News

The Fair Punishment Project Details an “Epidemic of Brady Violations”

The Fair Punishment Project (“FPP”), a criminal justice reform group, released a report in November 2017 detailing an “epidemic” of Brady violations taking place in criminal courts across the country. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), and its progeny that the prosecution is duty-bound to disclose any information

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Secret ATF Slush Fund Dispensed Million

An explosive investigation by The New York Times has revealed the existence of a secret account used by agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”) to dispense millions of untraceable private dollars to informants and agents for over seven years. The story reads like something straight out of Hollywood. In 2006,

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The Insanity Defense: It’s Not What You Think

In the American criminal justice system, a defendant who commits a crime while “insane” cannot be held legally responsible for that crime. In such cases, legal guilt is not established, and the defendant may not be punished. Instead, a defendant who is found not guilty by reason of insanity (“NGRI”) is involuntarily committed to a

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In Historic Move, 15 Cases Related to Crooked Chicago Cop Thrown Out

Cook County, Illinois Chief Criminal Judge LeRoy Martin tossed the convictions of 15 criminal defendants on November 16, 2017, because the cases were linked to disgraced former Chicago Police Sergeant Ronald Watts. All of the men whose cases were overturned claimed that they had been framed by Watts, who went to federal prison in 2013

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San Diego “Predator Free Zones” Struck Down by California Supreme Court

The California Supreme Court has ruled that a statute restricting all registered sex offenders on parole in California from residing in large swaths of the state is unconstitutional as applied to registered sex offenders on parole in San Diego. The challenge, brought by four registered sex offenders on parole in San Diego, alleged that Proposition

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Sex Offender Registries: An Easy Sell, But Do They Work?

Sex offender registries are the norm in all 50 states and are an easy sell, politically. But the actual value of these laws, in terms of public safety, is increasingly being questioned. Do these laws actually provide the protection that the public presumes? Registry laws are designed and sold to the public as a way

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California Appellate Court Remands Sex Offender Commitment Order

The First Appellate District for the California Court of Appeals has remanded a lower court’s decision to civilly commit a prisoner as a sexually violent predator (SVP). The Alameda County District Attorney filed a petition to commit Joel Curlee as an SVP in December 2010. During the trial, Curlee was called as a witness during

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First Circuit Vacates Supervised Release Conditions for Sex Offender

The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has vacated two onerous conditions of supervised release and reversed the imposition of a 20-year term of supervised release on a sex offender for violation of the Sex Offender Notification and Registration Act (SORNA). Moisés Medina, a convicted sex offender, failed to register when he moved to

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