by Dale Chappell
Every year, innocent people go to prison, or even death row, because of government informants who lie to get a good deal in their own criminal case. The problem, studies show, is the fact that this horse-trading between the informants and the government is largely informal, unregulated, ...
by Richard Resch
Welcome to Criminal Legal News (“CLN”). We’ve been publishing CLN now for a little over a year, and the response has been tremendous. The number of people who’ve subscribed and provided positive feedback have exceeded our most optimistic projections when we first launched CLN. ...
by Virginia Griese
Throughout October, more than 105 women and teens incarcerated at Rikers Island and juvenile facilities had their bail paid by hundreds of volunteers and walked to freedom.
The Mass Bail Out Action (“MBOA”), organized by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and other grassroots groups, tried to post ...
A culture of racism, paranoia, and authoritarianism permeates American police departments. Piecemeal reform won’t be enough.
by Brian Platt, Jacobin
On September 6, Dallas police officer Amber Guyger entered the apartment of her upstairs neighbor, Botham Shem Jean, removed her service weapon, and shot the twenty-six-year-old man, killing him. ...
by Steve Horn
A study that called into question the reliability of DNA as a piece of smoking-gun evidence due to its propensity to be easily transferred and detected by modern DNA-detection technology was big news. However, a U.S. government lab sat on the laboratory-based and peer-reviewed study results for ...
by Richard Resch
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that police unlawfully prolonged a traffic stop in violation of the Fourth Amendment by repeatedly demanding that a passenger identify himself, absent reasonable suspicion that he committed a criminal offense, and he refused to do so.
In ...
by Douglas Ankney
On January 8, 2019, the Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District of the state of California ruled that when the only reason a defendant cannot pay a fine and court fees is the defendant’s poverty, then using the criminal process to collect the fine and ...
by Punch & Jurists
In Abu-Shawish, the Seventh Circuit addressed a little known and little used Federal proceeding that gives people who have been unjustly convicted and imprisoned for a Federal crime a damage remedy against the United States. Here, after the Court’s recitation of the colorful history of ...
by David Reutter
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that two state court warrants to place a GPS tracker on the vehicle of Juan Lopez-Zuniga lacked sufficient indicia of probable cause and could not be saved by the good-faith exception. The Court, however, found two other ...
by Matt Clarke
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit declined to recognize a joint participation exception to the spousal testimonial privilege for married criminal co-conspirators. In deciding upon this issue of first impression in the circuit, the Court affirmed the district court’s determination that such an exception ...
by Matt Clarke
On August 15, 2018, the Supreme Court of Minnesota held that the classification of a previous offense used to calculate a defendant’s criminal history under Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines 2.B.7.a is controlled by the offense definitions and sentencing policies in effect at the time the offense was ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The Supreme Court of Louisiana affirmed a court of appeals determination that a trial court erred when it denied a Batson challenge to the State striking one of two black jurors from a criminal trial panel because the trial court rejected the State’s first reason for ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”) held that the amount of force necessary to sustain a conviction for robbery in Florida satisfies the elements clause of 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(i) (“ACCA”).
In July 2015, Miami Beach Police confronted Denard Stokeling about a burglary. They removed ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The Supreme Court of Idaho ruled that a brief, single incident of crossing the outer line in a lane of travel (“fog line”) does not amount to a reasonable, articulable suspicion that the law was violated. The Court upheld a lower court’s order suppressing evidence found following ...
by David Reutter
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that where a defendant did not have an opportunity to object to special sentencing conditions because they were not announced at sentencing, it conducts an abuse of discretion review and any “unpronounced” special conditions must be stricken from the ...
by Richard Resch
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated Lashay Lopez’s three convictions on federal charges, ruling that the trial court committed prejudicial error in excluding expert testimony on Battered Woman Syndrome (“BWS”) in support of her duress defense.
Lopez and Hector Karaca dated when ...
by Mark Wilson
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that the issuance of a summons to appear on a traffic stop is not an arrest for purposes of calculating criminal history under the United States Sentencing Guidelines (“USSG”).
