Monday, January 30, 2017
A Quick Look at the Application for Leave to Appeal the Bail Decision in the Adnan Syed Case
On Friday, Justin Brown filed an application seeking leave to appeal Judge Welch's denial of the defense's motion for release pending appeal in the Adnan Syed case. I'm in the process of finalizing the first in a series of Undisclosed episodes about a South Carolina case, so my analysis of this application will be briefer than usual.
January 30, 2017 | Permalink | Comments (5)
Friday, January 20, 2017
Possibly the Two Most Important Parts of COSA's upcoming opinion in the Adnan Syed Case
As I noted on Wednesday, the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland (COSA) will consider five or six issue in the Adnan Syed case:
1. Did Judge Welch abuse his discretion in hearing the cell tower claim;
2. Did Adnan waive the cell tower claim;
3. If Adnan waived the cell tower claim, should the court excuse the waiver;
4. Did Judge Welch err in finding ineffective assistance of counsel on the cell tower claim;
5. Did Judge Welch err in finding no ineffective assistance/prejudice on the Asia/alibi claim; and
6. Did Judge Welch err in not doing a cumulative prejudice analysis?
If we're operating under the assumption that the Court of Appeals of Maryland (Maryland's highest court) will allow the losing party to appeal COSA's opinion, then COSA's opinion on issues #1 and #3 might be he most important. Why?
January 20, 2017 | Permalink | Comments (16)
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Watkins v. State and Jury Impeachment in Georgia
In yesterday's Undisclosed episode, we noted how the defense team filed an application for writ of habeas corpus in the Joey Watkins case. We also noted how, amazingly, the case that most strongly supports Joey's appeal is actually another Georgia case by the name of Watkins v. State. We discussed this case a bit in the episode, but I thought I'd flesh out that discussion in this post (Note: don't read past the fold if you haven't yet listened to the episode).
January 19, 2017 | Permalink | Comments (5)
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
The Court of Special Appeals Grants the State & Adnan Leave to Appeal
Today, the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland issued an order that mainly did two things:
(1) granted the State leave to appeal the portion of Judge Martin Welch's order granting Adnan Syed a new trial based upon his cell tower/ineffective assistance of counsel claim; and
(2) granted the defense cross-leave to appeal the portion of Judge Welch's order denying Adnan a new trial based upon his alibi/ineffective assistance claim.
So, what does all this mean?
January 18, 2017 | Permalink | Comments (12)
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
The Allen Charge Project: Kansas
The key Kansas case on the Allen Charge is State v. Salts, 200 P.3d 464 (Kan. 2009).
January 10, 2017 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Friday, January 6, 2017
The Allen Charge Project: Iowa
They key Iowa case on the Allen Charge is State v. Campbell, 294 N.W.2d 803 (Iowa 1980).
January 6, 2017 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
The Allen Charge Project: Indiana
The key Indiana case regarding the Allen Charge is Lewis v. State, 424 N.E.2d 107 (Ind. 1981).
January 4, 2017 | Permalink | Comments (0)
