http://www.zerostaronline.com Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:41:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Today in an per curiam decision, the United States Supreme Court reversed the Virginia Supreme Court and remanded the case to Virginia in light of Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts.  This is good news for the lawyers and defendants everywhere that wish to challenge scientific evidence in their trials.  It means that the ... http://www.zerostaronline.com/2010/01/scotus-briscoe-v-virginia/ Arizona v. Gant - Click here to read the full opinion.Today the U.S. Supreme Court limited the circumstances under which officers may search the passenger compartment of a vehicle after it’s driver had been arrested. The Court ruled that an officer can only search a vehicle if it is ... http://www.zerostaronline.com/2009/04/arizona-v-gant-limitation-of-search-incident-to-arrest/ ATLANTA - A man who says he desperately needed to use an airplane bathroom after eating something bad in Honduras faces a federal charge after being accused of twisting a flight attendant’s arm to get to the lavatory, the FBI said Wednesday.  Joao Correa, 43, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he had ... http://www.zerostaronline.com/2009/04/airplane-bathroom-emergency-lands-man-in-jail-and-with-federal-criminal-charges/ After a 7 week trial, Helio Castroneves was acquitted of the federal tax evasion charges he was facing.  The two time Indy 500 winner and Dancing with the Stars Champion had this to say after the trial: It’s been a long seven weeks. I’m a foreign person and I’ve been judged ... http://www.zerostaronline.com/2009/04/helio-castroneves-acquitted-on-tax-evasion-charges/ http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2009/01/15/tesler_conviction_overturned.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab Source: Rob Leonard http://www.zerostaronline.com/2009/01/police-officer%e2%80%99s-conviction-overturned-in-the-kathryn-johnston-case/ Today the U.S. Supreme Court decided  Herring v US The Court basically extended the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule to cases where the police make negligent decisions that violate the Fourth Amendment. Source: Rob Leonard http://www.zerostaronline.com/2009/01/the-whittling-away-of-the-exclusionary-rule/ Today Judge Jim Bodiford sentenced Brian Nichols to four life sentences without parole, seven life sentences plus 485 years all running consecutive to one another.  Brian Nichols will never see the outside world again.  The Judge suggested that the Feds house him at the Federal Supermax prison in Colorado, although ... http://www.zerostaronline.com/2008/12/brian-nichols-avoids-the-death-penalty-what-now/ http://www.gasupreme.us/pdf/s08a1057.pdf Bradshaw v. State. I am not going to summarize it because it is a “must read” opinion.  But the quote of the day is “grossly disproportionate.” Source: Rob Leonard http://www.zerostaronline.com/2008/11/supreme-court-says-the-life-sentence-for-a-second-violation-of-failing-to-register-is-excessive/ The story from the AJC is printed below.  To me, it is ridiculous that this execution was scheduled the way it was.  The Supreme Court was scheduled to decide if they would hear the appeal from the Georgia Supreme Court (which was a 4-3 decision).  Instead of letting the appeal ... http://www.zerostaronline.com/2008/09/troy-davis-gets-a-stay-of-execution-from-the-us-supreme-court-two-hours-before-he-was-scheduled-to-die/ ATLANTA (AP) — A death row inmate who has drawn international headlines with claims that he is innocent of killing a Savannah police officer is scheduled to be executed later this month, Georgia authorities said Wednesday.Troy Davis, who is on death row for gunning down a Savannah police officer in ... http://www.zerostaronline.com/2008/09/the-georgia-attorney-general-crosses-the-line-of-decency-schedules-execution-before-the-us-supreme-court-can-hear-the-case/