by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that a federal prisoner’s second-in-time habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 was not a successive petition because the prisoner was resentenced as a result of his first § 2255 petition. The Court also held that the decision ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of Indiana recently issued a decision clarifying the procedural framework, relevant pleading standards, and the State’s evidentiary burden before it may lawfully seize a citizen’s money or property in a civil forfeiture action. Because the State failed to comply with these requirements in this ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri erred by concluding that a defendant forfeited his right to represent himself in a criminal case based solely on the defendant’s repeated assertion of frivolous “sovereign ...
by Sam Rutherford
The California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, reversed a trial court’s refusal to grant compassionate release to a defendant diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (“ALS”) who had less than a year to live at the time of the release hearing. The Court held that the fact the ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, that state’s highest court of review in criminal cases, held that a trial court erred in admitting rap videos and other social media posts against a defendant on trial for murder. The Court determined that any probative value of the ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Court of Appeals of Washington, Division One, held that under the Washington Constitution, warrantless searches of parolees or probationers must have a nexus between the suspected violation of a probation condition and the place searched. Additionally, this nexus may not be expanded based on consideration of ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that the Government violated the terms of its plea agreement with a defendant where it failed to explain at sentencing why it agreed to recommend a downward variant sentence of probation and instead passively stated it was ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of the United States held that a Fourth Amendment malicious-prosecution lawsuit may proceed where one or more of several charges brought against the plaintiff was supported by probable cause so long as at least one charge was not.
Background
Jascha Chiaverini, a jewelry store ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit overturned a sentence imposed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, holding that the District Court’s one-sentence explanation for a sentence nearly 10 years above the recommended sentencing Guidelines range was insufficient to justify ...
by Sam Rutherford
In a short, per curiam opinion, the Supreme Court of the United States clarified the scope of the exception set out in Nieves v. Bartlett, 587 U.S. 391 (2019), to the requirement that First Amendment retaliatory-arrest claims may only proceed if the plaintiff establishes a lack of ...
