The so-called “Blueleaks” documents were verified by cybersecurity experts and were never exposed ...
by Dale Chappell
Who would have predicted that the courts would expand compassionate release to allow non-medical reasons for reducing a sentence, including the chance to fix unfair sentences when no other avenue exists? Now that prisoners can file their own compassionate release motions, instead of waiting for the Bureau ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held on June 19, 2020, that a district court resentencing someone again to the maximum sentence possible and well over double the recommended Guidelines sentencing range (“GSR”) must provide “especially compelling justification” for such a significant increase in ...
by Dale Chappell
In a case of first impression, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that an accused’s admissions during a pretrial services (“PTS”) interview for bail are confidential and cannot be used at trial to prove guilt.
The case came before the Court after Michael ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held on May 15, 2020, that a prosecutor’s improper comments to the jury during a murder trial, and counsel’s failure to object to those comments, were grounds for granting habeas corpus relief, requiring a new trial.
In 2007, ...
by Dale Chappell
With law enforcement targeting anyone and everyone during recent demonstrations, here are a few tips from some experts on what to do if you’re pepper-sprayed.
The most important tip, they say, is not to take a shower — yet. If you do, the pepper spray will run ...
by Dale Chappell
As Congress looks to renew the PATRIOT Act, some members of Congress and privacy advocates are concerned about privacy issues because Congress has no idea what internet data the government has been collecting on citizens.
In a letter sent by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden to Acting Director ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held on June 15, 2020, that a district court’s failure to fully advise a defendant of the elements of the charges and the correct penalty he faced amounted to his waiver of trial counsel not knowingly made.
Randy ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of Hawai’i held on June 9, 2020, that a dog sniff search based on reasons unrelated to the original purpose of a proper traffic stop was an unconstitutional search and vacated the judgment affirming a drug conviction.
When Cheri Numazawa called 911 to report ...
