News

Ruth E. Friedman, Director of the Federal Capital Habeas (or “§ 2255”) Project since its inception in 2006, was surrounded by family, friends, and colleagues yesterday evening as she was honored with the prestigious…

Rene Valladares, the Federal Public Defender for the District of Nevada and the acclaimed author of A Defender’s Guide to Federal Evidence, was surrounded by…

An upstate New York judge who pointed a loaded handgun at a Black man during a 2015 court hearing was removed from office Thursday by the state’s highest court (access full article).…

A Kentucky lawyer hopes to call attention to the plight of his client and others waiting for long-delayed competency exams by living in jail with his client (…

During a nighttime protest in the wake of George Floyd's murder, Des Moines, Iowa police officer tackles, pepper-sprays a news photographer and arrests him for "failure to disperse." Charges dropped, the photographer sues. Eighth…

Hundreds of employees within the federal public defender system could be laid off under funding levels proposed by the House and Senate, according to judiciary officials who say the system has imposed a hiring freeze as uncertainty looms over the appropriation figure (…

Twenty-three Democratic U.S. senators on Friday urged congressional appropriators to increase spending on federal public defenders beyond what is proposed in pending spending legislation or risk significant job cuts (…

Seventh Circuit pro tip to the defense bar: If your client is facing fifty years for cocaine possession, you really should…

District court in 2018 sentences carjacking defendant to 195 months' imprisonment. Defendant on appeal: The district court wrongly factored in a bunch of my previous arrests, even though those arrests were not convictions. Gov't: Dude's right. First Circuit (2019): He sure is. Sentence vacated…

The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered all judges to address people in court by the pronouns they use or by “other respectful means” (access full article).  

The…