by Michael Fortino, Ph.D.
Just when we thought things could not get any worse, somehow they did. In the midst of a global pandemic, economic collapse, mass unemployment, and racial divide, we were exposed to a dark truth about police brutality—a truth we could not unsee because the weight of ...
by Matt Clarke
On March 27, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit vacated a firearms possession conviction from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio because the Government showed the jury a social-media video of a masked person it alleged was the defendant ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled that a deputy trying to help a woman retrieve her belongings by opening the lid to a camper did not make a subsequent warrantless search lawful under the community-caretaking exception to the warrant requirement.
Deputy Buddy Clinton ...
by Dale Chappell
In my last column, we went over the general standard for showing ineffective assistance of counsel (“IAC”) in the guilty plea context under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984).
In this column, we’ll go over the showing required to establish prejudice in the different categories ...
by Douglas Ankney
A recent report found that officers in the New York Police Department (“NYPD”) fired their Tasers 995 times in 2018. Of those incidents, 224 times the use of the Tasers was unintentional.
Retired NYPD Captain John Eterno, now director of graduate studies in criminal justice at Malloy ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of California held that California Penal Code § 459.5(b) prohibits charging both shoplifting and theft for the same property, even in the alternative.
Anthony Lopez exited a Walmart pushing a cart containing merchandise valued at $496.37. An asset protection officer confronted him, and Lopez ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held on April 20, 2020, that counsel’s erroneous advice that an open guilty plea without a plea agreement would allow an appeal of the denial of a motion to suppress evidence amounted to ineffective assistance of counsel (“IAC”), ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled that imposition of GPS monitoring as a condition of bail was an unreasonable search because the monitoring did not further any legitimate governmental interest.
In July 2015, Eric Norman was charged in Boston Municipal Court with possession of a Class ...
by Dale Chappell
For the second time in the past year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned a decades-old murder conviction after the federal government admitted that it used faulty hair evidence to secure the conviction.
After almost 50 years of sitting in prison on a ...
by Anthony Accurso
The Supreme Court of the State of Minnesota affirmed a decision by the Court of Appeals, which held the district court erred in denying a defendant’s request for non-identifying information about a confidential informant (“CI”).
In February 2017, law enforcement filed an affidavit requesting a search warrant ...
by David M. Reutter
In a case of first impression, the Supreme Court of Michigan held “that MCR 6.302(B)(2) requires the trial court, in cases where such advice is relevant, to advise a defendant of its discretionary consecutive-sentencing authority and possible consequences of that authority for defendant’s sentence.”
The Court’s ...
by Anthony Accurso
The Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (“SJC”) upheld a superior court’s order suppressing evidence obtained from a cellphone because the search of the cellphone was unsupported by probable cause, and the officer failed to follow guidelines relating to inventory of property.
Tomas Barillas was ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois that denied Anthony Howell’s motion to suppress, holding that police lacked reasonable suspicion to frisk him.
Chicago Police Officers Sean Kelly and Christopher Miller ...
by Ed Lyon
One of the things most free governments around the world have historically admired about the United States is its willingness to open its file cabinets’ many drawers to its citizens upon request. Since the passage of the Patriot Act that followed the Twin Towers’ destruction on 9/11, ...
by Dale Chappell
In an unusual move, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas rejected the typical remedy under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 and instead opted to grant a “judicial remedy” to allow an out-of-time appeal, where the Court found that counsel was ineffective for failing to ...
by Dale Chappell
The Court of Appeal of California, Fourth Appellate District, held on April 30, 2020, that the trial court abused its discretion when it denied a motion for compassionate release based upon considerations other than those set forth in Pen. Code § 1170, subd. (e).
The Department of ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Colorado held that a warrant authorizing a general search of Pamela Kay Coke’s cellphone was overbroad and violated the Fourth Amendment’s particularity requirement.
Fifteen-year-old T.F. told police Coke had sexually assaulted him. T.F. gave officers his cellphone, which contained messages from “Pam” apologizing ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held on April 8, 2020, that a prior conviction under Georgia’s terroristic threats statute was overbroad and therefore failed to meet the elements clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”).
