Articles

In Coppolino v. Commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, 2014 WL 5140043, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania decided that the bulk of the 2011 revised version of Pennsylvania’s Megan’s Law is neither unconstitutionally overbroad nor an ex post facto punishment.  However, the court struck down the law’s in-person travel reporting requirement as applied to an individual convicted under […]

In an interesting development to the much publicized application of state forfeiture law (Forbes, John Oliver Emphasizing Philadelphia), the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court recently held in Commonwealth v. 2010 Buick Enclave that the Commonwealth may not attempt to forfeit criminal derivative contraband under the civil common law without evidence of a criminal conviction. In civil forfeiture actions, the government sues […]

On September 17, the Pennsylvania Superior Court issued an en banc decision in Commonwealth v. Pander, 2014 WL 4628565, holding that, in seeking an evidentiary hearing, the PCRA statute and rules of criminal procedure require only a witness certification form, signed by either the attorney or the petitioner pro se, detailing the proposed witness and […]

Who are you going to trust?  Science or your lying eyes? Eyewitness testimony is widely understood to be highly probative of guilt and is among the most damaging and effective evidence the prosecution may use in making its case against a defendant.  However, eyewitness reports are subject to their own frustratingly difficult array of inherent bias and mistake.  This is especially true […]

By a vote of 43-7, the Pennsylvania State Senate has approved “The Medical Cannabis Act,” legislation that legalizes some limited uses of medical marijuana. 84 percent of Pennsylvanians say they support medical marijuana. This bill is a limited, but essential, first step in matching Pennsylvania’s drug laws to people’s expectations. The legislation, co-sponsored by Montgomery County’s State […]