Police want to search your phone? Get a warrant!
This was a discretionary appeal to the Pa. Supreme Court. The issue before the Court concerned the warrantless search of a cellphone and whether such a search was harmless in this case. The…
The Power of a Single Witness
This was an appeal out of York County. Johnson proceeded to a bench trial on robbery and conspiracy charges, and the judge convicted him of these crimes based on the uncorroborated account of the…
Guilty Pleas and Appeals
This was a 6-3 decision out of the United States Supreme Court. The issue, at first glance, is seemingly straightforward, but upon reading the dissent, it is clear that the issue is a lot more…
Juveniles and De Facto Life Sentences
This was an appeal out of Venango County. This appeal is one of many in a line of cases—both in federal and state courts—that have addressed sentencing of juveniles. The holding of this case was…
Comm. v. Murphy, 2018 PA Super 35 (Feb. 20, 2018)
This was an appeal out of Dauphin County. The appellant, Edgar Murphy, Jr., had filed several post-conviction-relief appeals (PCRAs), and the instant one was blatantly untimely. Murphy had also…
Comm. v. Johnson, 2018 PA Super 32 (Feb. 15, 2018)
This was an appeal out of Erie County. Johnson had previously pled guilty to two counts of robbery, and he was sentenced to an overall term of imprisonment of 8.5 to 17 years. Following a direct…
Comm. v. Olson, 2018 PA Super 31 (Feb. 14, 2018)
This was an appeal out of Somerset County. The significance of the appeal is in how the Pennsylvania Superior Court treated a recent U.S. Supreme Court case, Birchfield v. North Dakota, ___ U.S.…
Comm v. Johnson, 2018 PA Super 28 (Feb. 13, 2018)
This was an appeal out of Philadelphia County. The appeal resulted from the lower court denying a Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) petition. The Superior Court affirmed that decision. In his PCRA,…
Comm. v. Patterson, 2018 PA Super 24 (Feb. 8, 2018)
This was an appeal out of Westmoreland County. Patterson was convicted of third-degree murder. The underlying circumstances were Patterson was a customer of a local tattoo shop; he and the shop…
Comm. v. McCarthy, 2018 PA Super 22 (Feb. 6, 2018)
This was an appeal out of York County. McCarthy had been charged with theft-related offenses stemming from allegations that he misappropriated $90,000 from his mother suffering from dementia. He was…