An indigent criminal defendant has a right to a public defender for many aspects of the criminal process, but not necessarily for all aspects. For example, what about an appeal of a denial of the reduction of a sentence based on certain retroactive amendments to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines? Seventh Circuit Judge #1: Is this an advisory opinion?
President Biden on Thursday announced he is commuting the prison sentences for nearly 1,500 people and pardoning 39 others in what the White House said was the largest act of clemency in a single day in modern presidential history.
The 1,500 people had been serving long prison sentences that would have been shorter under today's laws and practices. They had been on home confinement since the COVID pandemic.
The pardons went to people who had been convicted of nonviolent crimes, including drug offenses, who the White House said had "turned their lives around."
Pope Francis appealed on Sunday for U.S. authorities to commute the sentences of death row prisoners, in an unusual request during his weekly Sunday prayer in St. Peter's Square (access full article).
A coalition of District Attorneys, Attorneys General, law enforcement officials, former judges, U.S. Attorneys and other criminal justice leaders, submitted a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to commute the sentences of all individuals currently on federal death row (access full article).
A U.S. federal judicial panel has endorsed giving public defender programs greater organizational independence within the federal judiciary, a structural shift that would grant lawyers for indigent defendants greater control over their budgets, staffing and policies (access full article).
U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), the Senate’s only former federal public defender, joined U.S.
With warrant, Cleveland police searched a suspected drug dealer's house. Out on the street, an officer peers into the tinted windows of a car of a person found in the suspected dealer's home—but the car was not mentioned in the warrant—and sees what he suspects is a "bag of dope." Officers tow the car but don't get a warrant. Turns out it, indeed, was "dope." Man: the search of my car is unconstitutional because police need a warrant. Police: we don't need a warrant because drugs were in plain view and here's a video of officers peering into the car and the photo taken inside the car.
In a White House press release issued today, President Biden announced that he is commuting the sentence of 37 of 40 individuals on federal death row. These clients will have their sentences reclassified from execution to life without the possibility of parole. President Biden's "actions today will prevent the next Administration from carrying out the execution sentences that would not be handed down under current policy and practice."
Arkansas man on parole absconds and law enforcement get a tip he's staying at a friend's place and dealing drugs. They arrest him leaving the house and then search the house without a warrant. Plenty of contraband found. Yikes! Man: this violates my rights because no probable cause to believe I live there. Suppress the evidence Gov't: there's reasonable suspicion, if not probable cause. District court: No probable cause, evidence suppressed.
This unpublished per curiam opinion from the Fifth Circuit—affirming a denial of qualified immunity—gives no hint of the outrageous allegations in the case, which involve the innocent plaintiff being tackled and hogtied by Houston Police officers - Scott Erwin, Jennifer Gilbreath, Hallie Smith, Frederick Morrison, and Gino Dago - for matching the description "Hispanic male." For the full sco