Lack of sign language interpreters during criminal proceeding is potential violation of ADA
Facts Like many deaf individuals, Cameron Luke has trouble speaking and reading English. He also has difficulty lip reading. So in order to effectively communicate, Luke requires an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter. Such an interpreter was never provided during Luke’s case for marijuana possession. No interpreter was provided the night of his arrest during a […]
Question as to whether administrative remedies made available to inmate
Facts Matthew Huskey alleged that on September 8, 2016, while seeking care at a medical clinic, officers forced his face into a wall, yelled that he had a knife, took his shoes and pants off, and took turns slapping him in the face and head while he was restrained. According to Huskey, after the incident, […]
Questions at traffic stop were proper
Facts Quarrentin Jawhitney Lynn Holmes entered a conditional guilty plea of an indictment charging him with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. In this appeal, he challenges the district court’s order denying his motion to suppress evidence seized during a traffic stop. He contends that questions posed to him by a state trooper during and after […]
Letter carrier was not a government actor to whom fourth amendment applies
Facts In 2017, United States Postal Service (“USPS”) letter carrier Jasia Girard was delivering mail in Lafayette, Louisiana. As she was picking up a package for delivery to 109 Hogan Drive, her thumb slipped through a preexisting hole. After feeling a plastic bag containing little balls she thought to be marijuana, Girard removed her thumb […]
Evidence stemming from involuntary confession should have been suppressed
Facts In April 2020, three men, one of them brandishing a gun, forced their way into Alicia Sanders’s home. The men took her purse, containing her cell phone and house and vehicle keys, and fled the scene. Sanders could not identify the assailants. She could only say they were African Americans of different heights—“shorter, midways […]
Slight push to open door is enough for burglary
Facts In May 2018, C.L. and her family were staying at the Horseshoe Tunica Hotel and Casino to celebrate her younger sister’s graduation from high school. C.L. and Dominique Ingram, a family friend, stayed in room 3157 on the hotel’s third floor. Around midnight the evening the family had checked into the hotel, C.L. decided […]