Category: Blog

In the federal case of United States v. Harris, police officers entered the accused person's home without a search warrant in order to look for another person. Their entry was illegal, and the evidence that they seized was suppressed. The Court said: "In the present case, the Task Force possessed an arrest warrant for Thornton […]

In the federal case of the United States of America versus Javado Barner, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the trial judge erred when he denied Mr. Barner's three-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility. The court of appeals concluded that this was one of those “unusual cases” in which the defendant went to […]

In the case of Bryan Greenlee versus the State of Florida, Mr. Greenlee was convicted of four counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The court of appeals ruled that because each count was based on guns possessed during the same event, three of Greenlee's convictions violated double-jeopardy principles and therefore had […]

In the case of M.B. (a child) versus the State of Florida, the judge mistakenly ordered a 14-year-old to register as a sex offender after he found that the juvenile had touched his victims' genitals over their clothing. Florida law only permits a judge to order a juvenile offender to register as a sex offender […]

In the case of Torrey Grady versus North Carolina, Mr. Grady was convicted in North Carolina of a sexual offense in 1997 and of taking indecent liberties with a child in 2006. After serving his sentence for the 2006 crime, Grady was ordered to appear for a hearing to determine whether he should be subjected […]

In the case of Keith Rancifer v. the State of Florida, Mr. Rancifer was convicted of trying to obtain a Florida identification card using a false name. However, the court of appeals overturned his conviction because: 1. It was undisputed that the birth certificate that Rancifer presented when he obtained the identification card was a […]

In the case of Pedro Dominguez versus the State of Florida, a police officer went to a domestic disturbance call, saw Dominguez driving his vehicle away from the home, and ordered Dominguez to return to the home. After determining that no battery occurred, the officer noticed Dominguez parked “a little crooked”, that he could smell […]

Last month I published an article about a recent case in which an appeals court ruled that it is illegal for a private company to issue traffic tickets to people for running a red light in Hollywood Florida. Because of that case, a traffic judge in West Palm Beach may soon start dismissing similar tickets […]

The following article was published last month in the Washington Post. The article was written by John Yoder, director of the U.S. Justice Department’s Asset Forfeiture Office from 1983 to 1985, and Brad Cates, director of that same office from 1985 to 1989. "Last week, the Post published a series of in-depth articles about the […]

People who are not familiar with the criminal-justice system often tend to believe that the most powerful person in the courtroom is the judge. But that is not always true. Earlier this month, The Economist printed the following article called "The Kings of the Courtroom: How Prosecutors Came to Dominate the Criminal-Justice System:" CAMERON TODD […]