Articles

A Judge has ordered that Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes must be available for deposition by the lawyer of a man who was in prison for 16 years because the prosecution convicted him – allegedly based upon threats made to coerce witnesses to lie at trial. A federal Judge agreed with the allegations enough […]

On June 11, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed lawsuits against Dollar General and a BMW facility in South Carolina for allegedly using criminal background checks of potential employees in an unfair and discriminatory manner. This comes just over a year after the EEOC updated its rules in April 2012 to prevent racial discrimination, […]

Yesterday was a sad day for the Fifth Amendment when the United States Supreme Court issued its decision on Salinas v. Texas. In Salinas, the court sought to answer the question: can the prosecution use a person’s silence against him when he refuses to answer questions during pre-custodial questioning without expressly invoking his Fifth Amendment […]

Last week, the United State Supreme Court issued its opinion on United States v. Davila. The Court sought to answer the question: when a federal judge gives nonprejudicial advice to the defendant during plea bargaining and the defendant pleads guilty, is the appropriate remedy to vacate the guilty plea? In a unanimous decision, the Court […]

Earlier today, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in Alleyne v. United States. The Court sought to answer the question: when an element of a crime raises the mandatory minimum sentence for that crime, must the jury find the defendant guilty of that element beyond a reasonable doubt before the mandatory minimum sentence […]