by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Michigan held that a showup identification of the alleged shooter in a murder case was impermissibly suggestive and unreliable. Because the prosecution’s case was “significantly less persuasive” without the identification, it was not harmless. Therefore, the Court reversed the murder conviction and remanded ...
by Matt Clarke
On July 20, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that a prior state drug conviction under a statute that defined the drug more broadly than the equivalent federal statute could be used to enhance a federal drug crime sentence as a career ...
by Matt Clarke
The en banc Supreme Court of Colorado held that the successful completion of a deferred judgment for a sex offense, which resulted in the dismissal of that charge, does not count as a conviction for purposes of the bar to petitioning a court to ...
by Matt Clarke
On August 27, 2020, the Supreme Court of Mississippi held that a change in the guidelines of the American Board of Forensic Odontology (“ABFO”) prohibiting testimony that bite mark comparison could be used to identify an individual constituted new evidence that could be used in postconviction proceedings ...
by Matt Clarke
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled U.S.S.G. § 5Gl.3(b)(l)’s “a court shall adjust the sentence” for time served on a related state crime is mandatory once the section’s requirements are met. Acknowledging a circuit split on the issue, it ruled that a § ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Michigan ruled that a probation officer who found heroin during a compliance check after the probation had ended and then been unlawfully extended conducted an unauthorized warrantless search.
John D. Vandenpool was sentenced to two years of probation on June 24, 2013. On ...
by Matt Clarke
The Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District, held on June 16, 2020, that the California Supreme Court’s decision limiting the kill zone theory in prosecutions for attempted premeditated murder applies retroactively. The court reversed 11 convictions each for two habeas petitioners.
Juan Marshall Rayford and ...
by Matt Clarke
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that a criminal sentence was unreasonable where the district court failed to offer an explanation for a special condition of supervised release requiring addiction treatment, and the court failed to address the defendant’s nonfrivolous mitigation arguments. The ...
by Matt Clarke
On June 8, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit announced that federal courts are directed to use the categorical approach “to identify felony drug offenses for sentencing enhancement purposes …,” rather than a circumstance-specific analysis, and vacated a drug defendant’s sentence and remanded ...
by Matt Clarke
On March 27, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit vacated a firearms possession conviction from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio because the Government showed the jury a social-media video of a masked person it alleged was the defendant ...