John Francis Ley pleaded guilty to a ...
by Matt Clarke
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that an Ohio federal district court erred when it doubled a defendant’s cocaine-possession sentence from the recommended 60 months to 120 months based on an online news article on the increase in drug overdose deaths in ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas reversed a trial court’s refusal to grant a criminal defendant a formal competency evaluation, finding that the trial court and court of appeals erred by improperly considering evidence and applying the incorrect evidentiary standard. Unfortunately for the potentially incompetent defendant, ...
by Matt Clarke
On July 12, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ordered that habeas relief be provisionally granted in the case of a Pennsylvania death row prisoner whose attorney failed to sufficiently investigate and present mitigation evidence regarding his abusive childhood and mental health ...
by Douglas Ankney
On December 18, 2018, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma ruled that when a drug court dismisses charges after a defendant’s successful completion of a treatment program, then the defendant is entitled to have the record expunged.
In July 2009, a petitioner identified as “D.A.,” was sentenced ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause was violated when the Government introduced videotaped deposition testimony without making a good-faith effort, based on the facts of the case, to secure the witnesses’ presence at trial. As such, the ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that investigators failed to scrupulously honor defendant’s invocation of his right to remain silent by continuing to question him after announcing he “wasn’t going to say anything at all.” As a result, the Court ruled that ...
by Richard Resch
The Supreme Court of the United States held that state burglary statutes that criminalize the burglary of “vehicles designed or adapted for overnight use” are within the scope of the generic burglary definition under the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”).
Victor Stitt and Jason Sims were ...
by Ed Lyon
Wisconsin has crime labs in Madison, Milwaukee, and Wausau. The Madison and Milwaukee labs are classified as full service because each is responsible for eight forensic-science fields, including DNA analysis. The Wausau lab covers only four forensic science fields. All three conduct Crime Scene Response (“CSR”) service, ...
by Matt Clarke
Criminal Legal News and its sister publication, Prison Legal News, have long covered prosecutors’ use of questionable forensics and unscientific lab techniques to secure convictions [PLN Oct. 2010, p. l; Apr. 2015, p. l, and CLN Jan. 2018, p. l; July 2018, p. 36]. ...
By Punch & Jurists
In a rare reversal of a witness tampering conviction, the Sixth Circuit, in Lobbins, held that the district court had given an erroneous jury instruction that misstated an essential element of the witness-tampering charge and that trial counsel had been ineffective when he failed ...
by Matt Clarke
Recently revealed internal training documents from the Bronx District Attorney’s Office show that prosecutors are being trained in courtroom techniques designed to delay trial, undermining defendants’ speedy trial rights and extending the pretrial incarceration of those unable to afford bail.
New York’s C.P.L. 30.30 is ...
by Ed Lyon
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (“LASD”) is the largest of its kind in the U.S. According to recent figures, it tops another list—it’s apparently the most feloniously libidinous as well.
Considering the cost of the resulting lawsuits and the price tag to defend against them, ...
by Chad Marks
The Supreme Court of Nebraska reversed a district court’s order denying prisoner James Myers’ request for DNA testing pursuant to the DNA Testing Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 29-4116 to 29-4125, related to evidence dating back to 1995.
Myers was charged with first-degree murder, use of a ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The Supreme Court of Hawaii, in ruling that a criminal defendant’s enhanced sentence violated the U.S. Constitution, has come on board with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000). The opinion by Hawaii’s high court put an end ...
by Kevin Bliss
The widespread use of social media to conduct unregulated, warrantless, long-term surveillance of individuals has become prevalent among the nation’s police departments. Officers have created Facebook accounts with false identities to follow targeted individuals without consideration for any clear investigative outcome.
Civil liberties groups question department policies ...
by Dale Chappell
Months after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo granted voting rights to most of the state’s parolees, state election websites still say they cannot vote.
More than half the board of elections’ websites expressly state parolees in general cannot vote. In the list of disqualifications on the sites, ...
by Kevin Bliss
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has dismissed about 45,000 charges in more than 30,000 drug cases prosecuted in the state due to misconduct by chemists Sonja Farak of Amherst drug lab and Annie Dookhan of Hinton drug lab.
