by Matt Clarke with research assistance by Ann Foster
Millions of people have submitted oral cheek (buccal) swab samples to companies like 23andMe and Ancestry hoping to use their DNA to trace their ancestors and locate relatives in a process known as genetic genealogy. By comparing their DNA to that ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of Montana held that the presentation of expert witness testimony adverse to the defendant via two-way video conferencing technology during trial violated the defendant’s right to confront and cross-examine adverse witnesses under both the state and federal constitutions. While such testimony is not impermissible ...
by David M. Reutter
The law firmly provides that every criminal defendant has the constitutional right to the effective assistance of counsel. Appearance of counsel is largely dependent upon one’s financial state. A person of financial means is able to hire an attorney; courts appoint counsel for the poor. As ...
by Matt Clarke
Between 2018 and 2024, the parole rate in South Carolina dropped from around 40% to just 5%, an 80% decline. South Carolina is not alone in experiencing dramatic reductions in the rate at which prisoners are released from state prisons on parole. A Prison Policy Initiative survey ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of Washington prohibited trial courts from placing defendants in what it described as an “in-court holding cell” without first conducting an individualized, on-the-record hearing to determine the necessity of its use, explaining that routine use of this cell—which is essentially a cage in the ...
by Douglas Ankney
s of February 2024, the National Registry of Exonerations (“NRE”) at the University of Michigan has registered 3,475 postconviction DNA and non-DNA exonerations since 1989—an average of 100 per year. Of those 3,475 exonerations, 438 (13%) were due to wrongful convictions (mostly for homicide and rape) ...
by Dale Chappell
For nearly a decade, the ACLU has fought Michigan’s Sex Offender Registration Act (“SORA”), challenging provisions it claims violate constitutional rights. Despite repeated rulings declaring earlier versions unconstitutional, Michigan enacted a revised SORA in 2021 that retained many restrictive and retroactive measures. In Does v. Whitmer, 2024 ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, that state’s highest court of review in criminal cases, held that the prosecution violates a state court rule of discovery by failing to promptly disclose relevant evidence in the possession of law enforcement, even if unbeknownst to the prosecution, in response ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a prisoner was entitled to a full de novo resentencing hearing after he filed a successful 28 U.S.C. § 2255 habeas corpus petition vacating some but not all of his convictions. The Court noted that a de ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of Michigan held that it is fundamentally unfair to deny an indigent defendant’s request for funds to retain an expert on false or coerced confessions where the veracity of the defendant’s confession is a central issue at trial.
Background
In 2016, Damon E. Warner ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California’s order denying a prisoner’s habeas corpus petition based on his claim that the prosecutor allowed a jailhouse informant to falsely testify that he received no benefit in ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
The Supreme Court for the State of Nevada reversed a trial court’s order denying a defendant’s suppression motion, holding that the search warrant authorizing the search of the defendant’s home could not be expanded to his person outside the home simply because the affidavit supporting the ...
Loaded on
Dec. 1, 2024
published in Criminal Legal News
December, 2024, page 33
Jon-Adrian Velazquez’s wrongful conviction for the 1998 murder of retired NYPD detective Albert Ward was vacated on September 30, 2024, after spending over 23 years behind bars. Leaving court on that momentous Monday, Velazquez, now 48, wore a baseball cap that read, “End of an Error.”
Velazquez was arrested at ...
by Sam Rutherford
A jury recently awarded a Missouri man $38 million dollars against Travelers Companies, Inc. and its subsidiaries after the insurance company refused to pay an $11 million settlement the man reached with the city of Columbia and six police officers for wrongfully convicting and imprisoning him for murder. ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of California held that a trial court may not impose a sentencing enhancement that was neither pleaded and found true by the trier of fact nor admitted to by the defendant in open court when resentencing the defendant pursuant to California Penal Code § 1172.6. ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
The Supreme Court of Arkansas held that courts have jurisdiction to hear habeas motions authorized by Act 1780 of 2001, in which a defendant may request new scientific testing of evidence to establish their actual innocence claim, even if the defendant has been released from custody ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of Rhode Island held that a police officer lacked reasonable suspicion to conduct an investigative search where the initial detention was based on an unsubstantiated, anonymous tip from a citizen informant that was communicated by dispatch. The fact that the defendant matched the tipster’s ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that the Government breached its promise in a plea agreement with the defendant to recommend a sentence at the low-end of the sentencing Guidelines range by emphasizing the “heinous” nature of his crime and its impact on ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of Indiana held that a trial court’s failure to explain the basis for its denial of a defendant’s motion for discharge based on a speedy trial violation was erroneous. The defendant objected to the trial court continuing his trial beyond the speedy trial period ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of Mississippi held that a defendant’s guilty plea to two forged prescription drug charges was not knowing and voluntary because he was not informed of his status as a habitual offender and the corresponding mandatory sentences that flow therefrom.
Background
In 2019, Soweto Ronnell ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of Washington held that a defendant’s judgment and sentence was facially invalid and thus exempt from the one-year time limit for seeking postconviction relief where it included several “washed out” prior juvenile offenses in the offender score calculation which in turn resulted in an ...
by Michael Dean Thompson
The cell-site simulator (“CSS”) is a powerful and largely unregulated device once designed for military intelligence use that has found its way onto the streets of the U.S. Today, in fact, it is even being offered to policing agencies pre-installed on unmarked police vehicles. The system ...
by Michael Dean Thompson
The Federal Aviation Administration has relaxed its rules so that drones can be flown beyond line-of-sight by certain groups such as cops, firefighters, and even construction companies. Some policing agencies are choosing drones that only point the camera down at the ground when they arrive at ...
Loaded on
Dec. 1, 2024
published in Criminal Legal News
December, 2024, page 49
Alabama: A former Tuscumbia police officer was sentenced to 20 years in prison on August 24, 2024, after pleading guilty to manslaughter in connection with a fatal pedestrian accident. The incident occurred in October 2022 when James “Jay” Keith Steward’s vehicle struck and killed 60-year-old Terry Hinton, according to WHNT. ...
