Appeals

In 2023, disgraced former lawyer Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of murdering his wife and son following a high-profile trial. If that weren't enough, Murdaugh is also alleged to have stolen nearly two million dollars from his personal injury clients with the help of a bank CEO. During the CEO's fraud trial, the judge removed a juror who privately expressed anxiety due to other jurors' "reactions to my decision." The banker was then convicted on all counts. Did removing the anxious juror violate the banker's rights under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments?

What do you get when you combine a routine traffic stop with the driver's criminal history, several air fresheners in the car, driving from a job interview, and the driver's movements while looking for proof of insurance? Knoxville, Tenn. drug interdiction officer: Reasonable suspicion of drugs that justifies prolonging the stop to request a drug dog? (Which reveals an illegal gun but no drugs.) Sixth Circuit: No! And no good-faith exception. Evidence of the illegal gun should have been suppressed.

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?

Alabama ended 2024 with six executions conducted for the year, with half of them using the controversial method of nitrogen gas hypoxia (access full article).

That tied a state record, matching the totals for 2009 and 2010 for most executions during a one-year period, figures from the Alabama Department of Corrections and data compiled by anti-death penalty groups show. It was also the highest total for any state so far in 2024.

With no fanfare, Sandra Hemme, the Missouri woman who spent 43 years in prison for a murder she did not commit, is finally free of the legal system (access full article).

President Biden has appointed more than 62 Black judges, including 40 Black women, who are now serving lifetime appointments on the federal bench.

Today, the U.S. Senate confirmed Tiffany Rene Johnson to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, making her the 40th Black woman confirmed (access full article).

Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as first Black woman and 116th Supreme Court justice on Thursday, June 30, 2022 (access previous coverage).

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Thursday,  June 30, 2022, became the U.S. Supreme Court's newest justice, a historic move that makes her the first Black woman to serve on the high court in its 232-year history (access Supreme Court press release).

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).