by Christopher Zoukis
“Our procedure has always been haunted by the ghost of the innocent man convicted.”
—Judge Learned Hand (1923)
“Truth isn’t truth.”
—Rudy Giuliani (2018)
In 1984, Ronald Cotton was arrested and charged with the knifepoint rape of Burlington, North Carolina, college student Jennifer Thompson. Cotton became a ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The Supreme Court of Arkansas ruled that an Arkansas statute that allows warrantless blood draws based on implied consent violated the Fourth Amendment when applied to a defendant in a negligent homicide case. The April 26, 2018, opinion reversed the defendant’s conviction and remanded for a new ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of Colorado held that the burden of proof in determining whether a person voluntarily consented to a warrantless search is a preponderance of the evidence, rather than the higher clear and convincing evidence standard, thereby clarifying a misapplication by the lower courts over the ...
by Ed Lyon
California’s felony murder statute, as originally enacted, is quite draconian in its inclusiveness. A person could be convicted and punished as severely as the primary participant in a felony murder even if the person was not present at the murder scene—they might have been a getaway driver, ...
Loaded on
Nov. 28, 2018
published in Criminal Legal News
December, 2018, page 13
The American Bar Association (“ABA”) overwhelmingly adopted a resolution earlier this year for an end to the death penalty for offenders who were younger than 21 when they committed their crime. The ABA cited a growing medical consensus that brain development relevant to decision-making and judgment continues to develop well ...
by Attorneys Kent Russell and Tara Hoveland
This column provides “Habeas Hints” to prisoners who are considering or handling habeas corpus petitions as their own attorneys (“in pro per”). The focus of the column is on state habeas corpus and on “AEDPA” – the federal habeas corpus law ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that a defendant’s failure to appear (“FTA”) for trial after the prosecution had already violated its duty to provide a speedy trial did not excuse the prosecution’s violation, requiring dismissal of the charges with prejudice.
Daniel Barbour was charged in two ...
by Betty Nelander
Demonstrators who protested the police killings of black men in north Texas are crying blue privilege as the officers involved remained free in mid-September. In fact, nine of them who were exercising their First Amendment right to demonstrate outside AT&T Stadium were placed behind bars while officers ...
by Sandy Rozek, NARSOL
Testimony from individuals at a sentencing hearing has one primary purpose: to give the court additional information on which to base a sentencing decision.
Victim impact statements focus on the harm done, while statements on behalf of the convicted are intended to paint as thorough a ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of Kentucky held that the state statute determining intellectual disability for disallowing imposition of the death penalty was unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment after recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, overturning the death sentence of a man on death row for over 20 years.
Robert ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that a federal prisoner convicted of violating 21 U.S.C. § 841, whose sentence was enhanced under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A) due to prior state felony drug convictions, may bring a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 habeas petition alleging ...
by Kevin Bliss
The Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District ruled that the State was responsible in a case where the systemic breakdown of the public defender system delayed the Sexually Violent Predator (“SVP”) hearing for George Vasquez for 17 years, violating his right to a timely trial ...
by Christopher Zoukis
It is a rare issue of Criminal Legal News that does not include an article relating in some way to the doctrine of qualified immunity. The doctrine, which grants police officers and other government officials immunity from civil liability in certain circumstances, rears its ugly head in ...
by Dale Chappell
The New York Court of Appeals reversed a conviction in which an “excited utterance” overheard in the background on a 911 call ostensibly identifying the shooter was used as evidence against a defendant because it could not be established that the person making the utterance personally observed ...
by David Reutter
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed a grant of summary judgment to police officers who arrested a man for a snarky Facebook post without conducting even a minimal investigation.
James Ross, 20, is an active user of Facebook. One of Ross’ Facebook friends ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that a defendant convicted of third-degree criminal sexual conduct did not receive a fair trial because a juror failed to disclose her own childhood sexual abuse. The August 21, 2018, ruling reversed a federal district court’s decision ...
by Richard Resch
On October 11, 2018, the Supreme Court of Washington issued an opinion in which the Court struck down the state’s death penalty, announcing: “we hold that Washington’s death penalty is unconstitutional, as administered, because it is imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner.” The Court continued ...
by Richard Resch
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a California prisoner convicted of murder is entitled to habeas relief because a detective continued to interrogate him even after he clearly and repeatedly invoked his right to counsel, and the detective’s persistent unlawful badgering eventually ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas reversed an intermediate court of appeals because the lower court improperly determined that “deadly conduct” is not a lesser-included offense of aggravated assault by threat. The top Texas criminal court found that the elements of both offenses are functionally equivalent ...
by Shawn Musgrave and Brooke Williams, Published by Criminal Legal News with permission from The Intercept, July 18, 2018
A team of federal prosecutors charged with promoting “consistency and fairness” in death penalty cases has been hurling incredible, on-the-record accusations against one another — from neglecting boxes of evidence to ...
by David Reutter
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled a defendant was entitled to be resentenced where trial counsel failed to secure a three-level reduction under the federal sentencing guidelines for acceptance of responsibility.
