by Matthew Thomas Clarke
In June 2024, the U.S. Sentencing Commission released a data report on release for “extraordinary and compelling reasons” under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A), also known as compassionate release (“CR”). The courts have the authority to grant CR motions and are required to consider the factors set forth ...
by Matthew Thomas Clarke
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia’s order denying a federal prisoner’s 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion on whether his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to duplicative conspiracy counts in ...
by Matthew Thomas Clarke
The Supreme Court of Rhode Island held that an alleged victim’s handwritten letter to her mother and a scribbled note made at the police department were inadmissible hearsay and that their admission was not harmless. It reversed five child molestation related convictions and remanded for a ...
by Matt Clarke
An article published in the American University Law Review examines victims of coercive plea bargaining using extensive data from psychological studies and surveys. In doing so, it goes beyond the obvious victims—innocent defendants who are coerced into pleading guilty to a crime they did not commit—to include ...
by Matt Clarke
The Court of Appeal of California, Fourth Appellate District, held that a court resentencing a defendant pursuant to Senate Bill 1393 (“SB 1393”) (Stats. 2018, ch. 1013 (§§ 1, 2)) cannot base its decision solely on its assessment of the defendant’s dangerousness at the time of sentencing. Instead, ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of New Mexico reversed two counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor and one count of child abuse under NMSA 1978, §§ 30-9-13(B)(1) (2003) and 30-6-1(D) (2009), after holding that the second trial on those charges violated the prohibition against double jeopardy because of ...
The Supreme Court of Louisiana vacated four 23-year-old convictions and death sentences because the prosecution withheld impeachment and exculpatory evidence in violation of the defendant’s due process rights.
In 2001, Darrell J. Robinson was convicted of the murders of Billy Lambert, his sister Carol Hooper, her daughter Maureen Kelly, and ...
by Matt Clarke
The New York Court of Appeals held that the prosecution’s failure to turn over fundamental discovery items that were in its possession and control prior to filing a Certificate of Compliance (“COC”) with its statutory disclosure obligations pursuant to Criminal Procedure Law (“CPL”) 245.50(1), (3) rendered the ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
There is nothing new about corporations that produce technology designed to enable law enforcement surveillance (snoop tech) composing press releases for law enforcement that promote both the brand and the equipment. There is also nothing new about media quoting at length from the snoop-tech-provided releases as ...
by Matthew Thomas Clarke
The Human Rights Committee (“HRC”) of the United Nations, an independent body that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”), issued a report on its review of U.S. compliance with ICCPR, which is one of only four human rights treaties ever ...
