by Douglas Ankney

The Supreme Court of Indiana clarified the framework for determining when a court may apply a cash bail toward payment of public-defender costs and toward payment of fines, costs, and fees.

Tailar L. Spells was arrested on charges related to her altercation with Officer Lynnford Parker of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. The trial court set a $250 cash bond, which was deposited in full by a third party – Diane Rolle. Both Spells and Rolle signed a cash-bond agreement pursuant to Indiana Code § 35-33-8-3.2 that permitted the trial court, “upon full satisfaction of all bond conditions, to ‘retain all or part of the cash to pay publicly paid costs of representation and fines, costs, fees, and restitution that the court may order the defendant to pay if the defendant is convicted.’” (Note: All further statutory references are to the Indiana Code.)

The trial court subsequently appointed a public defender and imposed a $100 supplemental public-defender fee. Spells was ultimately convicted at a bench trial of felony battery on Parker. Pertinent to this review, the trial court imposed probation, a $20 fine, and $185 in various fees and costs with the probation terminating upon, inter ...

by Douglas Ankney

Due to the monumental increase in the number of appeals of bond decisions, the Illinois Supreme Court adopted new appellate rules recommended by a five-person taskforce (“Taskforce”). The Pretrial Fairness Act (“PFA”), implemented in April of 2023, allows pretrial detainees to appeal district courts’ decisions regarding conditions for release. Under the PFA, whether a person remains detained prior to trial is based on, inter alia, whether the person is a flight risk, a danger to the community, and the charges faced by the person. Each of these determinations by the judge may now be appealed.

Prior to enactment of the PFA, a bond was set by the judge. Infrequently, about 17 times each year according to the Taskforce, an appeal of the bond decision was sought. But under the PFA, the number of appeals was projected to total 4,557 annually. And in the five months following the PFA’s enactment, about 1,900 appeals have already been filed.

“That’s just too much of a change in too short of a time,” said Justice Eugene Doherty of the Fourth District Appellate Court and Taskforce member. Among the Taskforce’s recommendations adopted by the Supreme Court are:

* Issues with the ...

by Douglas Ankney

Bias influencing medical examiners’ manner of death determinations is sending innocent people to prison and exonerating guilty cops. In Mississippi, Rankin County Deputy Hunter Elward pleaded guilty in 2023 to federal charges related to his role in the horrific torture of two Black men by a gang of deputies calling itself the “Goon Squad.” The deputies broke into the men’s home, tortured and sexually humiliated them, and fired a gun inside the mouth of one of the men, leaving him with permanent disfiguring injuries. And in 2021, Elward was one of two deputies who witnesses saw kneeling on 29-year-old Damien Cameron for more than 10 minutes. Cameron died from the encounter. His face was swollen and bloodied, and there was bleeding in his neck.

Nevertheless, State Medical Examiner Staci Turner determined Cameron’s manner of death to be “undetermined.” But in the aftermath of the torture cases, Cameron’s manner of death was reviewed by three separate medical examiners. Each of them concluded that Turner erred in classifying Cameron’s manner of death as undetermined – each concluding that Cameron’s death was clearly a homicide. But because Turner had failed to classify the death as homicide, there was no ...

by Douglas Ankney

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois erred in conflating the scopes of the no-firearms condition of the “safety valve” of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) and the firearms enhancement of U.S. Sentencing Guidelines (“U.S.S.G.”) ...

by Douglas Ankney

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that Maryland’s first-degree assault statute, Md. Code, Art. 27 § 12A -1, is indivisible, and a conviction thereunder is not a “violent felony” for purposes of the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e).

In 2008, Garfield ...

by Douglas Ankney

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that John Miguel Swan’s guilty plea was not knowing and voluntary because “his plea counsel materially misrepresented his right to an impartial jury selected through racially nondiscriminatory means.”

While Swan was being arrested on a domestic violence ...

by Douglas Ankney

The Supreme Court of California held that a jury’s finding that Freddy Alfredo Curiel harbored the requisite intent to kill to find true a gang-murder special circumstance, standing alone, was insufficient for a trial court to find that Curiel had failed to state a prima facie case ...

by Douglas Ankney

A team of scientists from China’s Shanghai Normal University in collaboration with scientists from the United Kingdom’s University of Bath have developed a fluorescent spray that reveals fingerprints in seconds without compromising any potential DNA evidence. The dyes used in the spray are manufactured from “Green Fluorescent ...

by Douglas Ankney

The Court of Appeals of New York held that application of the Sex Offender Registration Act (“SORA”) to Marcus Brown violated his “due process rights by impinging on his liberty interest to be free of the improper designation and registration as a sex offender” because his offenses ...

by Douglas Ankney

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts extended the holding of Diatchenko v. District Attorney for the Suffolk Dist., 1 N.E.3d 270 (Mass. 2013) (sentence of life without parole for first-degree murder committed when defendant was under 18 years of age is unconstitutional), to defendants who are “emerging ...