After Ferguson and North Charleston, more police are wearing body cams

Jun 1, 2015 3:50 AM CDT

Man on trial in bail-jumping case exits courtroom as lawyers talk with judge in chambers

Free on bond in a gun-possession and bail-jumping case, a 29-year-old New Orleans man was in court there Thursday for a jury trial. But at some point during an in-chambers conference between the lawyers and the judge in the case, Harry Riggins walked out of the courtroom past a bailiff…

May 21, 2015 2:20 PM CDT

Judge dismisses entire 112-member jury pool over lack of racial diversity

An Iowa judge on Tuesday called a halt to a black man’s murder trial and dismissed the entire jury pool of over 100 people because it didn’t have racial diversity. Defendant Tyrone Washington Jr., 41, had previously been granted a change of venue to have the case tried in Webster…

May 13, 2015 3:55 PM CDT

Legal innovation summit attendees are long on ideas but short in data

Sunday’s marathon session at the National Summit on Innovation in Legal Services at Stanford University really hammered home a lot of points for me. For instance, the number of litigants forced to go pro se is shockingly high when it comes to family, immigration and housing court. I also learned…

May 5, 2015 1:50 PM CDT

Public defender asks private lawyers to help represent hundreds arrested in Baltimore

Updated: Overwhelmed by the arrest of more than 200 people in Baltimore after protests and riots over the death of a man injured in police custody, the state’s public defender is asking private attorneys to step in to help represent those being held. “We’re seeking volunteer attorneys from the private…

Apr 29, 2015 3:35 PM CDT

2 lawyers convicted in scheme to get film-industry tax credits without paying required expenses

Two prominent lawyers were convicted Monday by a federal jury in New Orleans for their roles in a scheme by three business partners to obtain film-industry tax credits from the state of Louisiana without paying required expenses. Found guilty of conspiracy and mail fraud charges were attorneys Michael Arata, a…

Apr 28, 2015 11:00 AM CDT

3 Florida prison guards linked to KKK are charged with plotting to kill inmate

Three current and former prison guards in Florida with ties to the Ku Klux Klan were charged with plotting to kill an African-American inmate. The Orlando Sentinel reported Thursday that Thomas Jordan Driver, David Elliot Moran and Charles Thomas Newcomb have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder.…

Apr 3, 2015 12:05 PM CDT

Indian tribes are retaking jurisdiction over domestic violence on their own land

Diane Millich was only days into her marriage when her husband first hit her. So began her year of "horrific terror." Millich, a member of the Southern Ute tribe of southwestern Colorado, called tribal police many times from her home on the reservation. But because her husband was not an…

Apr 1, 2015 6:02 AM CDT

Kentucky tests new assessment tool to determine whether to keep defendants behind bars

Apr 1, 2015 3:50 AM CDT

Defense objected to twin-jury murder trial of 2 men, but wants cases consolidated for appeal

At least one of the defense lawyers representing Johnny Parker, 31, and William Fillyaw, 37, in their joint first-degree murder trial earlier this year asked that their unusual twin-jury trial be severed. But that didn’t occur and now a lawyer for Fillyaw is asking that their post-trial motions be consolidated…

Mar 24, 2015 3:15 PM CDT

Appeals court says magistrate had power to hold former TV judge Joe Brown in contempt and jail him

It appears that a former TV-show judge may be headed back to the slammer over a Tennessee juvenile-court outburst last year, in which he talked himself into an escalated five-day jail sentence after initially getting 24 hours for contempt of court. Although Joe Brown characterized his post-ruling debate with the…

Mar 24, 2015 12:40 PM CDT

Winning app at Hackcess to Justice New Orleans helps clients preserve evidence

Ensuring that all Americans have sufficient access to justice has been one of the top priorities of the American Bar Association. One of the states with the largest gaps between the demand for legal services and the availability of adequate legal resources is Louisiana. According to the National Association of…

Mar 23, 2015 4:15 PM CDT

SCOTUS won’t hear case of inmate on death row for 30 years; dissenters see ‘glaring’ legal error

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear the case of a Texas inmate who claimed that executing him after more than 30 years on death row would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court denied cert on Monday in the case of Lester Leroy Bower Jr., according to the order…

Mar 23, 2015 10:09 AM CDT

Suspended judge loses round in state’s top court in fight to ax prosecutor in domestic violence case

A suspended Ohio judge can continue with his legal battle to get a special prosecutor appointed to oversee his felony domestic violence case. But he will have to do so after trial, the state’s top court says. In a 4-3 decision granting a writ of prohibition, the Ohio Supreme Court…

Mar 18, 2015 10:15 AM CDT

Top state court declines to intervene in dispute between DA and police department

Pennsylvania’s top court has declined to intervene in a dispute between a district attorney and a local police department investigating a claim that she forged a judge’s signature on a court order reducing bail for a defendant. In an emergency petition, Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller had sought…

Feb 18, 2015 10:15 AM CST