by Michael Fortino, Ph.D.
You have been assigned to be a juror in each of the following cases, and your responsibility is to decide which of these guilty suspects is sane enough to qualify for the death penalty and which may be suffering from a mental health impairment that will ...
by Derek Gilna
In an April 2021 state court hearing, Fairfax, Virginia, prosecutors began the process of vacating or dismissing over 400 criminal convictions out of over 900 cases linked to disgraced former cop Jonathan A. Freitag. According to Fairfax County police, Freitag was first probed in July of 2019, ...
“The Fourth Amendment was designed to stand between us and arbitrary governmental authority. For all practical purposes, that shield has been shattered, leaving our liberty and personal integrity subject to the whim of every cop on the beat, trooper on the highway and jail official. The framers would be appalled.”—Herman ...
by Dale Chappell
Citing a sentencing error from 27 years ago, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted compassionate release to a man serving a life sentence for a 1991 car bombing that killed a Boston police officer and injured another. In a thoroughly-detailed opinion, the Court ...
by Casey J. Bastian
Is there an identifiable and preventable cause of crime? Experts have related trends in criminal activity to the economy, law enforcement-related activity and presence, societal demographics, and certain cultural issues. Causation has allegedly been linked to fatherless homes or a lack of education, both presumed to ...
by Dale Chappell
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy commemorated the inaugural federal Juneteenth holiday on June 18, 2021, by signing into law the Fair Chance in Housing Act (“FCHA”), prohibiting landlords from requesting someone’s criminal history on a housing application.
Called the “Ban the Box” law by advocates, the FCHA ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that a challenge to non-mandatory conditions of supervised release that were not orally pronounced in open court with the defendant present is not barred by an appeal waiver in a plea agreement.
When the U.S. District Court ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Connecticut ruled that under Massiah v. United States, 377 U.S. 201 (1964), and its progeny, a jailhouse informant can be an agent of the State—even in the absence of any formal agreement between the government and an informant—and use of evidence obtained by ...
It’s up to society to say what is and isn’t a crime, and it varies more than one might think.
by Emile DeWeaver, Brennan Center
Crime is not real. This assertion flies in the face of common sense and consensus. Of course crime is real, one would be justified in ...
by Michael Fortino, Ph.D.
Blood Spatter Analysis (“BPA”) for years has been a state of the art, highly-sophisticated forensic consideration in determining the trajectory and origin of a crime scene gunshot, yet recent advancements in physics have now turned the science of blood spatter investigations “inside-out.” Following the study of ...
by David M. Reutter
The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas held that Texas Penal Code Section 22.01(b)(2)(A) establishes an element of an aggravated crime and not, alternatively, a punishment enhancement.
The Court’s opinion was issued in response to a petition for discretionary review filed by the State. The review ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California’s denial of qualified immunity with respect to officers who coerced a 13-year-old boy to falsely confess to a murder.
A security ...
by Matt Clarke
On April 13, 2021, Police Chief Tim Gannon from Brooklyn Center, Minnesota (a city bordering Minneapolis), said he believed then-Police Officer Kim Potter’s fatal shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was unintentional. His sister, Diamond Wright, reacted by telling ABC News, “You don’t accidentally grab ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit joined most other circuits and held that Hobbs Act robbery does not meet the definition of “crime of violence” to allow a sentencing court to apply the career offender enhancement under the Guidelines. The Court also addressed that ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”) held on April 22, 2021, that a sentencing court may impose life without parole (“LWOP”) on a juvenile without making a finding of incorrigibility on the record, as long as the sentencing judge has discretion to impose a lower ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Court of Appeals of Maryland (“COA”) reversed a judgment of the Court of Special Appeals (“COSA”) that held the trial court’s error in giving an anti-CSI jury instruction was harmless.
A female college student looked out the door of her apartment and saw a man on ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that district courts must, upon motion seeking relief under § 404 of the First Step Act of 2018 (“FSA”), impose new sentences within the statutory maximum terms as amended by the FSA upon eligible defendants. The Court ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that district courts must, upon motion seeking relief under § 404 of the First Step Act of 2018 (“FSA”), impose new sentences within the statutory maximum terms as amended by the FSA upon eligible defendants. The Court ...
by Dale Chappell
In a case that further narrowed the problematic Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”), the Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”) held on June 10, 2021, that a “violent felony” under the ACCA requires the use of force targeted against a person, not merely reckless conduct resulting ...
by David M. Reutter
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit affirmed the suppression of evidence found to be the fruit of an illegal search that resulted after officers responded to a wellness check call.
The Court’s opinion was filed in an appeal brought by the federal Government. ...
by Michael Fortino, Ph.D.
When we read about defendants receiving sentences of 117 years, 213 years, or even 743 years for non-violent offenses, the usual cliché is, “The system is broken,” a pessimistic little bromide one hears repeatedly in response to the perceived abuses by our criminal justice system. The ...
by Dale Chappell
Prisoners get just one year to file a habeas petition in federal court after their direct appeals have been exhausted. Montana prisoners, though, have two avenues to challenge their sentence. On May 6, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that while challenging ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of Kansas upheld the dismissal of a defendant’s convictions after the district court found several instances of ineffective assistance of counsel (“IAC”), including an actual conflict of interest and the State’s failure to preserve an issue for appeal, forfeiting that issue.