Both were found to be falsifying records. Farak was also ...
by Ed Lyon
In June 2001, 18-year-old Kirstin Blaise Lobato narrowly escaped being raped in Las Vegas, Nevada. With her small pocket knife, she wounded her attacker’s genitals. He was left intact but did sustain enough of an injury to make him cry.
On July 8, 2001, ...
by Ed Lyon
For many people, the negative effects of being in jail or prison follow them throughout their lives after they re-enter society. Probably one of the most pervasive of these effects is obtaining employment they are qualified for in all aspects, save for their carceral ...
by Dale Chappell
Facebook recently told law enforcement to stop using fake accounts as a ruse to bust people on its service. The social media giant also shut down several law enforcement accounts that violated its policy against phony accounts.
The fake accounts came to light in a ...
by Betty Nelander
The tide is changing on police accountability and transparency in California with the passage and signing of the California Records Act (“SB-1421”) and Assembly Bill 748.
But SB-1421, which was scheduled to take effect January 1, 2019, has encountered pushback.
At least one community (Inglewood) has ...
Loaded on
Feb. 14, 2019
published in Criminal Legal News
March, 2019, page 38
Chesa Boudin stands out among the candidates for the 2019 district attorney race in San Francisco. Boudin, a deputy public defender, helped to lead efforts to reform the cash bail system and has earned support from progressives.
He hopes to see San Francisco become a leader in fixing the nation’s ...
by Kevin Bliss
Critics contend that bite-mark evidence is an inconclusive forensic science and should be supported by other evidence when used in the prosecution of a defendant for any crime. To date, there have been 31 exonerations from re-examination of cases dependent on bite-mark comparison, according to forensicmag.com.
The ...
by Virginia Griese
An individual’s liberty may soon be in the hands of technology.
Pretrial risk-assessment algorithms will replace the cash bail system in California, thanks to S.B. 10, the new bail reform law signed by Governor Jerry Brown effective in October 2019.
Pretrial risk assessment assigns a ...
by Kevin Bliss
Wake Forest University criminal law professor Ronald Wright recently published a research paper, which proves—with statewide evidence—that the peremptory challenge process of jury selection in North Carolina trials is racially biased.
Prosecutors, who are first to use their peremptory challenges, remove about 20 percent of the ...
Loaded on
Feb. 14, 2019
published in Criminal Legal News
March, 2019, page 40
One of two men protesting police brutality while carrying a sign reading “Fuck Bad Cops” was tased by a police officer, after which he sued for violation of his First and Fourth Amendment rights. In December 2018, Joshua Condiotti-Wade was awarded a $175,000 settlement from Commerce City, Colorado, in response ...
by Kevin Bliss
The New York Police Department (“NYPD”) expanded its gang database to include more than 42,000 New Yorkers during a time when gang-related activity is at an all-time low in the city. Placement is secretive with little-known criteria, yet repercussions for being listed are severe and far-reaching. The ...
by Derek Gilna
Although bigger cities and states have gotten most of the negative publicity regarding police misconduct, Minnesota and its biggest city, Minneapolis, are drawing unwanted national attention for over $60 million in payouts the past 11 years. Minneapolis’ share of that figure was almost $21 million, or 35 ...
Loaded on
Feb. 14, 2019
published in Criminal Legal News
March, 2019, page 42
Alaska: Three men, including now-retired Missoula, Montana, police officer Casey Richardson, were sentenced at an Anchorage court hearing in January 2019 for their roles in hunting-related crimes within the Wrangell Saint Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska during 2014 and 2015, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner ...
by Ed Lyon
For many decades, prosecutors have been the true kings of U.S. courtrooms. Longtime Dallas, Texas, prosecutor Henry Wade attained infamy for stating, “Guilty ones are easy to convict. It takes real effort to convict the innocent.”
His Houston, Texas, counterpart John Holmes gained a like measure ...