Najee Oliver was sentenced as an armed ...
by Anthony Accurso
Since the rise of social media and ever-present cellphones with cameras, the narrative around these developments has been that justice is rapidly democratizing.
While many law enforcement failures and abuses have been exposed by citizens with technology, this trend is not the case for all technology. “Access ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Kansas held that a district court “failed to properly apprise [Bryan Richard] Harris of his right to a jury trial and failed to ensure that Harris understood the nature of the right he was giving up.”
Harris was transported to the Atchison County ...
by Anthony Accurso
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit remanded a case to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland because the lower court failed to provide sufficient development on the record to determine whether the use of a stingray device violated the defendant’s rights. ...
by Dale Chappell
A new law enacted in Oklahoma will crack down on unreliable jailhouse informants who testify against others in exchange for lenience in their own cases and sometimes for other benefits.
The law was sponsored by Senator Julie Daniels and Representative Chris Kannady, making Oklahoma the third state ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of South Carolina reversed Billy Phillips’ murder conviction because the State presented improper testimony regarding DNA evidence and provided information to the jury that was simply wrong.
Well-known drug dealer Darius Woods was found shot to death on his couch. His handgun — the ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Iowa announced that the words “good cause” in the newly amended appeals statute of Iowa Code § 814.6(1)(a)(3) means “a legally sufficient reason.”
Mercedes JoJean Damme pleaded guilty to two counts of theft in the third degree. The State agreed to seek no ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of South Carolina dismissed the State’s appeal of a guilty plea and affirmed denial of motions to reconsider the sentence for recusal of the trial court.
The Court’s order came in an appeal the State brought in the prosecution of Rick Quinn, Jr. ...
by Ed Lyon
Some ancient cultures believed that everywhere a person went they left an invisible essence of themselves behind that marked their passage. While this is true as far as scent goes, that quickly deteriorates. Today, thanks to technology, it’s taken on more of a prophetic fulfillment than a ...
by Jayson Hawkins
A prime consideration in determining guilt and assessing punishment for a crime has long been the mental state of the accused. Legal precedents that weighed the workings of the human mind can be traced to the 17th century, according to Deborah Denno of Fordham University School of ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine vacated one of Ronald Paquin’s convictions for gross sexual misconduct on double jeopardy grounds and ordered the trial court to enter a judgment of acquittal on three additional counts.
Paquin served as the priest at the Roman Catholic Church in Haverhill, ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed habeas relief to two codefendants on April 29, 2020, after an Arkansas state prosecutor (now a state supreme court justice) intentionally destroyed evidence about favorable treatment for a jailhouse informant that influenced the jury’s verdict.
Over 30 ...
by Douglas Ankney
Based on Rehaif v. United States, 139 S. Ct. 2191 (2019) (“Rehaif II”), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit vacated Oniel Christopher Russell’s conviction of possessing a firearm and ammunition as an immigrant unlawfully in the U.S. in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Washington determined that Alejandro Escalante was “in custody” and entitled to the warnings enunciated in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), when he was detained for a search at the U.S.-Canada border.
Escalante and three friends were returning from a music ...
by Ed Lyon
Issues facing exonerees and wrongfully convicted individuals have been recurring topics in CLN and PLN. Still, there’s another category of arguably similarly situated citizens that must also be paid some attention: Those who were wrongfully accused of crimes they did not commit.
Even though a great ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held on April 23, 2020, that a retroactive change in law that rendered a career offender sentence erroneous required a district court to fix that error when resentencing under the First Step Act’s application of the Fair Sentencing ...
by Dale Chappell
A study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”), a non-biased government agency that does independent testing on various technologies and industries, has found that facial recognition software used to identify criminal suspects is lacking across the board in accuracy.
The study was thorough; it ...
by Ed Lyon
Christopher Tapp of Idaho Falls, Idaho, was convicted of a murder and rape after 20-plus hours of interrogations over a three-week period in 1996. He was 19 at the time of his arrest.
Despite being innocent of the crime, after intensive browbeating by cops, he pleaded guilty. ...
by Douglas Ankney
The “Show Me” state showed indifference to human life by carrying out the death sentence of Walter Barton on May 19, 2020, at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri. Neither the courts nor the governor would intervene.