After Emmanuel Ellie ...
by Matt Clarke
On March 25, 2021, the New York City Council voted to end qualified immunity for police officers. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he will sign the measure making New York the first city in the country to end the judicial doctrine that shields police ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania clarified the standard for admission of evidence of a third person’s crimes, wrongs, or other acts (“third person guilt”) offered by a criminal defendant seeking to raise reasonable doubt that he was not the perpetrator of the crime charged.
Officer Jeffrey Ference ...
by David M. Reutter
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia held that a plea agreement was ambiguous as to the Government’s ability to oppose Safety Valve relief for a defendant. Because precedent requires the ambiguity to be resolved in the defendant’s favor, it vacated the sentence ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that the First Step Act’s (“FSA”) amendments to 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) are inapplicable to defendants who were sentenced on or before the enactment date of the FSA even when a defendant’s sentence is later vacated and ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that Oregon’s Unauthorized Use of a Weapon, Or. Rev. Stat. § 166.220(1)(a) (“UUW”) was improperly assimilated under the Assimilative Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. § 13(a) (“ACA”) in the prosecution of Dat Quoc Do.
Do was a passenger ...
by Richard Resch
Introduction
The criticism and outrage at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s June 30, 2021, decision to vacate Bill Cosby’s convictions, order his immediate release, and bar any retrial are largely ill-informed or just plain misguided. Those decrying the fact that Cosby got released on a so-called “technicality” apparently ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Arizona held that when a defendant’s due process right to present a complete defense conflicts with a victim’s state constitutional or statutory rights governing privileged mental health records, the victim may be compelled to produce such documents for in-camera review if the defendant ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Video footage from security cameras is common fare in a variety of modern movies and television shows, but depictions in popular culture rarely offer an accurate portrayal of the state of surveillance technology or the way police or other security personnel utilize it. Gone are the days ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia concluded defense counsel was ineffective when he failed to object to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s reliance upon the wrong provision of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines when imposing the sentence.
Rashaun Parks pleaded ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Wisconsin held that a Wisconsin Department of Corrections (“DOC”) database of persons the DOC evaluated for civil commitment as a sexually violent predator (“SVP”) is subject to discovery in SVP commitment proceedings.
In 2016, the State petitioned a circuit court to commit Anthony ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
The Supreme Court of Illinois reversed a defendant’s conviction for firearm possession because the State failed to present sufficient evidence to prove that he constructively possessed it.
In June 2015, a police officer pulled over a van being driven by Charles Wise. He admitted to speeding, ...
by Douglas Ankney
In a case of first impression, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that a trial court’s failure to sentence an eligible offender pursuant to the Recidivism Risk Reduction Act, 61 Pa.C.S. §§ 4501-4512 (“RRRI Act”) implicated sentencing illegality and further held that a single prior conviction for ...
by Ed Lyon
Civil asset forfeiture (“CAF”) began as a legal way to take oceangoing vessels from owners who allowed their ships to violate customs regulations, laws, or outright contraband smuggling. After the first declaration of the war on drugs by President Richard Nixon in the 1970s, CAF was expanded ...
by David M. Reutter
Over three decades, thousands of Florida police officers and prison guards were given a second chance. More than 500 were subsequently decertified after engaging in further misconduct, the Naples Daily News reported in an investigative piece by Devan Patel. The majority of the complaints against those ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Police shootings across the country in recent years have raised questions about how cops are trained and their attitudes toward the local communities they are supposed to protect and serve. Under what circumstances are uses of force deemed excessive?
According to an independent report of an incident ...
by Jayson Hawkins
When George Orwell imagined the dystopian society of 1984, humanity simply did not possess the technology to bring his vision of the omnipresent surveillance state to life, even if there was no shortage of governments that wanted to do just that. The simple fact is that collecting, ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Law enforcement agencies, like all bureaucratic institutions, generate extraordinary numbers of documents, records, and data. As calls for greater police accountability have grown across the country, one of the primary obstacles to building consensus about the problems in policing or any possible solutions has been an inability ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Proposed legislation coming in the wake of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot would add “domestic terrorism” to the long list of federal crimes. Amid the unsettled atmosphere in Washington, D.C., the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2021 sounds, on its face, more like a common-sense measure ...
by Jayson Hawkins
As modern society grows increasingly dependent an electronic devices, it is not surprising that there has been a corresponding rise in the reliance on encryption to maintain privacy. But as recent investigations by the DOJ and FBI have revealed, most encryption does not offer the level of ...
Loaded on
July 15, 2021
published in Criminal Legal News
August, 2021, page 50
California: Two San Diego Police Department (SDPD) officers repeatedly punched a homeless Black man they were arresting on May 12, 2021, after they allegedly caught him attempting to urinate in public. According to a report by the Washington Post, the incident was captured on a cellphone video recording made by ...
