by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of Montana held that the state’s automatic and mandatory fine of 35 percent of the market value of the drugs in a drug-offense conviction is facially unconstitutional, because it doesn’t allow a court to consider the nature of the crime, the defendant’s ability to ...
by Dale Chappell
Denmark recently released dozens of prisoners after more than 10,000 convictions based on evidence derived from faulty software put people in prison for crimes they didn’t commit.
The problem was with the software used by law enforcement, which used cell-site location information (“CSLI”) to establish that a ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held on November 29, 2019, that evidence obtained by the district court at a hearing on whether state postconviction counsel was ineffective could be used in order to grant habeas corpus relief, despite the ban on evidentiary hearings ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas granted a motion to vacate a conviction under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 on October 22, 2019, finding that, in addition to a host of other errors by counsel, the failure to object to the Government’s “misstatement of law” ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of California overturned its previous ruling that had allowed police to search a person’s vehicle for identification as an exception to the warrant requirement under the Fourth Amendment.
The case came before the Court after Maria Lopez was stopped in front of her home ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of California held on August 26, 2019, that a so-called “Brady List” maintained by a law enforcement agency about officers who would have credibility problems if called to the stand at trial may be turned over to prosecutors when an officer on that ...
by Dale Chappell
The New York Court of Appeals overturned a murder conviction on postconviction review, finding that the State’s failure to provide surveillance video of the crime coupled with telling the jury that no video of the crime exists during closing argument undermine confidence in the verdict, and thus, ...
by Dale Chappell
After a remand by the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, on July 30, 2019, reaffirmed its earlier decision in two cases that the “residual clause” of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) is unconstitutionally vague and that sex trafficking and felony kidnapping ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held on November 21, 2019, that a person sentenced under the career offender guideline does not bar the district court from granting relief under the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (“FSA”), which was made retroactive by the First ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit granted habeas relief on September 3, 2019, to a Pennsylvania state prisoner who had lost his opportunity to enter a “guilty but mentally ill” (“GBMI”) plea because of trial counsel’s ineffective assistance, which in effect deprived him of ...
