A criminal defense attorney urged Maryland’s top court Thursday to overturn a double first-degree murder conviction because it was based on an unreliable DNA test, while an attorney for the state pressed the judges to defer to a trial court’s acceptance of the genetic evidence linking the killer to the slayings.
Read More »Md. top court opens term, weighs right to post-conviction DNA tests
Maryland’s top court considers whether a man serving a life sentence for conspiracy to commit murder has a statutory and constitutional right to conduct a potentially exonerating DNA test on evidence the state has.
Tagged with: dna due process equal protection Maryland DNA Postconviction Act postconviction
Read More »Convicted rapist pleads guilty to 1982 Prince George’s Co. murder
A man serving time for a rape conviction pleaded guilty Monday to the 1982 murder of Laurel woman nearly three years after DNA established a link between him and the victim and revived the cold case. John Ernest Walsh, 71, ...
Tagged with: cold-case dna Laurel murder Prince George's County rape
Read More »Supreme Court declines to review Maryland DNA case
The U.S. Supreme Court let stand without comment Tuesday a Maryland high-court ruling that police acted constitutionally when they used the DNA sample a homeless man gave them for a rape investigation to link him to an unrelated burglary.
Tagged with: Attorney General Brian E. Frosh dna fourth amendment Paul DeWolfe Supreme Court
Read More »Frosh waives response in DNA case at Supreme Court
Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh has chosen not to respond to the state public defender’s request that the Supreme Court review and overturn a Maryland high court ruling that police acted constitutionally when they used the DNA sample a homeless man gave them for a rape investigation to link him to an unrelated burglary.
Tagged with: Attorney General Brian E. Frosh dna fourth amendment Paul DeWolfe Supreme Court
Read More »Maryland public defender appeals DNA case to Supreme Court
Maryland's chief public defender asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to review and overturn a state high court ruling that police acted constitutionally when they used the DNA sample a homeless man gave them for a rape investigation to link him to an unrelated burglary.
Tagged with: appellate litigation crime dna evidence fourth amendment Paul DeWolfe
Read More »DeWolfe urges justices to strike down warrantless DNA searches
The U.S. Supreme Court should strike down as unconstitutional law enforcement’s warrantless searches and retention of DNA found on lawfully seized items worn or touched by criminal suspects, Maryland’s chief public defender states in papers filed with the justices in a case from Massachusetts.
Tagged with: dna fourth amendment
Read More »Court of Appeals OKs broad investigatory use of DNA voluntarily given to police
Police who receive a person’s DNA sample voluntarily during a criminal investigation may use that sample to investigate other crimes — unless the person has expressly told them not to, a sharply divided Maryland high court ruled Tuesday.
Tagged with: dna fourth amendment
Read More »DNA analyst must testify, Md. high court rules
Criminal defendants have a constitutional right to cross-examine a DNA analyst whose report puts them at the crime scene “within a reasonable degree of scientific certainty,” Maryland’s top court has held in overturning the attempted murder and armed-robbery convictions of a man whose DNA was allegedly found on the mask the criminal used.
Tagged with: confrontation clause dna
Read More »Supreme Court clears way for $15M lawsuit against Baltimore Police
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for a man to pursue a $15 million lawsuit against the Baltimore Police Department and three of its officers, alleging that their unconstitutional withholding of exculpatory evidence from his 1988 trial led to him serving 20 years in prison for murder before DNA tests helped bring his freedom.
Tagged with: civil rights dna statute of limitations Supreme Court
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