DNA Can Prove Your Innocence — If They Let You Test It

By Marco Poggio

Since the mid-1980s, DNA testing has exonerated hundreds of wrongfully convicted people and reshaped the criminal justice system. Rodney Reed's decadeslong unsuccessful effort to test the belt prosecutors say he used to kill a woman, however, shows how difficult access to post-conviction DNA testing can be, even for prisoners with credible innocence claims.

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Pro Bono Spotlight

Hogan Lovells Helps Advance Gene Therapy For Rare Disease

By Chris Villani

Hogan Lovells Cadwalader partner Blake Wilson found himself scrolling through LinkedIn one day, when a post caught his eye that would spark a multiyear pro bono effort and lead to a breakthrough treatment for a rare and fatal disorder affecting children.

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How K&L Gates And NC Legal Aid Use AI To Share Legal Info

By Marco Poggio

With under 200 lawyers, Legal Aid of North Carolina found itself at one point receiving over 300,000 calls to its hotline a year from people in need. So when the opportunity arose to deploy AI to help divert at least some of the call volume, the organization's chief innovation officer thought it was time to take a leap of faith and found a pro bono partner in K&L Gates.

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1st Circ. Says NH Witness Retaliation Is No Basis For Removal

By Tom Lotshaw

A conviction for witness retaliation did not make a Liberian citizen living in New Hampshire removable from the U.S., a First Circuit panel ruled, overturning a Board of Immigration Appeals decision to the contrary.

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Judge Says Everglades Site Closure Moots Atty Access Suit

By Ganesh Setty

A Florida federal court has dismissed without prejudice a lawsuit alleging that state and federal officials unconstitutionally prevented noncitizens held at an Everglades immigrant detention center from accessing counsel, finding the lawsuit moot in light of the facility's closure.

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Judge's Job Bid Sinks Conn. Atty's Homicide Conviction

By Brian Steele

Former Cramer & Anderson LLP partner Robert L. Fisher Jr. is entitled to a new manslaughter trial because the presiding judge at his original trial "created an appearance of a lack of impartiality" when he did not disclose to the parties that he had applied for an oversight job with the state prosecutor's office, an appeals court ruled Friday.

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NC Wants A Retrial In Killing Of NBA Star's Grandfather

By Hayley Fowler

State prosecutors told a North Carolina Court of Appeals panel during arguments on Tuesday that a trial court judge overstepped by vacating the convictions of four men found guilty as teenagers of murdering NBA star Chris Paul's grandfather in 2002, saying the only remedy was to order a new trial.

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Conn. City Settles Wrongful Conviction Suits For $30.5M

By Brian Steele

After the mayor of New Haven, Connecticut, publicly announced a $30.5 million settlement, a federal judge dismissed two lawsuits accusing the city of civil rights violations tied to two wrongful murder convictions, for which each plaintiff spent nearly 20 years in prison.

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Barrage Of Amici Urge Justices To Mandate 12-Person Juries

By Stewart Bishop

Former judges, ex-prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, civil rights groups, Catholic bishops, university professors and others are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to find that the Constitution requires 12-person juries to decide trials for serious crimes, taking aim at Florida's practice of seating six-person juries for most criminal trials.

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Conn. Justices Let Parole Outcomes Impact Resentencing

By Brian Steele

Judges at sentence modification hearings can consider the decisions of the state parole board as part of a broader array of evidence, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Thursday in turning down an appeal from an elderly convict who lost his bid for release from prison.

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8th Circ. Rejects Claims Over Sheriff's Rape Kit Delay

By Parker Quinlan

The Eighth Circuit has ruled that a Minnesota woman lacks standing to sue a police department that failed to test her rape kit evidence for over 16 years, because police decisions on how or whether to investigate a crime are discretionary functions.

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DOJ Enacts Rule Giving Many Felons Path To Gun Ownership

By Stewart Bishop

U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said Monday the U.S. Department of Justice has finalized a rule that will give convicted felons and others a pathway to have their rights to legally possess firearms reinstated, a process that circumvents a de facto prohibition by Congress.

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Convicted Ex-Atty Deserves Redemption, Pardoned Client Says

By Brian Steele

A former Connecticut attorney under suspension for the past decade over his role in a $3 million stock pump-and-dump scheme deserves reinstatement and redemption, a client of his pardon consulting firm told a state bar admissions committee on Wednesday.

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Ex-Michigan Judge To Lead Macomb Conviction Integrity Unit

By Susan Smiley

Former Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Mary Chrzanowski will step into a new role as the chief of the Macomb County Prosecutor's Conviction Integrity Unit at the end of the month, the county prosecutor's office said Thursday.

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Roundup

Balancing The Scales: Diminished Capacity, Sentencing Rules

By Orlando Lorenzo

The Michigan Supreme Court has overturned 25 years of state precedent by reviving the diminished capacity defense, and the justices in Pennsylvania said the Legislature is out of time to craft new sentencing guidelines for second-degree murder. Here, Law360 highlights access to justice stories arising from litigation, verdicts and judgments you may have missed.

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Perspectives

NJ Fingerprint Ruling Shows Forensic Reliability Isn't Static

The New Jersey Supreme Court’s recent State v. Lee decision, holding that developments in forensic science warranted a renewed assessment of fingerprint evidence, reaffirmed the trial judge's role as gatekeeper and underscored that the admissibility of expert testimony is an ongoing inquiry, not a one-time determination, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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