Category: Criminal
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In re DCD: Best Interests of a Juvenile Delinquent Beat out Concerns over Community Welfare
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DCD, a ten-year-old child with a low IQ, was adjudicated delinquent after sexually assaulting his younger sister. Several sexual assaults followed as DCD was moved from facility to facility and…
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Com v. Jacoby: Capital Appeal: Introduction of unconstitutionally seized murder weapon evidence was harmless error
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The opening paragraph of this case read like an Alfred Hitchcock screenplay. The police received a call that originated from Monica Schmeyer’s residence . . . When the police arrived,…
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Com v. Aikens: Trial Court’s Instruction Gives Insight into Jury’s Findings
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18 Pa.C.S. § 6318 criminalizes “Unlawful Contact with a Minor.” One might think of this statute as an inchoate for the entire child-sexual-victimizing portion of the criminal code. If a…
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Com v. Packer: DUI on immediate and debilitating intoxicants satisfies mens rea for third-degree murder
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In Commonwealth v. Packer, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules that the choice to drive immediately after and while huffing difluoroethane (DFE) intoxicants that are known to render the user unconscious…
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Com v. Cullen-Doyle: Elementary, dear Watson—First Time Offenders are Eligible for RRRI
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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court holds in Com v. Cullen-Doyle that the Recidivism Risk Reduction Inventive Act’s (RRRI) eligibility requirements were not meant to exclude a first-time violent offender pleading guilty…
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Com v. Shabezz: Automatic standing in Pennsylvania to challenge unconstitutional searches
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Saleem Shabezz was observed by a policeman in a McDonald’s Parking Lot—a “hot zone,” known for drug deals by the police in Philadelphia (always a great place to find hot ‘zones).…
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Com v. Johnson: A Death Penalty Appeal
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In Commonwealth v. Johnson, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously affirmed a murder conviction and the jury’s imposition of the death penalty. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is charged with reviewing…
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Pittman v. Pa. Bd. of Probation and Parole: Board Abused its Discretion by Failing to Use Discretion
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The Parole Violation statute requires the Board of Probation and Parole to use its discretion when considering whether to credit “time at liberty on parole” to a convicted parole violator’s…
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Com v. Yandamuri: Direct Capital Appeal
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Com v. Yandamuri was a direct capital appeal case pursuant to the Court’s responsibility to directly review all death penalty cases. In a botched baby-kidnapping-for-ransom attempt, Raghunandan Yandamuri, a non-citizen,…
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Bill Cosby gets Allegheny Jury
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The “Twelve Angry Men” who will be called upon to decide Bill Cosby’s fate in his pending rape trial will hail from Allegheny County, the Supreme Court decided yesterday. Under…