News

Former federal inmate, a devout Muslim, sues under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, alleging that when he would try to perform his required daily prayers during shift breaks at the prison commissary where he worked, prison guards—who also said "There is no good Muslim but a dead Muslim"…

Fourth Circuit (2021): This petitioner's South Carolina state court death sentence was defective because his trial counsel failed to present mitigating evidence during sentencing. We relied on evidence introduced in his federal habeas proceedings.…

President Joe Biden presented the National Humanities Medal to Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson at the White House on Tuesday, March 21, 2023.

Mr. Stevenson is a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated, and…

President Joe Biden presented the National Humanities Medal to Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson at the White House on Tuesday, March 21, 2023.

Mr. Stevenson is a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated, and…

Under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A), a court is authorized to grant a reduction in sentence, commonly referred to as “compassionate release,” if three requirements are met. First, the offender must exhaust administrative remedies in BOP. Second, the offender must demonstrate “extraordinary and…

Clarence Earl Gideon, a Florida drifter who spent time in and out of prisons for nonviolent crimes, was an unlikely individual to help redefine a criminal defendant’s right to counsel 60 years ago in the Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright (…

Police: Our search of the defendant's backpack was valid because our only alternative to impounding it would have been to abandon it in public. It's not like we could just give it to the mysterious stranger who came up mere seconds after the defendant asked for his "girl" and who kept asking us…

Today, the United States Sentencing Commission published its 2022 Annual Report and Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics.

Here are some…

From footnote nine of this Second Circuit opinion, you get the sense that the court (2-1) doesn't think it should take 26 pages and a chart to explain why a racketeer who shot and killed someone committed a "crime of violence." Concurrence: Oh stop it. There is no reason to criticize the…

The Speedy Trial Act says that a federal criminal defendant has a right to be tried within 70 days of his initial appearance, so this guy who had to wait almost a thousand days for his trial has a pretty good argument, right?…