by David M. Reutter
In affirming the conviction and death sentence of Sean Alonzo Bush, the Supreme Court of Florida announced it is abandoning the different standard for reviewing wholly circumstantial evidence cases.
Bush was convicted of the brutal attack on his estranged wife Nicole Bush. The couple was separated ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of Iowa ruled there was no factual basis to support a defendant’s guilty plea to possessing a tool with the intent to use in the unlawful removal of a theft detection device. The Court further ruled that defense counsel was ineffective for allowing ...
by David Reutter
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed the suppression of evidence seized from a suspected drug dealer’s home as fruit of the poisonous tree.
Jamal Roman was alleged in a search warrant application submitted by DEA Special Agent Scott Smith to be “a known ...
by David M. Reutter
A former Florida sheriff’s deputy was charged with 50 counts related to evidence tampering and discrepancies related to drug arrests made during his 11 months with the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.
During his tenure as a deputy from May 2017 to January 2018, Steven O’Leary made ...
by David M. Reutter
Prosecutors are the “most powerful actors in the criminal justice system” proclaims Hawaii House Bill 2749. That bill would follow the lead of Florida, Colorado, and Arizona in increasing transparency into court proceedings.
A Texas A&M Law Review article highlighted the need to increase transparency in ...
by David Reutter
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a “sentencing court erred by concluding that it could not first hear from the defendant before determining whether a reduction for acceptance of responsibility was warranted under the Sentencing Guidelines.” The Court concluded the misapprehension of ...
by David Reutter
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts affirmed the suppression of custodial statements where the translation of Miranda warnings into Spanish was inadequate to apprise the defendant of his rights. The Court also reversed the denial of the suppression of evidence taken from the defendant’s cellphone because the ...
by David Reutter
The Tennessee Supreme Court held “the doctrine of abatement ab initio must be abandoned because it is obsolete, its continued application would do more harm than good, and it is inconsistent with the current public policy of this State.”
Before the court was an appeal brought by ...
by David Reutter
The Supreme Court of Michigan held that a defendant did not expose herself to public arrest when she reached out of her doorway to retrieve her identification from a police officer — and there could be no “hot pursuit” when she pulled her arm back into the ...
by David Reutter
As a matter of first impression, the Court of Appeals of New York ruled that a noncitizen defendant charged with state crimes that carry a maximum penalty of less than six months in jail but subject him or her to deportation is entitled to a jury trial ...
