A woman who ran over her sister's girlfriend three times — claiming she was trying to escape her abusive ex-boyfriend — becomes the vehicle for a ruling that reshapes plea bargaining for an entire class of defendants statewide.
A fractured Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Thursday that sovereign immunity does not bar a Garland County man's illegal-exaction challenge to the monthly "probation fees" imposed on him after two DWI convictions, while dismissing his parallel claim under the...
The Ohio Supreme Court held that R.C. 2953.21 provides the exclusive mechanism for collateral challenges to criminal convictions, meaning a capital defendant cannot use Civ.R. 60(B) to reopen a prior judgment denying his petition for postconviction relief.
The South Dakota Supreme Court reversed a circuit court’s denial of law enforcement officers’ request to redact their names from public criminal filings, holding that police officers qualify as “victims” under Marsy’s Law and are entitled to request...
A Pittsburgh federal judge has ruled that Pittsburgh police lacked reasonable suspicion to stop and frisk a man doing laundry in his apartment building simply because he had a gun in his waistband.
A California appellate court rejected Second Amendment facial challenges to five state firearms statutes, holding that assault weapons, short-barreled shotguns, large-capacity magazines, and silencers fall outside the Amendment's protection, and that a...
A published California Court of Appeal opinion holds that a trial court abuses its discretion when it denies misdemeanor diversion based solely on facts inherent in the charged offense without tying those facts to the statutory purposes of rehabilitation...
The Sixth Circuit affirmed the denial of habeas corpus for Phillip L. Jones, an Ohio prisoner on death row for the 2007 killing of Susan Yates, whose body was found at Mount Peace Cemetery in Akron.
The Supreme Court will hear oral argument next week in Chatrie v. United States, a case that challenges the constitutionality of law enforcement’s use of geofence warrants to obtain digital location data from technology companies.
A Bronx man convicted of attempting to assault a corrections officer gets a second look at a speedy-trial claim the lower courts threw out as too late and lacking notice.
The Eleventh Circuit has affirmed that the Second Amendment does not protect possession of machineguns, upholding the federal ban under 18 U.S.C. § 922(o) and joining several other circuits that have addressed the question.
A published ruling from California's Sixth Appellate District holds that trial courts cannot find satisfactory completion of mental health diversion when a defendant has violated the program's core requirements, even if the defendant later demonstrates...
The Ninth Circuit vacated Shahriyar Bolandian’s insider trading conviction and ordered a new trial after finding that the district court failed to properly investigate a juror who expressed uncertainty about his impartiality.
The Second Circuit reversed Akayed Ullah’s conviction for providing material support to ISIS, holding that acting independently on inspiration from propaganda does not satisfy the statutory requirement of working under the organization’s direction or control.
A man convicted in the 1994 shooting death of a seven-year-old Chicago boy wins the right to pursue a successive postconviction petition after an appellate court held that newly discovered evidence of systematic police misconduct — and an affidavit claiming...
The Hawaii Supreme Court held that a sentencing court must articulate its reasons for imposing a consecutive sentence on the record at the time of sentencing — not in a written order filed after the defendant has already appealed.
The California Supreme Court affirmed the murder convictions of both defendants but split on their death sentences, reversing Hronis's sentence because the trial court applied the pre-Edwards competency-to-stand-trial standard rather than the higher...
The Fourth Circuit reversed and vacated the conviction of Nathaniel Martin for felon in possession of a firearm, holding that a U.S. Forest Service officer unlawfully extended a traffic stop to conduct a criminal investigation unrelated to the initial...
Willie Junior Lilly’s conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm stands after the Fourth Circuit rejected his constitutional challenge to 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) and his claim that the district court miscalculated his sentencing range.
The Delaware Supreme Court reversed five of Daryl Baldwin’s felony sex-crime convictions, including two counts of rape, holding that the trial court abused its discretion by excluding DNA evidence showing that spermatozoa found in a 13-year-old victim’s...