All too often, the result of a criminal case leaves a person facing far more severe consequences than they should. Perhaps the jury instructions pitted the jury against the defendant, or the court denied an appeal in violation of state law. When that happens, you do not have to sit back and accept your fate. […]
Most have heard the term “expungement,” but few understand how it works beyond the fact that it enables one to clear their name. Here in Tennessee, expungement, expunction or sealing of records are different legal processes where the arrest, charge or conviction is removed from the state’s legal records or sealed. The benefits of doing this […]
The circumstances of Adnan Syed’s conviction in 2000 became the basis of the Serial podcast in 2014. It reexamined without bias the conviction of Adnan Syed, who is serving a life sentence for strangling his ex-girlfriend and then burying her with help from a friend, whose story has since proven unreliable. The popularity of the podcast, which […]
What is ineffective assistance of counsel in a criminal case? Thanks to the Sixth Amendment and associated court rulings, criminal defendants are entitled to the assistance of counsel — and that counsel is to be effective. However, the standards for determining when counsel has been constitutionally ineffective are hard to meet. First, the attorney must […]
The National Registry of Exonerations has just released data on the 139 people known to have been exonerated in 2017, along with historical data. This information gives us some insight into why 139 innocent people ended up behind bars, and how they ended up getting freed. Exonerations are rising due to prosecutors and professional advocates […]
When a defendant is exonerated, what happens next? Suppose the defense proves that DNA evidence from the crime scene does not match the defendant. Or, perhaps a key witness recants their story. In some cases, misconduct by the police, prosecutors or the jury is discovered. Once it’s clear that the prosecution’s case is insufficient to […]
