Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Exclusionary rule not applicable to violation of knock-and-announce statute

So says the Supreme Court in State v. Bembry.

The result may not be surprising, given that the US Supreme Court held similarly in 2006's Hudson v. Michigan, and I personally am convinced that the rationale of Hudson (which was adopted by the Court in Bembry) was correct, but I also am sympathetic to those who might view this as a missed opportunity to provide greater protection to Ohio's citizens through new federalism.

Monday, October 2, 2017

Cert. denied in State v. Brandon Moore

In December I wrote about State v. Brandon Moore, in which the Ohio Supreme Court held that a juvenile sentence for a non-homicide offense that exceeds the defendant's life expectancy violates the Eighth Amendment. It seems that roughly half the states that have confronted this question have found a constitutional violation, and half have not. (There are several other similar cases floating around out there.) One would think that the US Supreme Court will have to weigh in eventually.

But it will not weigh in on Moore. Today the court denied the state's cert. petition.