by Dale Chappell
A former Illinois state attorney was indicted by a grand jury September 5, 2017, on 17 counts of misconduct and misappropriation of public funds in connection with a special police force he created.
Brian Towne created the State's Attorney's Felony Enforcement (SAFE) Unit in 2011 when he ...
by Dale Chappell
When Chantay Blankinship was killed in May 2016 in Brown County, Texas, the police had no leads other than DNA found at the crime scene. Her family isolated themselves out of fear the killer could be right next to them. Then they got a break in the ...
by Dale Chappell
The State carries the burden of proving that a probationer has violated his probation in order to support a revocation of probation, the Maine Supreme Court held on December 12, 2017.
Cory Kibbe was sentenced in 2004 to 20 years in prison, with all but four years ...
by Dale Chappell
The right to appeal a judge’s improper questioning of a witness during trial was not forfeited by the defendant’s failure to object contemporaneously because such an error is not forfeitable and can be raised for the first time on appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas ...
by Dale Chappell
A trial court may seal the records of a person whose case has been dismissed without prejudice before the statute of limitations for the offense expires, the Ohio Supreme Court held on September 27, 2017.
In March 2015, Colton Dye was charged by the State for arson ...
by Dale Chappell
The Massachusetts Supreme Court reversed convictions for involuntary manslaughter and assault and battery and ordered a new trial because the trial judge failed to conduct voir dire after the prosecutor advised that some jurors fell asleep during trial.
Anthony Villalobos took his murder and assault charges to ...
by Dale Chappell
The fact that a defendant admitted he had prior qualifying felonies for a Cal Pen Code § 665(a) enhancement does not convert his current “wobbler” into a felony, and the trial judge retained authority under section 17(b) to reduce the wobblers to misdemeanors, the Court of Appeal ...
by Dale Chappell
The trial court’s repeated inclusion of an erroneous element in the jury instructions amounted to a “plain error,” which led the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to vacate the defendant’s conviction.
Jose Lattore-Cacho was convicted by a jury in U.S. District Court of one ...
by Dale Chappell
The government must show that a defendant had the “express intent” in fleeing to avoid prosecution to prove he was a “prohibited person” under the “fugitive from justice” definition with respect to owning a semiautomatic firearm capable of accepting high capacity magazines, the United States Court of ...
by Dale Chappell
When counsel objects at trial to a particular issue—even if it had failed to raise it in a pre-trial written motion—that objection is enough to “preserve” the issue for review on appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas held.
During an armed robbery of a mobile ...
