Last month, 30-year-old Jason G. Lehre gained an outright acquittal from the state Court of Appeals, something that rarely happens. Lehre’s conviction for unarmed robbery of a man outside a bowling alley in Warren was overturned. Lehre had been sentenced to 11 to 20 years in prison for the robbery…
Jackob Trakhtenberg, a Russian man who entered the U.S. in 1974 and is now an Oakland County resident, is suing his defense attorney after the Michigan Supreme Court threw out Trakhtenberg’s 2006 sexual assault conviction based on the lawyer’s poor performance. Trakhtenberg, who is now 76 years old, served seven…
In January of 2012, Benjamin French was sentenced to life in prison for allegedly killing an MSU student and his roommate in the course of an armed robbery involving drugs. The double murder occurred on March 25 of 2010; the victims were Owen Goodenow and Darren Brown Jr. French, who…
Last month we wrote about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian man sentenced to life for attempting to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight headed to Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas day in 2009. Abdulmutallab had explosives concealed in his underwear, and attempted to ignite the explosives as the plane was…
On December 17, the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of Rodell Brown, an intake corrections officer at the Ryan Correctional Facility convicted of larceny in a building in connection money taken from detainees at the facility. Brown was responsible for processing parole detainees, and allegedly stole four inmates’…
Many people are not aware that if they are convicted of a misdemeanor or felony offense, they have the right to appeal their conviction. A conviction is not “the end of the road.” However, it’s also important to note that winning an appeal is not easy, and in fact rare…
Winning an appeal from a criminal conviction is a rarity; in fact, reversal rates (meaning the court of appeals reverses a conviction) fall between approximately 5% and 15% of all criminal appeals across the nation, according to studies that have been conducted in some of the largest U.S. cities. Does…
Winning on appeal of a criminal conviction or sentencing with the Michigan Court of Appeals is never easy, and truthfully, rare. This is particularly true when defendants argue ineffective assistance of counsel in appealing a conviction. On December 12, Rosa Sharie Watson’s conviction of arson of a dwelling and arson…
Two days prior to Christmas, a federal appeals court panel signed an order which temporarily stayed an order issued in November by U.S. District Judge John Corbett O’Meara requiring Michigan to give parole hearings to “juvenile lifers,” or inmates who are serving mandatory life sentences for offenses committed as minors.…
Carlton Vur Adams of Hastings was found guilty in May of 2012 of operating a motor vehicle while having a controlled substance in his body, according to a news report at the Hastings Banner. Adams was also charged with operating a vehicle while having a controlled substance in his body…
