by David M. Reutter
As protests spread across the U.S. after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020, another police killing two months earlier in Kentucky gained notoriety – that of Breonna Taylor. The 26-year-old emergency medical technician was shot at least eight ...
by David M. Reutter
In the wake of the “tough on crime” era of politics that pervaded the 1990s and 2000s, politicians and bureaucrats have found it popular to use criminal laws to address every societal problem and to punish every mistake via agency regulations. The phenomenon known as “overcriminalization” ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled that the so-called “Martinez exception” should have allowed a procedurally defaulted federal habeas claim of ineffective assistance of state postconviction counsel (“IAPC”) to be heard by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the grant of federal habeas corpus relief to a state prisoner, finding that counsel was ineffective for failing to raise a no-causation defense because of his “fundamental misunderstanding” of a key witness’ testimony at trial.
The case ...
by Dale Chappell
You’ve got “one clean shot” atfederal habeas corpus relief, so understanding how to properly file that motion is crucial. There aren’t any “do-overs” in federal habeas corpus, and there are lots of procedural obstacles that can kill your attempt at relief before it ever gets going.
In ...
by Jayson Hawkins
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, people from all walks of life struggled to find ways to reduce or eliminate face-to-face interactions. But for parole officers and the individuals under their supervision, there was already an app for that.
Parole monitoring apps for smartphones have been ...
by Anthony Accurso
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held officers lacked probable cause to arrest a motorist who failed to provide identification when officers stopped to help with car trouble.
On April 25, 2017, George Wingate III noticed the check engine light activated while he was driving ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated Fred McGee’s sentence because the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin improperly imposed a two-level leadership enhancement under Sentencing Guidelines § 3B1.1(c).
Police stopped the vehicle in which McGee, Wayne Frazier, and Terry Glaspie ...
by Casey Bastian
Repeated attempts by New Jersey lawmakers to rein in police union contracts have failed to eliminate costly provisions related to munificent compensations, financial incentives, and awards.
ProPublica and Asbury Park Press, an affiliate of ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, recently completed an unprecedented analysis of thousands of ...
by Dale Chappell
Citing the First Step Act’s purpose of correcting the racial disparities under the severe crack cocaine sentences handed out for decades, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia held on December 29, 2020, that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s reasons ...
by Derek Gilna
The Firearms Examination Unit (“FEU”) at the D.C. Department of Forensic Sciences (“DFS”) is under criminal investigation by the District of Columbia Office of the Attorney General (“OAG”), according to court documents that revealed “very serious … problems associated with DFS management.”
The investigation commenced in January ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit exercised its supervisory powers authorizing it to reverse the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois’s order that revoked Anthony C. Jordan’s supervised release.
In March 2019, Jordan began three years of supervised release imposed upon ...
by Dale Chappell
Settling issues of habeas corpus jurisdiction that have been less than clear in previous cases, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held on February 12, 2021, that a district court retains jurisdiction when a habeas petitioner moves to a prison outside the court’s district ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Iowa announced that when deciding a motion for new trial that alleges exculpatory material from medical records was improperly withheld pursuant to Iowa Code § 622.10(4), courts are to apply the materiality standard of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963).
Prior ...
by Casey J. Bastian
Civil asset forfeiture laws allow law enforcement agencies to seize property if that property is suspected of being related to criminal activity. These laws do not require that the owner be convicted of a crime; a person does not even need to have been charged for ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Michigan State Police (“MSP”) made admissions in a lawsuit revealing that top officials within the MSP used a text-messaging encryption app that causes messages to self-destruct once deleted, leaving no permanent record on officials’ phones or servers. Since then, Colonel Joseph Gasper issued a new policy ...
by Jayson Hawkins
A little-known tech company in Texas has altered the landscape of digital police surveillance. Hawk Analytics, headquartered in Bartonville, has developed software that streamlines the process police use to turn the huge quantities of information they get from cellular companies into intelligence while simultaneously gathering data on ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Wyoming ruled that a district court abused its discretion when it dismissed without prejudice the charges against Matthew A. Carabajal upon the State’s motion under Wyoming Rule of Criminal Procedure 48 (“Rule 48”), and the Supreme Court remanded for dismissal of the charges ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held on January 22, 2021, on a direct appeal, that a total ban on any employment unless authorized by probation was “overly broad” and delegated too much authority to probation, vacating the supervised release condition and remanding for ...
by Anthony Accurso
In an opinion delivered December 10, 2020, the Supreme Court of Arkansas held that the definition of a “person” used for aggravating factors at sentencing does not include an unborn child.
