This case was clearly one of the most anticipated cases of the Supreme Court’s Term that just ended; and it ended up as an anti climactic dud. Possibly because the eight Justices who heard this case were evenly divided (Justice Gorsuch took no part in its consideration or decision), the ...

In 1985, James McWilliams was convicted in an Alabama state court of the brutal rape and murder of a convenience store clerk; and he was sentenced to death. After exhausting all of his state appeals, he sought Federal habeas relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), on the grounds that ...

In Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1983), the Supreme Court forcefully held that the Constitution requires prosecutors to give the defense “exculpatory” evidence - i.e., evidence that casts doubt on the Government’s case. In the instant consolidated case involving seven different petitioners, the Court addressed what it called a ...

This is the third Texas death penalty case decided by the Supreme Court during its 2016-2017 Term; and this case was the first time that the Court sided with the State over the inmate. In Buck v. Texas, 137 S.Ct. 759 (Feb. 22, 2017), the court agreed with inmate Duane ...

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in McDonnell v. U.S., 579 U.S. ___, 136 S. Ct. 2355 (2016), continues to wreak havoc with prosecutors’ attempts to rein in politicians accused of wide-scale bribery, kickbacks and other acts of public corruption. In McDonnell, former Governor of Virginia and his wife were indicted ...