Articles

A few weeks ago, we wrote about the weaknesses of Pennsylvania’s expungement law. As you’ll recall, expungement is the process by which someone convicted of certain crimes may be able to have governmental records of that event wiped clean from the system (For more on expungement generally, see this site’s primer here). Senate Bill 166, […]

In a groundbreaking 3-2 decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided this week in Commonwealth v. Hopkins,  that 18 Pa.C.S. § 6317, the drug-free school zone statute, is unconstitutional and non-severable pursuant to United States v. Alleyne, 133 S.Ct. 2151 (2013). Section 6317 of the Crimes Code requires additional, mandatory minimum two-year sentences for adults convicted of […]

On July 1st, 2015, the Protection From Sexual Violence & Intimidation Act (PSVI) (read the whole act here)  will go into effect.  It provides a civil remedy that a perpetrator of sexual violence have no contact with the victim whether or not the victim seeks criminal prosecution.  In many ways, the PSVI Act is a […]

In the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas on Tuesday, Iris Gibney, 42, pled guilty to having sex with a minor.  Police had witnessed Gibney naked in a Pottstown-area park with a 17 year-old boy.   By pleading guilty, Gibney, who works at the Victoria’s Secret at the King of Prussia Mall, admitted to the facts […]

In Commonwealth v. Bland, 2015 Pa. Lexis 1128, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that to require a suspension of questioning by law enforcement officials subject to the exclusionary remedy, an invocation of the Miranda-based right to counsel must be made upon or after actual or imminent commencement of in-custody interrogation.   In other words, a defendant […]