Law

The state of Ohio set up a $10 million grant program paid for by its federal American Rescue Plan Act money for courts that want help clear backlogs of cases that stem from the coronavirus pandemic, the governor's office announced Wednesday.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that district courts must look at defendants' rehabilitation and updated sentencing guidelines when considering a reduction of their sentences.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled state death row inmates can request to be executed in a method not approved in their states by filing a civil rights suit, reversing a ruling by the Eleventh Circuit that compelled the prisoners to file habeas corpus petitions instead.

While bad lawyering is an all too common cause of wrongful convictions, the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Shinn v. Ramirez closes the federal courthouse doors to evidence of ineffective counsel, leaving many without a meaningful opportunity to prove their innocence, says Christina Swarns at the Innocence Project.

A Florida law firm that represented two wrongfully convicted men before one of itslawyers was caught defrauding them is continuing its fight for fees after a jury awarded the pair $75 million in a civil rights lawsuit.

The NAACP and four African American citizens cannot sue a controversial Mississippi prosecutor, best known for his repeated murder prosecutions of Curtis Flowers, over his alleged policy of striking jurors based on race because the chances that any of them will actually be kept off a jury are too small, according to the Fifth Circuit.

Attorneys nationwide did14% less pro bono work last year than they did in 2020, according to a study released Thursday by the Pro Bono Institute.

The widely publicized and successful recall campaign of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin has been described by some as a warning call for progressive prosecutors and rehabilitative justice advocates nationwide.

After years of reform, Illinois earlier this month became the 17th state to clear its backlog of nearly 2,000 untested rape kits. Here is what states can learn from Illinois to end their own rape kit backlogs.

The criminal legal system is largely not prepared to handle individuals with dementia who either age into the disease while incarcerated or face criminal charges as their mental capacity diminishes, according to a report released this week by an American Bar Association commission.

The 88-page indictment charging the rappers Young Thug and Gunna with racketeering along with 26 others made headlines last month, but it was hardly surprising to legal experts familiar with these increasingly common prosecutions.

As questions remain unanswered about the response by police in Uvalde, Texas, to the elementary school mass shooting that left 21 dead, Jones Walker LLP partner David S. Weinstein talks to Law360 about potential liability protection for officers who responded to the scene.

Federal district courts are not obligated to develop more acceptable conditions that could reduce the risk of harm to children as part of determining whether minors who werewrongfully removed from a countryshould be sent back, the U.S. Supreme Court held Wednesday.

Prisoners may bring claims alleging they were denied access to legal materials while they were pursuing civil rights cases from behind bars, the Third Circuit said Wednesday in a precedential opinion setting forth that right to access the courts.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to reconsider a Texas inmate's contention that he received inadequate counsel before being sentenced to death, about two years after the high court had sent the case back to the Lone Star State for another look.

The U.S immigration detention system suffers from a host of systemic failures that create "monumental barriers" for detained immigrants seeking legal representation, rendering their right to counsel "essentially meaningless," the American Civil Liberties Union said in a report released Thursday.

The Florida Supreme Court amended the Florida Bar rules Thursday to allow nonlawyers to help govern nonprofit legal service providers, but it's just one of many recommendations from a committee at odds with the Florida Bar over how to improve access to legal services and adapt to changing technology.

When a draft decision of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization was leaked, reproductive rights advocates leapt into action, while civil rights advocates began ringing alarm bells over the future of their movements as legal experts examined how the drafted decision could ripple far beyond the topic of abortion.

When she assumes leadership of the nation's largest legal aid provider in August, Twyla Carter, a former public defender and civil rights attorney and newly appointed leader of The Legal Aid Society, will make funding a priority, she told Law360.

Some volunteer court watchers had to fight to observe criminal justice proceedings remotely during the pandemic. With courts beginning to shut down that remote public access, now they're fighting to keep it.

Baker McKenzie LLP attorneys based in Ukraine helped prepare the war-torn country's application to join the European Union, which was submitted last month during the ongoing Russian invasion.

Winston & Strawn LLP attorneys and The Legal Aid Society secured a settlement ending the Port Authority Police Department’s bathroom patrols practice that appeared to target members of the LGBTQ community. The settlement will have a far-reaching impact, attorneys say.

The American Bar Association this August will honor a lawyer from Baker Botts LLP, a partner from Holland & Knight LLP and the law firms Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati for pro bono work ranging from tenant advocacy to refugee assistance, the organization announced Wednesday.

While the U.S. Department of Justice has ended the Trump-era ban on negotiating supplemental environment projects as part of civil and criminal environmental settlements, the process and delay around this change suggest that SEPs may be more limited under the Biden administration than in the past, say attorneys at Sidley.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said two Arizona death row inmates could not present evidence in federal court they said proved they were provided with ineffective trial counsel, narrowing the options the prisoners and others convicted in state court have to escape the death penalty.

The New York Assembly on Monday passed the Adult Survivors Act, which, if signed by the governor, would open up sexual assault and abuse litigation by creating a one-year window for adult survivors whose claims are otherwise time-barred.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Thompson v. Clark removes a roadblock that stymied malicious prosecution lawsuits, and could have positive impacts beyond the Fourth Amendment — but suits seeking accountability for police misconduct still face numerous challenges, says Brian Frazelle at the Constitutional Accountability Center.

The Southern District of New York, which recently heard arguments in Upsolve and John Udo-Okon v. New York, has the opportunity to increase access to justice by allowing nonlawyers to provide legal help, shifting the focus from credentials to substantive outcomes, says Rebecca Sandefur at Arizona State University.

Programs that provide government-funded attorneys to noncitizens facing deportation are becoming more common in cities and states across the country, and immigration advocates hope to harness that momentum to scale up those initiatives to the federal level.

Jada, a tenant from the Bronx, was relieved last summer when her management company sent out an email encouraging her to apply for New York's $2.4 billion federally funded Emergency Rental Assistance Program, or ERAP. Combing through application and payment data, Law360 explores the pandemic program's effectiveness.