Whether an individual feels he or she has been wrongfully convicted for an offense involving alcohol, drugs, a sexual act, or even a violent or serious offense such as robbery or homicide, the appeals process is designed to ensure that a person’s rights are properly defended. This means that if…
On Monday March 11, a jury found former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick guilty of racketeering, along with 23 other charges including extortion. Racketeering and extortion are both offenses which carry maximum sentences of 20 years in prison. The public corruption trial against Kilpatrick and two co-defendants, one his father, continued…
In June of 2012, Dwayne Ballinger Jr. was released from prison after a federal judge found that Ballinger’s lawyer was ineffective at trial when Ballinger stood charged with fatally gunning down two men in 2006. U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow found that even though Ballinger had been convicted of killing…
Amy Lee Black has been imprisoned since 1991 for her involvement in murdering then 34-year-old Dave VanBogelen in December of 1990. Black, who was then 16 years old, allegedly bludgeoned the victim during a robbery; her 19-year-old boyfriend at the time was said to have stabbed VanBogelen to death after…
Recently, an Ohio man who had been arrested for critically injuring a Michigan State Police trooper in a crash that occurred in 2011 had his case dismissed by Ingham Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina due to insufficient evidence. Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III will now investigate whether there may be grounds for…
Mark Abraitis, a 26-year-old Saginaw man who was convicted of murdering his girlfriend in 2011, has been denied an appeal for a new trial by the Michigan Court of Appeals. Abraitis was sentenced to life without parole, and is now serving out his sentence at the Oaks Correctional Facility in…
On January 30, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that a marijuana patient who had given another registered patient marijuana cannot be prosecuted. The issue came about when Tony Allen Green gave another patient marijuana in September of 2011 while Green was in Nashville. Police arrested Green after it was…
In 2010, Joshua Whittum of Eaton Rapids, who was then 20 years old, pleaded guilty to child pornography charges. The Circuit Judge in the case at the time who is now retired, Calvin Osterhaven, imposed a shorter sentence on Whittum than what was called for under state sentencing guidelines, giving…
According to the Michigan Court of Appeals, individuals cannot be charged with a crime when they are found to be intoxicated inside their own homes and own a firearm. In 2010, former state House Speaker Craig DeRoche was charged by Novi police with possessing a firearm while intoxicated. The charge…
James W. Gunn, a Saginaw man convicted on charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in October of 2011, will not get a new trial according to news reports. Gunn was convicted by a jury in Saginaw County Circuit Court on October 12 of forcing a woman at a convenience store…