Federal Appeal to Death Row Conviction In July of 2018, a federal appeals court in Texas declined to slow down the execution of a prisoner who was convicted of killing a convenience store owner in 2004. Legal counsel for the defendant argued that his death row sentence should be halted because the man’s parole board… Read More
5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Rejects Appeal From Death Row Inmate The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals recently rejected an appeal from a death row inmate who participated in the “Texas 7” gang of escaped prisoners. Legal counsel for the man tried to argue to a court of law that evidence failed to establish that… Read More
The Scope of Federal Criminal Appeals The United States Supreme Court recently declined to hear the appeal of a former militia leader who is convicted of conspiring to kill federal officials. The man’s appeal is just one of 150 petitions that the court rejected recently without explanation. The man, who was convicted of killing the… Read More
Appeals To Death Row Cases A man who was convicted and received the death penalty for beheading his three children recently initiated the federal appeal process. The man was previously re-tried in 2010 after an appeals court reversed his conviction and sentence, but he was again convicted of capital murder and still received the death… Read More
Supreme Court Case Denies Petition in Federal Criminal Trial The United States Supreme Court recently rejected a man’s petition for further DNA testing of a crime scene, which the man claims will establish his innocence. The man in question was convicted of a 1996 murder and sexual assault of a woman. In 2015, the man’s… Read More
A man on Texas death row was recently allowed to move forward in a criminal appeal concerning whether the man’s legal counsel was deficient during the sentencing phase of a trial involving allegations that the man strangled and raped a 16-year-old in Waco in the late 1980s. As part of this ruling, two of three… Read More
The United States Supreme Court recently refused to hear a man’s challenge to a 2005 murder conviction, which he claimed was the result of coercion. This complicated case is documented in the Netflix series, “Making a Murderer.” A lower court of appeals upheld the man’s convictions for murder, sexual assault, and mutilation of a corpse…. Read More
In May 2018, Chief Roberts of the United States Supreme Court wrote a unanimous opinion in the case of United States v. Sanchez-Gomez, which held that a challenge by several criminal defendants regarding a district’s policy of shackling pretrial detainees was moot. In these restraints, a person’s hands are handcuffed together and these handcuffs are… Read More
Texas Death Row Inmate Denied Appeal In May of 2018, a federal appeals court rejected a claim from a death row inmate in Harris County, Texas who was convicted of killing a law enforcement officer. The man was convicted after the 1998 crime of killing the off-duty police officer during a traffic incident that was… Read More
The former owner of an accounting firm in Munster, Indiana was sentenced in May of 2018 to eight years in federal prison for bank fraud as well as other offenses, including concealment of assets during bankruptcy, false tax return, and wire fraud. The defendant has already announced plans to appeal by filing the required notice… Read More