Just after he turned 17, LaShun G. was charged with second-degree sexual assault having sex with another teenager. He was tried and convicted as an adult, which means he was added to the sex offender registry in the state where he lives. He never committed another offense. He is now married and has three children. […]
A South Korean immigrant will not be deported after pleading guilty to a drug crime after being badly advised by his criminal defense attorney. This is an interesting development, because it involves a guilty plea. If he had tried to get the plea itself reversed, he likely would not have succeeded. However, the U.S. Supreme […]
A Washington, Sheriff’s detective was so sure Clyde Spencer was sexually abusing children that she made up dozens of false quotations and attributed them to his children, according to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Those lies coerced him into entering a no-contest plea and spend nearly 20 years in prison. He deserves the $9 […]
If a jury convicts someone and the court later learns that one juror’s vote was based entirely on racial animus, should the conviction be overturned? Traditionally, the answer has been no. Appellate courts have long held that what happens in the jury room, for the most part, stays in the jury room. And yet, “the […]
In 2012, a 40-year-old homeless man named Harley was arrested for stealing quarters from a vending machine on a university campus. He had simply walked into a campus building during the daytime, unarmed and threatening no one. He used a bent coat hanger to fish out the quarters without damaging the vending machine. His take […]
Depending on the facts unique to a criminal defendant’s case, the penalties imposed for convictions of sexual offenses can have dramatically different outcomes. Consider the following sentences in Tennessee: A “Class A” felony can result in 15-60 years in prison, a “Class B” felony is 8-30 years, and a “Class C” felony is 3-15 years. […]
