Federal Postconviction
Prisoner’s Constitutional Rights Implicated When Mail Rejected Without Notice
Third Circuit Holds Due Process Implicated When Pennsylvania Prison Rejected Mail Without Notice Thirty years ago, Steven Vogt was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole in a Pennsylvania prison. But in 2016, the state’s key witness against Vogt recanted his testimony in a letter to Vogt that he sent to the…
Empty Promises at the Guilty Plea Hearing
So, I was sitting in a courtroom waiting for a case to be called and I noticed something disturbing. A guy standing at the podium, which happened to be next to my chair, was pleading guilty to a felony when the judge asked him, “Do you understand the terms of your plea agreement?” The guy…
Mandatory Sex Offender Registration Unconstitutional for Colorado Juveniles
The Colorado Supreme Court held on June 29, 2021, that mandatory lifetime sex offender registration for multiple sex offenses committed as a juvenile constituted a punishment that was cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment. “T.B.” was a juvenile when he committed two state sex offenses: one in 2001 at…
How Geofence Warrants Kill Free Speech
Hundreds of protestors marched in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in August 2020. Little did these protestors know that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) issued at least a dozen geofence warrants to gather data from their electronic devices they carried that day, even if they didn`t break the…
AEDPA Drives Mass Incarceration
When we talk about things that fuel mass incarceration, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) is rarely considered as one of the causes for the over-incarceration of U.S. residents. But take a closer look and you’ll see that the AEDPA has played an integral role in keeping the nation’s prisons full and the…