by Casey J. Bastian
Nationwide, on any given day, more people are on probation than in prisons and jails and on parole combined. —The Pew Institute
The concept of probation began with one Massachusetts man circa 1841. Motivated to assist the less fortunate, he’d post bail and find them employment. ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District, held that a defendant convicted in 1985 of lewd and lascivious acts, California Penal Code § 288(a), is entitled to removal from the sex offender registry notwithstanding the fact that if convicted under current law he would be required ...
by David M. Reutter
The Supreme Court of Ohio held that a defendant need not “intend to harm or kill another person to be entitled to a self-defense jury instruction.” The Court found error in the lower courts’ ruling otherwise and concluded the defendant’s counsel was ineffective for failing to ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that defense counsel was ineffective for failing to argue that self-defense is a complete defense to felony murder based on a felon-in-possession charge based on Georgia’s self-defense statute, OCGA § 16-11-138.
On the evening of September 9, 2017, Darnell Rene Floyd ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that geofence warrants violate the Fourth Amendment because they constitute a “general warrant.” However, the evidence acquired in the case as a result of the unlawful geofence warrant was nonetheless admissible under the good-faith exception to the ...
by Douglas Ankney
In a series of rulings from federal judges, the loophole allowing government agents from Customs and Border Patrol (“CBP”) to search cellphones without a warrant is closing. According to a report from Reason, on July 24, 2024, Judge Nina Morrison from the U.S. District Court for the ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, that state’s highest court of review in criminal cases, held that a trial court violated a defendant’s right to be present at a probation revocation hearing conducted via Zoom by muting the defendant during the hearing. This case challenges yet ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Kansas held that the complete and wrongful denial of criminal defendant John R. Cantu’s constitutional right to testify by removing him from the stand and striking his entire trial testimony constituted structural error and that the Court of Appeals erred in holding that the ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, enjoining enforcement of Tennessee’s 2004 Sexual Offender and Violent Sexual Offender Registration, Verification, and Tracking Act (“Act”) in its entirety. Instead, the Court held ...
by Michael Dean Thompson
Provide a DNA sample, and Parabon NanoLabs’ tech will generate a projected 3D image of a suspect’s face. The process takes advantage of AI trained on the DNA and 3D facial scans of thousands of volunteers. That might sound impressive, at least until compared with the ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
Concerns about the accuracy of criminal background check reports led two researchers to study this issue, and the results undermined commonly held beliefs about the reliability of such reports and their failure to align with American values and public policy goals.
Researchers Sarah Lageson and Robert ...
by Jo Ellen Nott
A new study, “On the Robustness of Black Americans’ Support for the Police: Evidence from a National Experiment” published in the May-June 2024 issue of the Journal of Criminal Justice, challenges the dominant narrative that Black Americans want less policing.
The research done by criminal justice ...
by Douglas Ankney
Touch DNA—“the invisible biological traces deposited through a person’s skin’s contact with an object or other person”—can be found at crime scenes, but detection presents a challenge for officers attempting to recover it. However, researchers M. Recipon and P. Kanemann reported in forensicmag.com that a newly developed ...
by Matthew Thomas Clarke
In June 2024, the U.S. Sentencing Commission released a data report on release for “extraordinary and compelling reasons” under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A), also known as compassionate release (“CR”). The courts have the authority to grant CR motions and are required to consider the factors set forth ...
by Dale Chappell
ederal courts have increasingly rejected the government’s argument that the U.S. Sentencing Commission lacked authority in implementing U.S. Sentencing Guidelines (“USSG”) § 1B1.13(b)(6). This provision, effective as of November 2023, allows courts to consider non-retroactive changes in sentencing laws when determining whether a prisoner’s sentence is unusually ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed a sentence imposed by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania because the district judge erroneously concluded he could not consider evidence offered by the defendant in support of a downward variance under 18 ...
by Matthew Thomas Clarke
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia’s order denying a federal prisoner’s 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion on whether his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to duplicative conspiracy counts in ...
by Matthew Thomas Clarke
The Supreme Court of Rhode Island held that an alleged victim’s handwritten letter to her mother and a scribbled note made at the police department were inadmissible hearsay and that their admission was not harmless. It reversed five child molestation related convictions and remanded for a ...
by Jo Ellen Nott
In a controversial move among its “get tough on crime” measures advanced in the February special legislative session, Louisiana became the first state to permit surgical castration as a punishment for sex crimes under a new law signed by Republican Governor Jeff Landry on June 11, ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of Virginia held that a trial court erred by enforcing a plea agreement after the parties had negotiated a new agreement because the first plea was neither accepted nor rejected by the trial court. This case presented yet another legal issue stemming from delays ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, clarified when the Government breaches its promise in a plea agreement not to recommend a sentence in excess of the low-end of the Sentencing Guidelines range when responding to the defendant’s request for a downward ...
Loaded on
Oct. 1, 2024
published in Criminal Legal News
October, 2024, page 50
Alabama: Former Centre policeman Michael Kilgore, 40, should have known co-conspirators will bumble any crime. After his co-conspirator went singing to authorities, Kilgore was fired and charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance in May 2023. WRCB reported, that according to the plea agreement, Kilgore stopped a vehicle and ...
