Articles

The Pennsylvania Superior Court has established that restitution must be specified at the time of sentencing to be legal. The court vacated the original sentence in Commonwealth v. Ramos, holding the trial court has “no authority to impose a generalized, open-ended sentence of restitution, but leave the amount and method of payment for decision at a […]

Without a show of good cause, hearsay alone is not enough to find someone a Technical Parole Violator (“TPV”). In the case of Turon McGee, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania recently held the Parole Board, “erred, as a matter of law, in finding him a TPV based solely on hearsay evidence that was admitted over […]

  On October 24, 2018, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed two criminal justice reform bills into law. The first, Act 146 of 2018, extends a particular deadline by which to seek post-conviction relief. The second, Act 147 of 2018, significantly expands DNA testing in Pennsylvania in an effort to ensure the integrity of criminal convictions […]

Can a police officer reenter your house without a warrant after entering for the purposes of emergency aid, a recognized exception to the warrant requirement? The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania recently decided no, they cannot. In Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, on October 27, 2013, authorities saw a group of people on the roof of a sorority house’s […]

Pennsylvania has forfeiture laws pertaining to drugs, fireworks, and alcohol, while requiring that the property have a substantial nexus with the misconduct at issue. But what happens when the State wants to confiscate property but is not authorized to do so by a statute? The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania recently held common law forfeiture does not […]