News

The Justice Department has launched an investigation into Memphis and its police department for its use of force, searches and arrests and potential discriminatory policing (article available…

President Joe Biden will nominate a federal public defender in Kansas to become an appeals court judge. 

The White House announced Thursday that President Biden plans to nominate Richard E.N. Federico to join the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, which covers Kansas and…

Ghana's parliament has voted to abolish the death penalty, joining a long list of African countries that have done so in recent years (access full article).

Execution has been the mandatory sentence for murder in Ghana. Treason…

Allegation: Rookie Cleveland police officer gets spooked when he sees a suspect holding a gun. The officer runs away while firing his own gun blindly behind him. Oops! He hits his field training officer, who survives but suffers nerve damage. She sues. Rookie (who was not disciplined for the…

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has appointed Mary E. Maguire as the next Federal Public Defender for the Western District of Virginia (…

The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have advanced spending bills that would cut millions of dollars from the budget of Defender Services, which represents poor defendants accused of federal offenses (…

Kannapolis, N.C. police officer Jeremy Page catches drug dealer/informant selling crack but says he won't arrest drug dealer if he hands over any other drugs he has and does more to help the police. He agrees, hands over more drugs, and helps police find a fugitive. Officer then decides that's…

Remember that "it depends" about prosecutors not turning over potentially exculpatory evidence from the Fourth Circuit? Well, that also applies for evidence useful for impeaching government witnesses. And for this defendant in the…

If prosecutors don't turn over potentially exculpatory evidence and a person on death row finds out about it (by accident) years later, does that mean he gets a new trial? Well, explains the…

Federal public defenders system could need to cut as many as 500 from its staff charged with protecting the rights of poor criminal defendants, because of a budgeting error by Congress that could leave it with a 3% to 5% shortfall, officials said (…