On July 2, 1908, LDF founder and first Director-Counsel, and the first Black Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore. A brilliant legal mind, he won 29 of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court. He died in 1993, leaving behind a legacy that earned him the nickname "Mr.
The Pentagon on Tuesday granted honorable discharges to more than 800 veterans who were separated from the U.S. military because of their sexual orientation during the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which was in effect February 1994.
In December 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law a repeal of the policy, which took effect in September 2011.
Natali Todd, a distinguished trial lawyer and the CJA Panel Representative for the Southern District of New York, has been honored with Gideon’s Promise's Champion of the Community Award. (access event page) The award is given to an outstanding individual or organization that embodies true leadership and actively contributes to the improvement of our criminal legal system.
Following up on the Supreme Court's Padilla v. Kentucky holding that non-citizen criminal defendants must be advised of any risk of deportation associated with a guilty plea, En banc Second Circuit: If a guilty plea could lead to denaturalization and deportation, lawyers must advise their clients of that fact or they're giving unconstitutionally ineffective counsel.
Today, on Veterans Day, Defender Nation honors the service and sacrifice of those who have served in our nation’s armed forces. Their commitment to duty, honor, and country is a powerful reminder of the values that we hold dear—not only as citizens but as defenders.
A prosecutor with more than two decades of big city crime-fighting under his belt will walk into the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday. But he won’t be arguing the cases at the dais; he’ll be sitting on the bench (access full article).
This en banc Tenth Circuit case has a little something for everyone. Bickering over en banc procedure as the court sua sponte ordered it to be heard en banc after the appeal was briefed and argued at panel but before the decision issued. Also, a prosecutor, Assistant U.S.
Terra Morehead, a longtime county and federal prosecutor who helped police frame at least one innocent man, has agreed to surrender her law license and faces disbarment (access full article).
A judge found that a federal prosecutor in Kansas with a history of questionable conduct committed misconduct in a drug case, prompting a sharp reduction in the defendant's sentence (article available here).
The court ruled last week that Assistant U.S. Attorney Terra Morehead did not provide evidence to the defense about a witness’s full criminal history or a video that called into question the witness’s credibility in a case involving drug and counterfeiting charges.
For two years, a New Jersey judge used a pseudonym to post roughly 40 publicly available videos on TikTok videos of himself lip-syncing lyrics from popular rap songs; Eleven were deemed inappropriate by the judicial conduct committee. (article available here).