The Second Circuit has been ordered to take another look at a murder-for-hire conviction in light of the high court's new miscarriage-of-justice exception for criminal appeal waivers, and the top courts in Pennsylvania and Michigan will look at the retroactivity of new sentencing rules.
Here, Law360 highlights access to justice stories arising from litigation, verdicts and judgments you may have missed.
U.S. SUPREME COURT
High Court Revives Murder-For-Hire Plea Appeal After Hunter
The
U.S. Supreme Court has vacated a Second Circuit decision dismissing the sentencing appeal of a man who pled guilty to a role in a murder-for-hire plot, telling the circuit court to take another look in light of the high court's new miscarriage-of-justice exception for criminal appeal waivers.
Justices Won't Review John Doe Warrant, Trash DNA Test
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a challenge to a John Doe warrant and the warrantless collection and DNA testing of trash items used to convict a man in 2024 for the rape of a Penn State student in 1995.
SENTENCINGS
Pa. Justices To Weigh If Murder Sentence Rule Is Retroactive
The
Pennsylvania Supreme Court will decide whether its March ruling ending mandatory life sentences for second-degree murder should be applied retroactively to prisoners already serving those sentences.
Mich. High Court To Weigh Retroactivity Of Sentencing Rule
The
Michigan Supreme Court has taken up an appeal asking it to decide if a landmark decision that bans the inclusion of previously acquitted charges as a factor for sentencing applies retroactively even after a sentence has been appealed.
IMMIGRATION
Justices To Review Trump's No-Bond Migrant Detention Policy
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review whether the Trump administration can detain unauthorized immigrants without bond until their immigration cases conclude, regardless of whether they had already been living in the country.
NY Judge Scraps ICE Immigration Court Arrest Policy
A New York federal judge has vacated a 2025 policy change that gave
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents "unfettered discretion" to arrest noncitizens at immigration courthouses after the government admitted guidance cited for the shift never applied to immigration courts.
GEOFENCE WARRANTS
Pa. Justices To Review Geofence Challenge Post-Chatrie
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to a geofence warrant just months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Chatrie v. U.S. that such warrants implicate Fourth Amendment search protections.
NJ Panel Tosses Geofence Warrant, Upending Robbery Case
A New Jersey appeals court has ruled that police were incorrectly granted a geofence warrant because their application failed to establish a "nexus" between a string of gas station robberies and a potential suspect's cellphone location data.
JURISDICTION
Tribal Jurisdiction Key To Michigan Indigenous Cases
Determining who can prosecute crimes committed in Indian Country requires navigating a complicated mix of tribal, state and federal authority, a Michigan federal prosecutor has told law enforcement officials and advocates at a statewide summit focused on missing and murdered Indigenous people and human trafficking.
VACATED/REVERSED
Mich. Panel Revives Child Sex Case Over Possible Entrapment
The Michigan Court of Appeals has "conditionally reversed" a man's conviction for "child sexually abusive activity," with a panel finding that his counsel did not correctly challenge a police sting operation, causing him to be ineffectively represented at trial.
UPHELD/AFFIRMED
Ohio High Court Says Omitted Self-Defense Instruction OK
A divided
Ohio Supreme Court has upheld a man's conviction for firing a gun and hitting his neighbor's house, finding that the man could not prove that the trial court's failure to provide a self-defense instruction — which he had not requested — was an obvious error.
EVIDENTIARY RULINGS
Mass. Panel Tosses Minor's Gun Charges Over Illegal Frisk
Gun charges against a minor must be thrown out because Boston police did not have justification to search the minor for weapons after ordering him out of a vehicle, a Massachusetts appellate panel has ruled.
Pa. High Court Won't Order New Rape Trial Over DA Comment
A divided Pennsylvania Supreme Court won't order a new rape trial for a man even though a prosecutor improperly implied the man's retaining an attorney was an indicator of guilt, finding the evidence in his case is so overwhelming that it outweighed the prosecutor's error.
RETRIAL
Fla. Panel Says Hot-Car Conviction Needs Knowledge Element
A Florida state appeals court has ruled that a nanny convicted of felony murder after forgetting she left a 10-month-old inside a hot car should be tried again, saying prosecutors used an improper underlying charge as a basis for the felony murder charge.
RESENTENCING
11th Circ. Orders Resentencing Under New Robbery Rule
The Eleventh Circuit has ruled that a man convicted of robbing two auto parts stores should be resentenced because changes in the federal sentencing guidelines retroactively updated language relating to the physical restraint of a victim.
QUALIFIED IMMUNITY
Fla. Sheriff Can't Escape Immigrant Detainee's Sex Abuse Suit
A Florida sheriff must face a former immigrant detainee's civil rights suit alleging the sheriff failed to address known risks at the county jail where a deputy sexually assaulted her, a Florida federal judge has ruled.
--Editing by Tim Ruel.
Have a story idea for Access to Justice? Reach us at accesstojustice@law360.com.