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  • Commonwealth v. Diaz

    Publication Date: 2020-04-13
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals
    Industry:
    Court: Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Donohue
    Attorneys: For plaintiff:
    for defendant:
    Case Number: 20-0385

    Where the absence of a needed interpreter at a critical stage of defendant's trial obstructed his ability to communicate with counsel, the U.S. Supreme Court's holding in U.S. v. Cronic applied such that defendant did not need to prove he was prejudiced by a sixth amendment violation to secure a new trial. The high court affirmed.

  • Commonwealth v. Housman

    Publication Date: 2020-04-06
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals
    Industry:
    Court: Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Todd
    Attorneys: For plaintiff:
    for defendant:
    Case Number: 20-0359

    Defendant was properly granted a new trial in the penalty phase of this capital case where trial counsel's performance during the penalty phase of his trial resulted from inattention to the mitigation evidence that was readily available to him. The high court affirmed.

  • Commonwealth v. Harris

    Publication Date: 2020-03-30
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals
    Industry:
    Court: Superior Court
    Judge: Judge Kunselman
    Attorneys: For plaintiff:
    for defendant:
    Case Number: 20-0339

    The trial court lacked jurisdiction to issue the order defendant challenged on appeal, where the appellate court had not yet returned the record with instructions for the trial court to proceed and, thus, the trial court's original jurisdiction had not yet revested. The superior court vacated the challenged order.

  • Commonwealth v. Bumbarger

    Publication Date: 2020-03-30
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals
    Industry:
    Court: Superior Court
    Judge: Judge Shogan
    Attorneys: For plaintiff:
    for defendant:
    Case Number: 20-0340

    An arresting officer had probable cause to stop defendant's vehicle where he was notified by the National Crime Information Center that the specific vehicle plate was registered to defendant and that there was an active Colorado arrest warrant "with full extradition" for defendant. The appellate court affirmed defendant's judgment of sentence.

  • Commonwealth v. Snook

    Publication Date: 2020-03-23
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals
    Industry:
    Court: Superior Court
    Judge: Judge King
    Attorneys: For plaintiff:
    for defendant:
    Case Number: 20-0307

    Defendant's original judgment of sentence no longer stood when he filed his current petition for relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act; therefore, his current PCRA petition was the first PCRA petition from the latest judgment of sentence which was also timely. The appellate court affirmed in part, vacated in part and remanded.

  • Law Journal Press | Digital Book

    Massachusetts Legal Ethics & Malpractice 2017

    Authors: James S. Bolan, Sara N. Holden

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  • Commonwealth v. Cobbs

    Publication Date: 2020-03-09
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals
    Industry:
    Court: Superior Court
    Judge: Judge Colins
    Attorneys: For plaintiff:
    for defendant:
    Case Number: 20-0254

    While the life sentence underlying defendant's subsequent conviction for assault by a life prisoner was later altered, the only relevant status to the charge of assault by a life prisoner, pursuant to 18 Pa.C.S. §2704, was defendant's sentence status at the time he committed the assault. The superior court affirmed defendant's judgment.

  • Burgos v. City of Philadelphia

    Publication Date: 2020-03-02
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals
    Industry:
    Court: U.S. District Court for Pennsylvania - Eastern
    Judge: District Judge Rufe
    Attorneys: For plaintiff:
    for defendant:
    Case Number: 20-0224

    Plaintiff's case raised a genuine issue of material fact as to whether he exhausted the prisoner grievance procedures before filing this conditions-of-confinement lawsuit; therefore, defendants were not entitled to summary judgment based on plaintiff's alleged failure to exhaust administrative remedies. The court denied defendants' motion for summary judgment in part.

  • Commonwealth v. Hopkins

    Publication Date: 2020-02-24
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals
    Industry:
    Court: Superior Court
    Judge: Judge Stevens
    Attorneys: For plaintiff:
    for defendant:
    Case Number: 20-0186

    The record established that defendant's appeal waiver was effective where he was aware of all of his rights incident to an appeal but chose to waive them in favor of a sentence that was lower than the prosecution's initial pretrial offer and he acknowledged as much in a statement made in open court. The superior court affirmed defendant's judgment of sentence.

  • Kazickas v. Pennsylvania Bd. of Probation & Parole

    Publication Date: 2020-02-24
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals
    Industry:
    Court: Commonwealth Court
    Judge: Judge Covey
    Attorneys: For plaintiff:
    for defendant:
    Case Number: 20-0193

    Board could forfeit credit for time served on parole in good standing where it made credit conditioned on charges for criminal offenses that were committed during the same parole period.

  • Commonwealth v. Selenski

    Publication Date: 2020-02-17
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals
    Industry:
    Court: Superior Court
    Judge: Judge Stevens
    Attorneys: For plaintiff:
    for defendant:
    Case Number: 20-0156

    Trial counsel was not ineffective for failing to call witnesses to testify about defendant's non-smoking habits in the face of evidence that the perpetrator smoked at the scene where defendant failed to identify a specific witness trial counsel should have called and any additional testimony on the subject would have been cumulative of other evidence. The superior court affirmed.