In the late 1960s and into the early 1970s, federal courts across the country suddenly faced an increasing number of lawsuits from state prisoners seeking application and/or adjudication of a wide range of new constitutional rights extended in a number…
Author: John Floyd
2023
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Prosecutorial Misconduct
The term “rogue prosecutor” was coined to refer to unethical, even criminal prosecutors who lie, cheat, and engage in every stripe of professional misconduct to secure criminal convictions.
The U.S. Supreme Court has effectively given its constitutional blessing to this…
2023
Category: Capital Crimes | Homicide/Murder
Homicide charges are among the most serious criminal offenses, carrying severe penalties and potentially life-altering consequences.
In Texas, the legal process for defending homicide charges can be complex and challenging. However, navigating the legal system and securing an acquittal…
2023
Category: Drug Crime | Marijuana
The landscape of marijuana legalization in the United States has been undergoing significant changes in recent years. As more states embrace the medicinal and recreational use of cannabis, the question arises: what does the future hold for marijuana legalization in…
2023
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Police Misconduct | Prosecutorial Misconduct | terrorism
The new Netflix docuseries, American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing, released in anticipation of the first decade anniversary of the April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon terrorist bombing by two deranged brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, will undoubtedly reawaken and stoke…
2023
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Criminal Law | Police Misconduct
Bad prosecutors are not a new phenomenon. They have existed since the Founders envisioned an adversarial judicial process when forming the United States of America. For more than 230 years, bad prosecutors have displayed a propensity to lie, embellish, suppress…
2023
Category: Corruption | Obstruction of Justice | Prosecutorial Misconduct | White Collar Crime
Since assuming political office in 2002, Ken Paton has had a peculiar penchant for violating political norms, disregarding professional ethics, engaging in a pattern of illegal conduct, and using his positions of political power to retaliate against those who tried…
2023
Category: federal Sentencing | Illegal Pornography | Sex Crimes Against Children
Sentencing disparity is systemic in the American judicial system. There are three primary causes for this disparity: race, economic status, and judicial bias.
White judges generally impose harsher sentences on offenders of color; all judges are typically more lenient on…
2023
Category: Appeals | Felon in Possession of Firearm
For the past 56 years, federal courts have recognized, in the wake of U.S. Supreme Court precedent, that the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against illegal searches and seizures extends to individuals a “reasonable expectation of privacy” that cannot be transgressed without…
2023
Probation is a form of community supervision granted to individuals convicted of a crime in Texas. It is not a completely get out of jail free pass. Probation invariably carries specific, oftentimes strict conditions that must be followed. Violating the…