On December 3, 2015, Brad Hunter Smith and two accomplices lured Cherrish Allbright to a field, ...
by Anthony Accurso
The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas held that the good faith exception to Texas’ exclusionary rule does not apply where an officer executes a search warrant that he knows is based on an unsworn affidavit.
In the early morning hours of July 9, 2016, Officer Tyler ...
by Douglas Ankney
In a case of first impression, the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, held that when the State chooses to utilize an expert who relies on novel probabilistic genotyping software to render DNA testimony, then a defendant is entitled to access, under an appropriate protective order, ...
by Casey J. Bastian
Following 9/11, America’s law enforcement apparatus seems to have metastasized from a necessary component in a civilized society to a cancer-like growth on the body of personal liberty. American citizens are supposed to retain unalienable rights under the First Amendment – to peaceably assemble, speak freely ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of New Jersey announced its adoption of the framework articulated by the California Supreme Court in People v. Luttenberger, 784 P.2d 633 (Cal. 1990), for situations where a defendant requests material not subject to discovery by rule in order to challenge the veracity ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of Utah held that under Utah Code § 78A-7-118(3) “a criminal defendant’s appeal of a guilty plea made in justice court does not void that court’s conviction, sentence, and commitment.”
The Court’s January 28, 2021, opinion was issued in an appeal brought by ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, held that prisoners sentenced for offenses committed while imprisoned [known as “Thompson terms” pursuant to In Re Thompson, 172 Cal.App.3d 256 (1985)] are not required to serve those sentences after a grant of parole under the Elderly Parole ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of North Carolina handed down an opinion dated December 18, 2020, reversing a woman’s three felony embezzlement convictions after determining that the trial court should have held a competency hearing before resuming trial without her presence after she attempted suicide during the trial and ...
by Jayson Hawkins
The year 2020 was one most people would like to forget, yet for the nine cities that fell in the crosshairs of Operation Legend, the repercussions will be felt for years to come.
Operation Legend was a U.S. Department of Justice program aimed at reducing violent crime ...
by Douglas Ankney
The New York Court of Appeals declined the prosecution’s urging to adopt Federal jurisprudence allowing searches of vehicles based on warrants authorizing searches of premises.
As the result of their investigation of Tyrone Gordon, police sought a search warrant. In their warrant application, the officers swore that: ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the FifthCircuit affirmed a decision of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi granting Okanlawan Norbert’s suppression motion on the grounds that an anonymous tip failed to provide the requisite reasonable suspicion to conduct an investigatory stop.
Investigator ...
by Kevin Bliss
Illinois’ crime rate is not significantly tied to a reduction or an increase in prison population, according to the study Projecting Illinois Crime Rates and the Impact of Further Prison Population Reductions (November 2020.) In fact, Illinois should continue to see a decrease in the crime rate ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Ohio held thatimposition of two punishments for one quantity of drugs violates double jeopardy.
Officers executed a search warrant of Kenny Pendleton’s residence and seized, inter alia, three bags that contained mixtures of heroin and fentanyl with a combined weight of 133.62 ...
by Dale Chappell
Rarely may a federal court intrude on a criminal case in state court, unless there’s a chance of “irreparable harm” if the court doesn’t intervene. World Famous Drinking Emporium, Inc. v. City of Tempe, 820 F.2d 1079 (9th Cir. 1987). On January 20, 2021, the U.S. ...
by Anthony Accurso
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the insertion of a car key into a lock of a vehicle’s door by police solely for the purpose of determining its ownership constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment.
In January 2018, San Francisco Police ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Technology, like any drug, is a tool that can be used for good or abused for ill. Yet there is some tech so invasive and insidious by nature that government leaders must deny ever having utilized it – at least until they get caught.
The Foreign Intelligence ...
by Douglas Ankney
Adam Freeman, an ex-president of the American Board of Forensic Odontology (“ABFO”), has vehemently criticized bitemark-matching evidence. Freeman was deeply disturbed upon discovering that when ABFO-certified experts examined case files, they rarely agreed that the bitemarks were human – and even less so that the mark came ...
by Ed Lyon
Newly hired employees are told not to bring their personal problems, biases, and prejudices to work with them. This admonition is especially appropriate in police departments.
Some officers bring racist or other hateful comments to social media [CLN, October 2019, p. 41]. However, some of ...
Loaded on
April 15, 2021
published in Criminal Legal News
May, 2021, page 50
Arizona: A week after he was shot chasing a suspect, an off-duty police officer from Alberquerque, New Mexico, was arrested on February 21, 2021, for aggravated DWI. According to a report by local TV station KRQE, Officer Fouad Cherair, 29, was found by police in the suburb of Rancho Rio, ...
