by Sam Rutherford
“The body of America’s Fourth Amendment jurisprudence reflects the effort to strike a balance between the state’s obligation to responsibly and legitimately meet the critical needs of public safety with the nation’s founding and enduring commitment to protect the individual liberty ensured to all its people.”
These ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of South Carolina held that a defendant’s confession was involuntary in violation of due process where the interrogating officer provided Miranda warnings but then assured the defendant that his statements would be confidential. This error, moreover, was not harmless because the defendant’s confession ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that police may ask whether a person stopped for a traffic infraction is on parole without violating the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Background
Victor Ramirez was stopped for speeding in a residential ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that District Courts have discretion to reduce sentences for both covered and noncovered offenses under the First Step Act if the sentences were originally imposed as part of a package.
Background
Following a jury trial involving six ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of the United States held that whether a state court drug conviction counts as a “serious drug offense” under the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”) is determined by comparing the state and federal statutes defining the controlled substance in effect at the time of ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of Colorado held that convictions for second-degree burglary and first-degree criminal trespass of a dwelling arising from the same course of criminal conduct violate the double jeopardy clauses of the U.S. and Colorado Constitutions, requiring the trespass conviction and sentence be vacated and ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan’s order granting a Michigan prisoner’s petition for writ of habeas corpus based on claims that he received ineffective assistance of counsel and that the State struck Blacks ...
by Sam Rutherford
On April 17, 2024, the Human Rights Defense Center (“HRDC”), CLN’s non-profit publisher, and the civil rights law firm of Loevy and Loevy filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on behalf of a Jacksonville man who spent nearly 45 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
The Crime
On October 8, 1975, Alfred Mitchell walked into a Jacksonville produce store and shot Kathrina Farah and David Phillips three times each after demanding their money. Willie Williams was sitting in the passenger seat of his car outside and had no idea what Mitchell had done. Mitchell jumped in the vehicle and sped off as police began pursuing them. When Willie asked Mitchell why they were fleeing, he responded, “I just killed two people. Don’t you be the third one.” Willie managed to escape the vehicle when it crashed into a parked car. He was apprehended without resistance by police and taken to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (“JSO”). Meanwhile, Mitchell fled into a nearby house and shot himself in the head, dying immediately.
Neither Farah nor Phillips died as a result of their gunshot wounds, but ...
by Sam Rutherford
In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement spurred by the police-involved killing of George Floyd, citizens across the country elected reform-minded prosecutors who ran on platforms promising accountability for police who break the law and murder defenseless citizens. Conservative politicians, police unions, and the like have responded by calling for and sometimes obtaining the removal of these duly elected representatives from office. And even when the prosecutors don’t lose their jobs, these pressure campaigns have been largely effective at cowing prosecutorial efforts to hold police accountable for misconduct.
The attack upon Hennepin County, Minnesota Attorney Mary Moriarty is just one recent example. The controversy involving Moriarty began when her office charged State Patrol Trooper Ryan Londregan for shooting and killing 33-year-old Ricky Cobb II on July 31, 2023. Trooper Londregan fired two shots into Cobb’s vehicle during a routine traffic stop after two other troopers at the scene determined that Cobb was wanted on an outstanding misdemeanor charge in another county. Londregan was the only trooper at the scene to pull his sidearm and fire.
Agents from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation (“BCI”) conducted an extensive investigation and determined that Londregan’s use ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Court of Appeals of New York, the state’s highest court, held that the People violated a defendant’s statutory right to a speedy trial by filing a certificate of readiness and then appearing at several court dates to request a post-readiness adjournment (continuance) without any explanation for the delay.
Patrick Labate crashed into a parked police car in December 2017, and, as a result, was charged with reckless driving and related offenses. The People filed a certificate of readiness for trial shortly after his arraignment and reaffirmed their readiness for trial in a series of hearings leading up to a trial date set for September 5, 2018. However, on that day, the parties appeared in court, and the People stated that they were not ready to proceed to trial without explanation.
The trial court subsequently adjourned the case on three separate occasions, each time based on the People’s unexplained statement that they were not ready for trial. Labate moved to dismiss the charges against him, but the trial court denied the motion. He was subsequently convicted and appealed.
New York state law requires that defendants be brought to trial within certain periods of time ...
