by Derek Gilna
A 2016 report issued by the Department of Homeland Security said that deportations carried out in 2015 by the agency's Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) had dropped to the lowest level since 2006. According to DHS, deportations peaked in fiscal year 2009 at 409,849, but dropped ...
by Derek Gilna
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 9, 2016 overturned the action of relief by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, that vacated the decision of a post conviction court that found the death penalty conviction of Terrence Williams was tainted by Brady violations by state prosecutors. Williams, who testified ...
by Derek Gilna
The Legal Aid Justice Center released a report on September 26, 2017 that makes the argument the laws of 43 states that provide for the suspension of driver’s licenses for non-payment of traffic tickets or other court debt, which bear no relation to driving, creates a cycle ...
by Derek Gilna
In most jobs, if you kick a defenseless person multiple times and attempt to cover it up, you will not only get fired, but will probably also get arrested and sent to jail. Not so in Hartford, Conn., where cops, Steven Barone and Christopher Mastroianni, kicked and ...
by Derek Gilna
Suffolk County, New York residents concerned about crime in their community apparently did not need to look any further than the activities of their own district attorney, Thomas Spota, 76. He and his aide, Christopher McPartland, were federally indicted in October of 2017 for helping to cover ...
by Derek Gilna
A federal racketeering investigation into Baltimore Police Department misconduct has resulted in the dismissal of approximately 300 pending prosecutions and investigations into an additional 850, including some that were already closed. News reports revealed that body camera footage from three separate incidents during the summer of 2017 ...
by Derek Gilna
Add overly aggressive collection of DNA samples from often unwitting individuals to the list of questionable police tactics in New York City with which criminal defense attorneys and the general public must now deal. Operating under the radar until recently, the city has been quietly building “a ...
by Derek Gilna
The Committee for Public Counsel Services, Hampden County Lawyers for Justice, Inc., American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (“ACLUM”), and two individuals who were convicted in cases that now-discredited state drug lab chemist Sonja Farak worked on filed a petition with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The ...
by Derek Gilna
Congress has passed the wrongful Conviction Tax Act of 2015 with votes from both sides of the aisle, exempting the damage awarded granted the wrongfully convicted from federal tax liability. According to the Innocence Project, a prisoner-rights organization who has contributed to the exoneration of dozens of ...
by Derek Gilna
The Spring 2017 issue of Justice Quarterly published a report titled “Race, Plea, and Charge Reduction: An Assessment of Racial Disparities in the Plea Process,” which explores the perceived discrepancy in the outcomes for criminal defendants in the plea bargaining process. According to the report, the “findings ...
