by Matt Clarke
Faulty forensics play a major role in causing known wrongful convictions in the United States. Just how big of a role the application of science to justice plays in sending the innocent to prison depends upon your definition of “wrongful convictions.”
The Innocence Project, a national litigation ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Hawai’i (SCH) held that a trial court erred when it ruled that the HRS § 702-230(1) prohibition against self-induced intoxication as a defense barred a defendant from raising the defense of amphetamine psychosis resulting in a lack of criminal responsibility even though he ...
by Matt Clarke
The Court of Appeal of California, First Appellate District, reversed a man’s convictions for forcible rape, digital penetration, and misdemeanor battery of a 15-year-old girl when he was 19 years old because the prosecution withheld evidence that could have been used to impeach the testimony of a ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Kentucky reversed a woman’s convictions for first and second-degree arson and six counts of attempted murder, four of which were enhanced as hate crimes, because the prosecutor engaged in “flagrant” misconduct by misleading the jury in closing arguments on a material issue in ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Nevada reversed Thomas Randolph’s conviction for murdering his sixth wife because the trial court erroneously admitted evidence of the similar murder of the man’s second wife for which he had been tried and acquitted 20 years earlier.
Randolph told police he shot and ...
by Matt Clarke
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit handed down an opinion on December 21, 2020, holding that the prohibition against a subsequent resentencing in § 404(c) of the First Step Act can be waived by the Government. Therefore, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern ...
by Matt Clarke
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana’s denial of qualified immunity to two police officers who allegedly fatally beat, kicked, and tasered a man who was on the ground in a fetal position and ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts held that consent to testing and analysis is required for the results of a blood alcohol test to be admissible in an operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol (“OUI”) prosecution even when there was a court order for ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Kentucky held that a criminal defendant had the right to be informed of an in-chambers hearing on the fitness and ability of his attorney to try the case and to have conflict-free counsel attend the hearing and represent his interests.
Terrence Downs was ...
by Matt Clarke
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment requires dismissal of a count in a federal indictment alleging conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 as it ...
