by Dale Chappell
Colorado became the first state to pass a law prohibiting law enforcement officers from invoking qualified immunity as a defense when they’re accused in a lawsuit of violating a citizen’s civil rights. Hopefully, the law passed in June will start a trend in other states and lend ...
by Dale Chappell
Federal agencies have been spying on citizens by buying cell site location data (“CSLI”) from private companies in order to avoid the requirement of a search warrant that they would normally need to gather such data directly themselves from cellphone service providers.
The loophole seems to be ...
by Dale Chappell
Several amicus briefs on behalf of dozens of civil rights groups and First Amendment scholars were filed in an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. They’re calling for the court to require a warrant for searches of electronic devices at the nation’s ...
by Dale Chappell
While the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects our right to free speech, a federal law that protects platforms and users who repost that free speech is under attack and at risk from being pulled. Critics say that could let the government arrest people who criticize ...
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, ...
