PAUL EARNEST HOWARD, JR. v. STATE OF MARYLAND
Court of Special Appeals, Eyler, Jan. 31, 2017,
Due Process- Discovery- Even if a court can force a third party to allow the defense onto their property as part of criminal discovery, the defendant must first demonstrate that their need outweighs the privacy interests of the third party.
Case refiled on March 28, 2017. But I have no idea what changed. Nothing I noticed.
Continue reading
KANSAS, PETITIONER v. JONATHAN D. CARR
KANSAS, PETITIONER v. REGINALD DEXTER CARR, JR
KANSAS, PETITIONER v. SIDNEY J. GLEASON
Supreme Court of the United States, Scalia, Filed Jan. 20, 2016,
8th Amendment – Mitigation – Jurors need not be instructed that mitigating circumstances “need not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.”
(Dissent – Sotomayor – because the USSC “often” declines to grant cert where “a state court has wrongly decided an important question of federal law”, this should have been denied. The dissent doesn’t disagree with the court’s actual constitutional holdings, making it an unusual dissent)
Continue reading