TERESA ROSS v. STATE OF MARYLAND
Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, Moylan, March 3, 2017,
Sufficiency- Circumstantial evidence alone is sufficient to sustain a conviction to the same extent as testimonial evidence
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. ALEJANDRO GARCIA-LAGUNAS
US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Diaz, Sept. 1, 2016,
Evidence – Ethnic/racial stereotypes – Officer’s expert testimony that “Hispanic drug traffickers” are “very modest living” because “they send the majority if not all of the proceeds back to their native countries” was an improper “injection of a defendant’s ethnicity into a trial as evidence of criminal behavior.”
(Dissent – Davis – The government hasn’t met burden of proving unconstitutional appeal to ethnic bias was harmless)
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DARRELL BELLARD v. STATE OF MARYLAND
Court of Special Appeals, Nazarian, August 31, 2016,
Murder – Sentencing – Statutory remnants of the repeal of the death penalty did not create a new sentencing procedure that allowed for election of sentencing by jury in 1st Degree Murder trials
SAMUEL OCASIO v. UNITED STATES
Supreme Court of the United States, Alito, Filed May 2, 2016,
Conspiracy – Hobbs Act – “a defendant may be convicted of conspiring to violate the Hobbs Act based on proof that he entered into a conspiracy that had as its objective the obtaining of property from another conspirator with his consent and under color of official right.”
(Concur – Breyer – Evans was probably wrongly decided, but stare decisis)
(Dissent – Thomas – Evans was wrongly decided)
(Dissent – Sotomayor with CJ Roberts – Evans was wrongly decided, and we shouldn’t expand its reach)
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OCTAVIUS SAVAGE v. STATE OF MARYLAND
Court of Special Appeals, Raker, Filed Dec. 15, 2015,
Conspiracy – Conviction for conspiracy to commit murder is not legally inconsistent despite conviction on 2nd degree murder and acquittal on first degree murder
(opinion re-issued March 23, 2016)
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