July 3, 2026 Commentary on Criminal Matters

In a child abuse resulting in death prosecution, the omission of proper jury instructions linking the abusive conduct to the death of the children was harmless error. Clearly motivated by the guilty S.O.B. rule, the majority finds that causation is irrelevant, and the words “resulted in” peppered throughout the instructions was close enough for government work. To get there, the majority simply needed to reimagine what the Court meant in People v. Dunaway back in 2004. Justice Gabriel dissented because he would stick with what the Court said in Dunaway and not infer findings for the jury.

After two years of proceedings, the DA finally produced a 911 call with exculpatory evidence six days before trial. The judge, sua sponte, declared that this was part of a pattern and practice of discovery violations in the jurisdiction, and dismissed the charges. The division reversed. A court must give a prosecutor an opportunity to oppose the imposition of sanctions premised on a finding that the district attorney’s office engaged in a pattern and practice of discovery violations.

The trial court erred by finding Trujillo was a “stranger” for purposes of the sexually violent predator designation where he and the victim had a brief personal relationship before the assault.

At the restitution hearing, the prosecution failed to satisfy its burden of proof with respect to the CVCB claims by relying on bare-bones summaries that were not introduced as evidence at the hearing and failed to establish that exposing the identity of the providers would pose some safety risk to the victims.

The DMV hearing officer erred by finding the presumption of inadmissibility for all evidence an officer fails to record on body worn camera under the Police Accountability Reform Act did not apply in civil proceedings like a DMV hearing.

On a first degree murder case, Judge White granted postconviction relief on two claims. Issue #1: The prosecution violated Jackson’s right to due process and to present a defense by moving to withdraw a co-defendant’s plea deal before he could testify as an exculpatory witness in Jackson’s trial. Issue #2: Counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to impeach the inculpatory witness’s (Walker’s) statement and failing to introduce the exculpatory witness’s (Roberts’) prior testimony after he invoked his Fifth Amendment right and refused to testify.

The government engages in a “search” under Katz, when obtaining cellphone user’s Location History. The Google database warehousing cellphone user’s Location History data may be new technology unimaginable to the framers; however, the judiciary must guard against this type of unreasonable governmental intrusion into the lives of people. The Third Party doctrine does not remove this search from the protections of the Fourth Amendment because no one has a true choice about sharing Location History information with Google.

The Court denied cert on June 30, 2026. Justice Sotomayor concurred but wrote separately to encourage lower courts to carefully consider the language and import of their decision in Hunter v. United States, 608 U. S. ___ (2026), when deciding whether to enforce a collateral-review or appeal waiver against a defendant who is challenging the constitutionality of a conviction.