“It’s no exaggeration to say hundreds if not thousands of parents and caregivers are in prison in cases where no crime occurred,” says a spokesperson for the Innocence Project. Robert Roberson may be one of them. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 after...
US Supreme Court
Supreme Court to decide if you can be punished after an acquittal
This may come as a shock. Being acquitted of a crime doesn’t mean you can’t be punished for committing it. People can and do get punished for crimes they got acquitted of committing. It happens when a person is charged with more than one crime. If they are acquitted...
A Texas death row inmate was convicted on a ‘false’ DNA test
Can DNA evidence be wrong? You bet. Although it is a sophisticated science, it is still performed by human beings. Sometimes, people make mistakes – and some people make more mistakes than others. At issue is a Texas crime lab that “so consistently and egregiously...
Supreme Court backtracks on life sentences for juveniles
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in Miller v. Alabama that seemed to hold life sentences without parole for juveniles unconstitutional. The court found that locking a juvenile away for life without the possibility of parole was cruel and unusual...
Supreme Court: Shooting a suspect is a constitutional ‘seizure’
Roxanne Torres didn’t know what was happening when men in dark tactical vests began chasing her car. She thought she was being carjacked. She fled in her Toyota FJ Cruiser, but the men shot her twice in the back. She still managed to get away. She went to a hospital...
Can police follow you into your home over an alleged misdemeanor?
Arthur L. was playing his music loudly and honking his horn. That got the attention of a California highway patrol officer, who began following Arthur from a distance. The officer intended to initiate a traffic stop but didn’t take any action like activating his...
Curtis Flowers, tried 6 times for murder, finally set free
The state of Mississippi tried Curtis Flowers for murder six times. He was convicted in four trials, while another two ended in mistrials. Yet each of the convictions was overturned. In 2010, after his sixth trial, Flowers was given the death penalty. In June of 2019,...
Supreme Court: Can states just get rid of the insanity defense?
At stake is our basic understanding of the difference between right and wrong. If someone commits a wrongful act but, due to a mental illness or defect, wasn't able to recognize that what they were doing was wrong, we don't consider them to have committed a crime.The...
Supreme Court: New charges require new jury trials
Once you've been found guilty of a crime, can the government just assert that you're guilty of new crimes without having to prove it to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt?No. A plurality of the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld the basic right to a jury trial when...
SCOTUS voids death sentence after finding racist jury selection
The Montgomery County, Mississippi, prosecutor seems to have made it his career mission to convict Curtis Flowers for four 1986 murders in a small-town furniture store. Over the past two decades, he has tried Flowers for the murders six times.For each trial, the...