Executions require interactions among large numbers of people. Court ...
by Douglas Ankney
According to a recent study from the University of Alberta, trained dogs can detect gasoline in trace amounts as small as one-billionth of a teaspoon (or 5 pico-liters). “During an arson investigation, a dog may be used to identify debris that contains traces of ignitable liquids — ...
by Michael Fortino, Ph.D.
On October 19, 1960, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested while taking part in the Atlanta Student Movement’s campaign of boycotts and sit-ins, in which he and others attempted to seek service at a whites-only dining room in the Rich’s Department Store in ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Automated license-plate readers (“ALPRs”) have come into wider use among law enforcement circles, touted for making the jobs of police easier and more efficient.
The technology employs high-speed cameras in cop cars, on top of streetlights, and other locations to record the license plate of every single ...
by Douglas Ankney
During the coronavirus lockdown, the FBI is urging people to stay in shape by downloading its Fitness App. On March 23, 2020, the agency tweeted “download the FBI’s Physical Fitness Test app to learn proper form for exercises you can do at home like pushups and sit ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
A New Jersey man reaches out to police ahead of a possible altercation to make sure authorities are aware of his son’s autism-related issues.
Gary Weitzen’s son Christopher has autism. Christopher has anxiety issues, and it is difficult for him to look people in the eye. ...
by Bill Barton
In 2018, the MacArthur Justice Center filed a class-action lawsuit against the city of Chicago, former Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, and the city’s police officers, challenging the city’s gang database. The suit was filed on behalf of several community groups and four specifically named plaintiffs who are ...
by Kevin Bliss
Researchers at Amsterdam UMC — led by forensic biophysicist Maurice Aalders in collaboration with Co Van Ledden Hulsebosch Center and the Netherlands Forensic Institute —have devised a new method for calculating time of death using ambient body temperature with an average deviation of about 45 minutes.
Current ...
by Douglas Ankney
Melissa Gass is a wife and a mother of five children who suffers from seizures as a result of a car crash when she was 10 years old. The seizures occur weekly, sometimes daily. She suddenly feels a throbbing pain in the back, left side of her ...
by Dale Chappell
Medical marijuana is legal in the state of Minnesota, but recreational use is not. This causes problems for the state’s Hemp Pilot program, which licenses growers of hemp as long as the THC concentration stays below 0.3 percent. If the THC is greater than that, it’s considered ...
by Ed Lyon
Calling for “justice for Breonna,” a recent vigil in Louisville and demonstrations across the country have focused on the young unarmed Black woman fatally shot by police in her own bed.
Breonna Taylor was a hard-working emergency room technician on the front lines in the nation’s fight ...
by Dale Chappell
In the show Making a Murderer on Netflix, a forensics lab was tasked with figuring out if microscopic particles on a bullet were bone, as the prosecutor claimed. Turns out it was wood, not bone, lending a hand to the defense’s theory that it was not the ...
by Kevin Bliss
David Robinson settled out of court with the city of Sikeston, Missouri, for $8 million for a wrongful murder conviction, which forced him to spend 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
Represented by Jonathan Potts, Robinson filed suit against the city of ...
by Douglas Ankney
While Sleepy Hollow had the Headless Horseman, the Massachusetts State Police (“MSP”) had the headless dog. Spot — a one-time member of MSP’s bomb squad — is a semi-autonomous robotic dog that MSP leased for three months from Boston Dynamics.
Fearing the potential abuse of robotics technology ...
by Kevin Bliss
Critics say the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) is responding to protestors of George Floyd’s May 25, 2020, death with increased violence and no fear of repercussion. Accusations have been made of beatings, pepper spraying, and threatening protestors with guns. Civilians complain that police illegally cover ...
Loaded on
July 15, 2020
published in Criminal Legal News
August, 2020, page 50
California: A series of racist and anti-Muslim posts on social media allegedly has ties to a private group of active and retired San Jose Police officers calling themselves 10-7ODSJ, a reference to the police code for “off duty,” mercurynews.com reports. In June 2020, four of them were placed on ...
