by J.D. Schmidt
Modern criminal investigations, especially cold homicide cases, often rely on what is known as “touch-transfer” DNA to identify the perpetrator. But in recent years, developments in DNA research have shown that there is an increased risk of falsely linking an individual to a crime scene through its ...
by Richard Resch
As we usher in 2025, we also mark the eighth year of Criminal Legal News (“CLN”). To those of you who have been with us from the beginning, we extend our heartfelt gratitude for your continued support, which has been instrumental in our success. We are honored ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of Illinois reversed and dismissed Empire actor Jussie Smollett’s felony disorderly conduct convictions because the State previously entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the actor in exchange for his promise to forfeit the bond he posted and complete community service. The Court held that ...
by John & Nisha Whitehead
"He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake
He knows when you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness’ sake!”
—“Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”
You’d better watch out—you’d better not pout—you’d better not cry—‘cos I’m telling you why: ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit granted a federal prisoner’s habeas petition where his trial attorney failed to properly advise him of the mandatory sentences he would receive if he rejected the Government’s plea offer and proceeded to trial, holding that such misinformation constituted ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of Kansas held that a defendant’s privilege against compelled self-incrimination concerning his alleged criminal conduct survived his guilty plea and sentences for that alleged offense where legal avenues remained open to the defendant to challenge the guilty plea. The Court therefore vacated a judgment ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that the Government implicitly breached its plea agreement with the defendant where it agreed to recommend a sentence no higher than the top-end of the sentencing Guidelines range by submitting a sentencing memorandum detailing the defendant’s criminal ...
by Sam Rutherford
The California Supreme Court held that the 2022 amendments to Penal Code § 1170, which limits a trial court’s ability to impose an upper-term sentence unless it finds aggravating factors justify the sentence and also requires that those aggravating factors either be stipulated to by the defendant or ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of Colorado issued an opinion defining the scope of a defendant’s pro se Crim. P. 35(c) motion containing a request for counsel on postconviction review, holding that the trial court has only two choices: (1) determine none of the claims has arguable merit and ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Oregon held that the provision of ORS 136.290 limiting a criminal defendant’s pretrial custody to no more than 60 days also applies to retrials.
Anthony Lee Benjamin IV was tried for second-degree murder. A jury acquitted him of that charge but found him ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit delineated the scope of U.S. District Courts’ authority to summarily dismiss a state prisoner’s habeas corpus petition under Rule 4 of the Rules Governing Section 2254 Cases in the U.S. District Courts (“Rule 4”), holding that the U.S. ...
by Sam Rutherford
In May 2024, John Hallett, 54, of Michigan City was found guilty of murdering his roommate and then dismembering the body. Prosecutors obtained the conviction by relying on novel “scent of death” evidence to prove Hallett had stored the remains in his basement before throwing them in ...
by Michael Dean Thompson
It should come as no surprise that anything you delete on your device is not necessarily gone. Cops using forensic software can often look into a device’s primary storage (as well as cloud storage) and pull up information that the user may have believed was permanently ...
by Anthony W. Accurso
The Supreme Court of Georgia unanimously granted a defendant’s habeas petition on the ground both his trial and appellate lawyers provided ineffective assistance of counsel based on the fact his first-degree burglary conviction was improper where the building he robbed was not “the dwelling of another” ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of Washington clarified the scope of the attenuation doctrine under Article I, § 7 of the Washington Constitution, holding that the doctrine applies only when an event supersedes the original tainted police conduct to produce new evidence used in a warrant application but not when ...
by James Mills
A Nevada jury ruled that two Las Vegas homicide detectives fabricated evidence against a local woman in a 2001 murder. Kirstin “Blaise” Lobato was awarded more than $34 million in a verdict which was read aloud on December 12, 2024.
The jury awarded Lobato $34 million in ...
by Michael Dean Thompson
The majority of states across the U.S. now allow people who have been convicted of some felonies to have the record of their conviction removed. The complete expungement of felony records allows the convicted person to live as if the conviction never occurred. However, very few ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Supreme Court of Maryland announced a new rule of constitutional law permitting defendants to ask potential jurors during jury selection whether they are predisposed to believe or disbelieve a child-witness whenever (1) grounds exist to reasonably conclude that jurors may be more or less likely to ...
by Matt Clarke
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed a federal criminal defendant’s escape conviction for leaving a residential reentry facility without authorization after holding that, contrary to the positions of both the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida and the prosecutor, the ...
by Sam Rutherford
The Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District, held that defendants are entitled to conduct discovery in preparation for an evidentiary hearing held in response to a petition for resentencing pursuant to Penal Code former §1170.95 (now § 1172.6).
Leonardo Garcia was convicted of second-degree murder and ...
by James Mills
Federal law enforcement agencies have been gathering sensitive financial information of American citizens by manipulating the Suspicious Activity Report (“SAR”) system, according to the House Judiciary Committee. The Committee accuses the FBI, in particular, of treating financial institutions “as de facto arms of law enforcement.”
The Subcommittee ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit granted an Ohio death row prisoner habeas relief on his claims that the trial judge who sentenced him to death was unconstitutionally biased and improperly excluded mitigation evidence during resentencing proceedings. Notably, the Court observed at the outset ...
by Sam Rutherford
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that the maximum sentence a defendant may receive when his or her supervised release is revoked is determined by the classification of the underlying offense at the time of conviction, not the classification of the underlying offense ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2024
published in Criminal Legal News
January, 2025, page 45
DNA analysis of fired cartridge casings has been studied since the early 2000s and continues to be an emerging field in forensic investigations. While cartridge casings have been traditionally examined for fingerprints and tool marks, recent advancements in collection, packaging, and processing methods have opened new possibilities for recovering usable ...
by Michael Dean Thompson
Modern computing systems constantly record when a specific event occurs. A common example of this is the timestamp applied to a document file that indicates when the file was last updated. But the timestamps can be more pernicious. Within the files can be more timestamps that ...
by Douglas Ankney
In Riley v. California, 573 U.S. 373 (2014), the U.S. Supreme Court recognized the reality that the amount of data people keep on their cellphones is almost beyond measure. The Riley Court ruled that police must comply with the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement—both the “probable cause” and ...
Loaded on
Dec. 15, 2024
published in Criminal Legal News
January, 2025, page 49
Alabama: A former Huntsville, Alabama police officer, William “Ben” Darby, was sentenced again on October 26, 2024, to 25 years for the fatal shooting of a suicidal man in 2018, according to the Slate Report. Darby was convicted for the second time in May 2024 of shooting Jeffrey Parker, who ...
