The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit granted a state prisoner’s petition for habeas corpus relief because the prisoner was denied his right to proceed pro se at trial, in violation of the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court precedent. The December 27, 2017 ruling was an unusual occurrence in the realm of
Fred Steese spent 21 years in prison for a murder that he did not commit. He was granted an Order of Actual Innocence in 2012 but was released from prison only upon entering an Alford plea—not admitting guilt but acknowledging that there is sufficient evidence to prove the charges. After entering the plea demanded by
The Georgia Supreme Court answered an unusual, yet significant, question on December 11, 2017. Can a conviction that requires proof that a rental car was stolen outside of the state coexist with a conviction that requires proof that the same car was stolen in the state? Both a trial court and an appellate court said
The use of DNA evidence in criminal trials has become ubiquitous. Because DNA evidence is highly persuasive to judges and juries, several new tests purport to make positive DNA matches using minuscule amounts of matter or even matter that has been polluted. As defense attorneys push back on these new methods, they are running into
The use of drug-detecting dogs in law enforcement is ubiquitous across the country. They are a popular tool among police agencies because a drug dog’s “alert” provides the probable cause necessary to legally search a vehicle without a warrant or permission. But are these alerts a response to the smell of illegal drugs or a
Founding Father George Mason once said, “When the same man, or set of men, holds the sword and the purse, there is an end of liberty.” Mason, along with many other founders of the United States of America, believed strongly in the separation of government powers. These men knew firsthand the potential for abuse and
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit handed the federal government a significant defeat in a September 8, 2017 opinion, in which it threw out all but one conviction of two union members. Joseph Burhoe and John Perry were members of Teamsters Local 82, a division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, located
October 2nd of each year marks the Annual International Wrongful Conviction Day. As of October 2, 2017, the third anniversary of the commemorative event, 351 people have been exonerated based on DNA analysis alone. Those 351 served an aggregate of 4,788 years in prison prior to exoneration. DNA exonerations are just the tip of the
A new study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has found that over half of all police killings in 2015 were not properly documented as such in official government records. The study was published online October 10, 2017 in PLOS Medicine. It hypothesized that the National Vital Statistics System (“NVSS”), administered by
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that a criminal defendant may fire retained counsel without any showing of good cause when seeking to replace retained counsel with court-appointed counsel. This is an issue of first impression in Colorado; the Court noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has not answered this precise question. Jesus Ronquillo was charged
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