Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA)’s definition of “violent felony” is unconstitutionally vague as to its residual clause, which covers any felony that “involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another”; clause leaves uncertainty about how to estimate the risk posed by a crime or how much risk it takes for a crime to qualify as a violent felony. (Overruling James v. United States, 550 U.S. 192 (2007) and Sykes v. United States, 564 U.S. 1 (2011).)
Dada v. State, ___ N.E.3d ___, No. 53A01-1501-CR-33 (Ind. Ct. App. June 26, 2015).
Court erred in denying expungement to misdemeanant; she was entitled to expungement even though “she had been summonsed rather than arrested” for her offense.
Satterfield v. State, No. 63S00-1401-LW-306, ___ N.E.3d ___ (Ind. June 26, 2015).
Court did not abuse its discretion in admitting officer’s lay-witness testimony that an allegedly mentally ill defendant was “evasive” during police questioning.
Smith v. State, ___ N.E.3d ___, No. 71S04-1506-CD-364 (Ind. June 26, 2015).
State did not violate Due Process by knowingly relying on perjured testimony, nor was testimony “incredibly dubious”; co-defendant’s trial testimony was not necessarily false nor internally contradictory, but merely inconsistent with factual basis for her guilty plea in prior proceedings.
Glossip v. Gross, No. 14–7955 , ___ U.S. ___ (June 29, 2015).
Use of the sedative midazolam for lethal injections does not violate the Eighth Amendment, despite claims that it cannot reliably render an inmate unconscious before administering the lethal drugs.