Comm. v. Edwards, 2018 PA Super 9 (Jan. 19, 2018)
This was an appeal out of Philadelphia County addressing a Batson challenge. (The term Batson challenge comes from the U.S. Supreme Court case of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), which held…
Comm. v. Motley, 2018 PA Super 8 (Jan. 19, 2018)
This was an appeal out of Philadelphia County, and the lead up to the appeal was this. Antoine Motley had been given a sentence of 15 to 30 years imprisonment followed by 10 years of probation on…
Comm. v. Davison, 2018 PA Super 7 (Jan. 18, 2018)
This was an appeal out of Allegheny County. Shawn Davison had been convicted of robbery and harassment. On appeal he complained that he was convicted of robbery without sufficient evidence.…
Comm. v. Tyrrell, 2018 PA Super 5 (Jan. 17, 2018)
This was an appeal out of Dauphin County. Jonathan Tyrrel was convicted and sentenced to 50 to 100 years’ imprisonment on charges of raping his then eight-year-old daughter. On appeal, Tyrrell…
Pennsylvania Supreme Court deals a blow to the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) using separate and independent state-law grounds.
Today, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued its opinion in Commonwealth v. Muniz, ___ A.3d ___ (Pa. July 19, 2016), which addressed the issue of whether the Sex Offender Registration and…
A win from the Pa. Supreme Court for unrepresented prisoners
Last week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided Commonwealth v. Burton, ____ A.3d ____, 2017 WL 1149203 (Pa., Mar. 28, 2017). The case involved what is known as the “public-record presumption.”…
Jury bias sees the light of day
The verdict has come down. Guilty! The accused is in disbelief. The question arises: why did the jury decide this way? How can this be? As is typical, defense counsel speaks to the jury…
Round Two: The Appeal
In 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice estimated that 69,348 state criminal appeals were resolved nationwide. On average, accounting for 143 appellate courts, that’s approximately 484 criminal…