by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of California issued an order that set the standard of review for motions filed under Penal Code § 1473.7 (Motion to vacate conviction or sentence by person no longer imprisoned or restrained). It then reviewed the motion on appeal and found the movant ...
by David M. Reutter
When Nervin Coronado was charged in 2009 with participating in a mortgage fraud scheme, he faced more than just prison time. He faced deportation because he immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 12 and never became a U.S. citizen.
Like others before him, Coronado ...
by David M. Reutter
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that a plea agreement was ambiguous as to the Government’s ability to oppose Safety Valve relief on grounds the defendant was a supervisor or manager in a drug conspiracy. It ordered resentencing that was ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of Montana held that a defendant’s due process rights were violated by the State’s failure to bring him before a judge for two years after arrest. The Court vacated the probation revocation sentence and dismissed the State’s petition to revoke with prejudice.
The ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of Missouri held that a defendant’s guilty plea was the result of ineffective assistance of counsel due to counsel misinforming the defendant that he qualified for the long-term drug program (“LTDP”) under RSMO § 217.362 that he was, as a matter of law, ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of Hawaii held that a trial court abused its discretion in denying a defendant’s motion to withdraw his no contest plea before sentencing. The Court’s ruling announced a five-factor test for trial courts to use in evaluating whether a fair and just reason ...
by David M. Reutter
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that the Government breached a plea agreement because the Government endorsed a base offense level in the Presentence Investigative Report (“PSR”) that was higher than the base offense level in the plea agreement.
The Court’s opinion ...
by David M. Reutter
THe Supreme Court of Hawaii held where defendant was precluded from discretionary relief from deportation as result of her plea of no contest to an aggravated felony charge, counsel was ineffective for advising her that it was “almost certain” that she would be deported when in ...
by David M. Reutter
The developmentally immature decision-making decisions of child defendants makes them “likely to be systematically pleading guilty to crimes that they did not commit in predictable circumstances,” concluded a study by Rebecca K. Helm from England’s University of Exeter Law School. To protect children from such an ...
by David M. Reutter
When the justice system fails a criminal defendant, the last hope is clemency. The rash of 70 pardons and commutations in the waning days of the Trump presidency show that the clemency process is an inadequate alternative to criminal justice reform.
Steve Bannon, a former White ...
