Matthew T Mangino

April 10, 2012 | The Legal Intelligencer

The U.S. Supreme Court extended the protections of the Sixth Amendment — the right to assistance of counsel — to plea bargaining. The court's decision in two cases last month has far-reaching implications for the criminal justice system.

By Matthew T. Mangino

7 minute read

June 05, 2012 | The Legal Intelligencer

In 2009, Alex Blueford sat before an Arkansas jury and listened as the jury foreperson told the judge that she and her fellow jurors were unanimous in finding that Blueford was not guilty of capital murder or first-degree murder. Yet, less than an hour later, a mistrial was declared and Blueford would once again face a jury on both charges.

By Matthew T. Mangino

6 minute read

August 17, 2010 | The Legal Intelligencer

In the fall of 2008, officials from Tunkhannock Area School District in Wyoming County confiscated and turned over to the local district attorney a number of student cell phones suspected of having nude and semi-nude photographs of students. What happened next set in motion a series of events that have altered the legal and political landscape of not only Wyoming County, but of the whole of Pennsylvania, as well.

By Matthew T. Mangino

6 minute read

October 02, 2012 | The Legal Intelligencer

More can be done to manage the size of Pennsylvania's prisons, including the zealous pursuit of sentencing alternatives. .

By Matthew T. Mangino

7 minute read

August 08, 2005 | The Legal Intelligencer

The death penalty debate in Pennsylvania has taken an unexpected turn, just as a series of U.S. Supreme Court cases gave hope to death penalty abolitionists that the end may be near. Life without parole, a sentencing alternative to the death penalty champ

By Matthew T. Mangino

7 minute read

February 13, 2012 | Texas Lawyer

A 1957 movie raised an issue that is only now beginning to gain traction, the reliability of eyewitness identification.

By Matthew T. Mangino

6 minute read

August 23, 2011 | The Legal Intelligencer

In November 2006, Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sponsored a resolution passed by the Pennsylvania Senate that created an Advisory Committee on Wrongful Conviction. Senate Resolution 381 directed that the joint state government committee, which is responsible for performing research for both houses and both parties of the General Assembly, establish the advisory committee.

By Matthew T. Mangino

5 minute read

October 12, 2009 | The Legal Intelligencer

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review whether sentencing a juvenile to life in prison without the possibility of parole for a non-homicide offense violates the Eighth Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment.

By Matthew T. Mangino

7 minute read

December 13, 2011 | The Legal Intelligencer

A bill has been introduced in the state Senate that would provide $50,000 a year for each year of incarceration for those wrongfully convicted and confined in a Pennsylvania prison.

By Matthew T. Mangino

6 minute read

November 08, 2011 | The Legal Intelligencer

Pennsylvania missed a federal deadline to amend its sex offender registration laws in order to comply with a five-year-old federal act. The deadline passed on July 27, 2011, 30 years after the disappearance of the law's namesake. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (AWA) mandated a more comprehensive, nationwide system to track sex offenders. It gave states five years to bring their laws into conformity with the new guidelines. Fourteen states complied with the July deadline.

By Matthew T. Mangino

6 minute read