Following a December 17, 2015, search by federal agents of a home ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of Colorado held that amendments to statutes favorable to defendants apply retroactively to non-final convictions, unless the statute contains language that expressly provides it applies only prospectively, resolving a conflict between statutes and its own precedent.
John Stellabotte owned a towing company, illegally towed ...
Loaded on
Dec. 4, 2018
published in Criminal Legal News
December, 2018, page 31
The Orlando Police Department in Florida announced that it will continue to test facial recognition software developed by Amazon, despite concerns of abuse by police—and privacy issues.
Amazon’s facial recognition program, called Rekognition, was designed to allow its customers to upload an image and quickly find a match with images ...
by Christopher Zoukis
If you live in south-central Pennsylvania and your trash is picked up by Penn Waste, a company owned by Republican State Senator Scott Wagner, you might want to pay the bill on time. If you don’t, police officers may come to your home, inventory your possessions, and ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of Michigan held that a trial judge’s discretion plays no part in appointing an expert witness for a defendant; instead, a defendant must show a “reasonable probability” the expert’s assistance would be needed to prevent a violation of due process. In doing so, the ...
by Mark Wilson
The Supreme Court of Oregon held that the “for consideration” element of a “commercial drug offense” requires proof of a completed drug sale or an existing agreement to sell drugs. The Court rejected the State’s argument that “for consideration” may be proved by evidence of drug possession ...
by Betty Nelander
The TigerText app that permanently erases messages after a set time period has triggered controversy in Long Beach, California. There, the police department suspended use of it after its use was exposed by the media. What may have been sent using the self-erasing texting app remains unknown. ...
by Richard Resch
In its opinion issued on May 9, 2018, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a prisoner has a First Amendment right not to serve as a prison informant. However, since that right was not clearly established at the time the prisoner was ...
Loaded on
Dec. 5, 2018
published in Criminal Legal News
December, 2018, page 35
For seven months, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray argued that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies needed “exceptional access” to be built into mobile devices, such as cellphones and tablets. To justify his argument, he said that in 2017 the FBI had been “unable to access the content of ...
by Dale Chappell
Cook County Judge William H. Hooks took the unusual step of granting murder defendant Jackie Wilson a no-money bond, letting Wilson go free while he awaits a new trial.
Wilson’s conviction was vacated after Hooks concluded his confession was coerced after former Police Commander Jon Burge and ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit granted a federal prisoner’s 28 U.S.C. § 2255 petition because one of the predicate offenses used to enhance his sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”) could no longer qualify as a “violent felony” post-Johnson v. United ...
by Matt Clarke
On July 6, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a federal court’s denial of a California state prisoner’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus after determining that appellate counsel failed to raise a viable claim under Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. ...
by Kevin Bliss
New crime registries have been launched around the country, but their value remains to be seen. Research suggests their detriments outweigh their benefits, reveals Jessica Pishko’s article, “Expert: Crime Registries Turn People into Pariahs With ‘Very Little to Lose,’” at TheAppeal.org.
While public sex-crime registries are mandated ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s ruling that a man civilly committed under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (“Act”) was no longer a “sexually dangerous person.” As a result of the April 10, 2018, ruling, ...
by Ed Lyon
Lynch mobs, vigilance committees, and necktie parties. These terms evoke what many stories refer to as frontier justice, where groups of people operated outside the established frameworks of law and order, sheriffs and courts, to wreak revenge on other people, making such groups outlaws.
In Oklahoma today, ...
by Derek Gilna
A September 2018 report by the New York American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”) argues that the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) continues to target minority communities by following a broken-windows theory of policing.
The theory “posits that if minor crimes are allowed to happen in a ...
by Derek Gilna
New York City police misconduct continues to cost New York taxpayers a lot of money. In the past five years, New York City has paid out $384 million in judgments and settlements to resolve scores of lawsuits, including sums as small as $1,500 and as large as ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of Arizona held that a law categorically banning bail for persons charged with sexual assault was facially unconstitutional, debunking the myth that sexual offenders are “inherently” a danger to the public and that an individualized assessment must be done in every case to satisfy ...
by Kevin Bliss
An Ohio study published in Criminal Justice Policy Review determined that the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”) system classifying the risk assessment of sex offenders is prone to racial bias.
A sample of the 673 sex offenders released from prison in Ohio between 2009 and ...
Loaded on
Dec. 5, 2018
published in Criminal Legal News
December, 2018, page 41
Being pulled over or stopped on the street by police? A new Siri Shortcuts app for iPhone iOS 12 lets users record their experience with police.
Called Police, the Siri Shortcuts app acts like a bodycam. “Once the shortcut is installed and configured, you just have to say, for example, ...
Loaded on
Nov. 28, 2018
published in Criminal Legal News
December, 2018, page 42
Arkansas: Is the Union County Sheriff’s Department making a mocking social statement by having prisoners wear Nike shirts for their mugshots? Colin Kaepernick is the face of the Nike Just Do It Campaign and symbol of the Black Lives Matter movement for his civil rights activism, including kneeling during the ...
by Kevin Bliss
Shannon Daves and five others have filed a federal class-action suit against Dallas County, Texas, due to their secret bail hearings that last under a minute. The hearings are not open to the public or press, and bail is set by a predetermined schedule without consideration for ...
