Loaded on May 15, 2024 by Douglas Ankney published in Prison Legal News May, 2024, page 30 Filed under: Juries - Fair and Impartial, Impartial Jury, Fair Cross Section Requirement, Consequences of Plea, Misleading Advice/Statements to Defendant, Knowingly and Voluntarily Made. Location: Oklahoma. by Douglas Ankney The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that John Miguel Swan’s guilty plea was not knowing and voluntary because “his plea counsel materially misrepresented his right to an impartial jury selected through racially nondiscriminatory means.” While Swan was being arreste ..read more

Loaded on May 15, 2024 by Anthony Accurso published in Prison Legal News May, 2024, page 28 Filed under: Police Misconduct, Public Records Act, Police State-Surveillance, Police/Govt Misconduct. Location: United States of America. by Anthony W. Accurso It has been 10 years since body-worn cameras (“BWCs”) were posited as a solution to the lack of accountability in police murders of citizens, but police are still largely unaccountable, in part because the footage is often difficult to obtain. At least 1,201 people were killed ... Read more ..read more

Loaded on May 15, 2024 by David Reutter published in Prison Legal News May, 2024, page 29 Filed under: Work, Inability to Work, Statistics/Trends. Location: United States of America. by David M. Reutter With the rate of Americans who have a felony conviction steadily increasing as a result of the incarcerative state’s policies, corporate entities are experiencing a change of heart towards those with criminal records. In fact, many corporations say felons are often the most dependable, loyal, and ... Read more ..read more

Loaded on May 15, 2024 by Michael Thompson published in Prison Legal News May, 2024, page 25 Filed under: Police State-Surveillance, Electronic Surveillance. Location: United States of America. by Michael Dean Thompson Corporations collect all kinds of data about their customers with few rules about what they can do with it. Often, these collections come with assurances that the data will be de-identified before being sold to additional parties such as data brokers. One meaningful example is the ... Read more ..read more

Loaded on May 15, 2024 by Katya Schwenk published in Prison Legal News May, 2024, page 26 Filed under: Contractor Misconduct, Police Misconduct, Commentary/Reviews, Police/Govt Misconduct. Location: United States of America. by Katya Schwenk This article was originally published on lever.com on March 29, 2024   Private donors including big-box stores, fossil fuel companies, and tech giants are secretly giving hundreds of millions of dollars annually to law enforcement agencies and related foundations, allowing police to buy specialized weapons and technology ... Read more ..read more

Loaded on May 15, 2024 by Douglas Ankney published in Prison Legal News May, 2024, page 33 Filed under: Commentary/Reviews, junk science, Fingerprint Evidence, Latent Fingerprint Evidence. Locations: China, United Kingdom. by Douglas Ankney A team of scientists from China’s Shanghai Normal University in collaboration with scientists from the United Kingdom’s University of Bath have developed a fluorescent spray that reveals fingerprints in seconds without compromising any potential DNA evidence. The dyes used in the spray are manufactured from “Green Fluorescent ... Read more ..read more

Loaded on May 15, 2024 by Douglas Ankney published in Prison Legal News May, 2024, page 13 Filed under: U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Possession or Use of Firearms, Vicarious Liability, Safety Valve. Location: Illinois. by Douglas Ankney The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois erred in conflating the scopes of the no-firearms condition of the “safety valve” of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) and the firearms enhancement of U.S. Sentencing Guidelines (“U.S.S.G.”) ... Read more ..read more

Loaded on May 15, 2024 by Sam Rutherford published in Prison Legal News May, 2024, page 20 Filed under: Parole, Probation, Parole & Supervised Release, Concurrent and Consecutive Sentences, Multiple Sentences, Aggregate Sentence. Location: Washington. by Sam Rutherford TheSupreme Court of Washington held that the terms “community custody” and “community supervision” are synonymous within the meaning of the second sentence of RCW 9.94A.589(5) for offenses that occurred after July 1, 2000, and that trial courts may not impose consecutive terms of community custody that exceed ... Read more ..read more

Loaded on May 15, 2024 by Douglas Ankney published in Prison Legal News May, 2024, page 18 Filed under: U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Career Offenders, Recidivist Enhancements. Location: Maryland. by Douglas Ankney The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that Maryland’s first-degree assault statute, Md. Code, Art. 27 § 12A -1, is indivisible, and a conviction thereunder is not a “violent felony” for purposes of the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e). In 2008, Garfield ... Read more ..read more

Loaded on May 15, 2024 by Matthew Clarke published in Prison Legal News May, 2024, page 19 Filed under: junk science, Wrongful Conviction. Location: United States of America. by Matt Clarke The National Institute of Justice and independent research consultant Dr. John Morgan collaborated “to analyze and describe the impact of forensic science on erroneous convictions that the National Registry of Exonerations classified as being associated with ‘false or misleading forensic evidence.’ … Findings from this work led ... Read more ..read more