Death Row Case Offers Window Into Prosecutors' Gender Bias

By Marco Poggio

As she stood trial for orchestrating her estranged husband's 2001 murder, Brenda Andrew faced an uphill battle convincing an Oklahoma jury of her innocence. The evidence was stacked against her, but perhaps the most powerful weapon in the prosecutors' arsenal wasn't the evidence itself — it was their ability to portray her as a deviant, unfaithful woman who deserved to be executed.

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$25 Child Support Minimum A Symbol Of 'Broken' NY System

By Marco Poggio

In New York City, $25 doesn’t stretch very far. And yet, New York state law mandates a minimum child support order of $25 per month, even when the noncustodial parent has little or no income. This requirement can lead to unpayable debts for indigent parents, while offering little meaningful financial support to the custodial parent, legal aid attorneys told Law360.

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Q&A

How Uncovering Bias Took A Black Man Off Death Row In NC

By Hayley Fowler

Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Center for Death Penalty Litigation tell Law360 about how approaching a criminal case like a civil suit helped them convince a state court judge that racial discrimination tainted Hasson Bacote's trial for felony murder, and got Bacote's death sentence vacated.

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Analysis

How Ga. Hopes To Leash Injury Suits And Litigation Funders

By Chart Riggall

The opening weeks of Georgia's legislative session have seen Republican lawmakers make their most forceful push in years to overhaul the state's civil justice system, placing premises liability and third-party litigation funding squarely in their crosshairs.

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Guantanamo Deportees Get Phone Access To Attys, Feds Say

By Bonnie Eslinger

The U.S. government urged a D.C. federal judge to reject a request from the ACLU and other advocates to give unauthorized immigrants held at Guantanamo in-person access to lawyers, saying Thursday that the detainees have the ability to speak to attorneys by telephone.

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Orgs. Fear 'Complete Dismantling' Of Migrant Kids' Rights

By Britain Eakin

Legal service providers that help unaccompanied children navigate the immigration court system warned on Wednesday that the children's due process rights are at risk after the Trump administration turned off the federal funding tap.

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California Justices Accept Court Reporter Shortage Case

By Bonnie Eslinger

The California Supreme Court has accepted a case that aims to address the state's court reporter shortage by mandating the use of electronic recording when court reporters are unavailable.

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Disparities In Adult Prosecution Of NJ Youths Draw Criticism

By Jake Maher

New Jersey's system of allowing county prosecutors to effectively choose when to move youth criminal cases into adult court with little judicial oversight has created wide disparities based on geography and race in which defendants stay in the youth justice system, according to a report released Tuesday by Human Rights Watch.

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Luigi Mangione Says His Rights Are Being Violated In NY Case

By Frank G. Runyeon

An attorney for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, told a New York state court judge on Friday that his constitutional rights are being violated in the state case as federal prosecutors are "hanging the death penalty over" his head on related charges.

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9th Circ. Affirms Officers' Immunity For Getting Phone Contents

By Jared Foretek

The Ninth Circuit on Monday upheld a summary judgment win for a sheriff and county prosecutor accused of illegally obtaining the contents of a drug arrestee's phone, ruling that they unlawfully got copies of the phone's contents but that the prosecutor who requested them was entitled to qualified immunity.

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3rd Circ. Hints County's Probation Detainers Need Scrutiny

By Matthew Santoni

Civil rights advocates told the Third Circuit that Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, is jailing defendants for probation violations too hastily, and the panel appeared open Wednesday to reviving a lawsuit against several county judges for more developments.

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Perspectives

Deterring Dubious Prosecutions Could Avoid Pardon Issues

The controversial pardons by former President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump should spur a few key reforms to deter dubious prosecutions, ensuring that the legal system gets it right initially and earns the confidence of all Americans, say Marc Levin and Khalil Cumberbatch at the Council on Criminal Justice.

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Kim Kardashian Accused Of Misidentifying Death Row Inmate

By Andrea Keckley

Kim Kardashian was sued Thursday in California state court one year after a photo the reality television star posted in an Instagram story allegedly identified the wrong man as a Texas prisoner on death row.

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