News

On Monday August 19, 2024, the Defender Services Office, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, commemorated the 60th Anniversary of the Criminal Justice Act in Washington D.C. A video recording of the live event can be found here.

The…

Man: The enhancement that led to my 13-year prison sentence finding pointing a gun meant I "physically restrained" the convenience store cashier is wrong. Eleventh Circuit: Not wrong. Concurrence 1: Not wrong, but…

Twenty years after being convicted of (vehemently denied) cocaine possession, Erma Wilson learned that the Midland County, Tex. prosecutor (Weldon "Ralph" Petty) on her case was also moonlighting as a law clerk for the presiding judge, a flagrant violation of the constitutional right to a fair…

New York man is prosecuted for sending death threats to congresspersons and Fox News hosts. A jury of 11 convicts. Split Second Circuit: That's OK. A 12-person jury isn't a constitutional right. And no prejudice suffered: The threats were clearly real (e.g., "Laura Ingraham, I am going…

On September 4, 2024, the DOJ Civil Rights Division announced that it has opened a civil rights investigation into two California women’s prisons. DOJ’s announcement can be found…

AH Datalytics has launched a “Real-Time” crime index, (RTCI), online. (access index). AH Datalytics launched the real-time crime index in an effort to “aid in the need for a faster understanding and visualization of national, state, and local crime…

Henry Martin thought he might spend a few years as federal public defender, then return to private practice as a slightly older and much wiser attorney. That was almost 40 years ago. Today, he’s the longest serving federal defender in the entire country. (…

A new BOP statement sheds light on the high costs of using minimum security facilities, also known as camps, in lieu of cheaper detention alternatives, including halfway houses and home confinement. The BOP’s main facility designations are minimum, low, medium, and high security. Minimum…

Mexican national is connected to the fatal shooting of a Border Patrol agent in the United States. Seven years later, FBI agents interrogate him in a Mexican prison. After reading him his Miranda rights, they hit him with everything: good cop, bad cop; your friends told us a different…

In July, the Fourth Circuit (over a dissent) held that "geofence" warrants ordering Google to provide law enforcement with information about every account holder who enters a particular area in a particular time period are totally…