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Criminal Appellate & Post-Conviction Services

Illinois Court of Appeals Says Miller is Retroactive

The Illinois Court of Appeals just issued a 29 page opinion saying that Miller v Alabama is fully retroactive. This directly conflicts with the Michigan Court of Appeals ruling from two weeks ago to the contrary in People v Carp. The Court said that the ruling was a watershed ruling.
Williams - Miller retroactivty

Court of Appeals Affirms Carp

Today the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld People v Carp. At issue was was whether the Supreme Court’s ruling in Miller v Alabama was retroactive. If Miller was retroactive, the Court also had to figure out what the appropriate remedy. The Court found that Miller was not fully retroactive and did not apply to cases that were final when Miller was decided. The Court stated that until legislation is passed to fix the Miller problem in Michigan, the remedy was to reduce individual sentences to life with the possibility of parole. The pleadings are available here.

Meanwhile the Legislature has taken action to try and fix things as well.
According to this news article, Michigan has proposed a new bipartisan package of bills on JLWOP in response to Miller. News coverage is here: . Here a legislative summary.

Chaidez Rescheduled for Oral Arguments on Thursday - Updated

After a two delay because of Hurricane Sandy, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Chaidez v United States, No. 11-820. In Chaidez, the Court will decide whether its 2010 ruling in Padilla v Kentucky, __ U.S. ___, 130 S.Ct. 1473 (2010) is retroactive. Padilla stated that counsel has a duty to inform a non-citizen client about deportation consequences of the plea. SCOTUS blog has a nice summary of the case.Update: Here is a link to the oral argument transcript. Here is a link to the audio transcript. I’ve read the transcript on this one and it is going to be close.

Miller v Alabama Developments - Updated and Remixed

This is an update and consolidation of several Miller stories posted over the last several days. Last June the United States Supreme Court struck down a mandatory life without a parole sentence given to juveniles who kill. Michigan is the state with second largest group of juveniles serving these JLWOP (“juvenile life without parole”) sentences; Pennsylvania will be the first comprehensive decision. Florida has ruled that Miller is not retroactive in an unpublished decision where the defendant didn’t have counsel and missed key arguments. Louisiana has ruled that Miller is retroactive, but they did so in a summary order without much reasoning. We will be arguing later today that Miller is retroactive in what should be the second comprehensive decision. Read More...

CoA to Hear Miller Retroactivity Case

In People v Carp, the Michigan Court of Appeals agreed to hear whether the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Miller v Alabama is retroactive. Miller struck down mandatory juvenile life without parole sentences for juveniles convicted of murder. Previously, the Court struck down the same punishment as applied to non-murderers.The Court said that life without should rarely be given. One of the two cases that the Court heard was from Arkansas and called Jackson v Hobbs. Since Jackson had already lost his appeal, yet the Supreme Court gave Mr. Jackson the benefit of the ruling, a very good argument exists that Miller is fully retroactive. The Carp pleadings are available here.

COA Rules Padilla Isn't Retroactive

The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that Padilla v Kentucky, 130 S Ct 1473; 176 L Ed 2d 284 (2010) is not retroactive. Padilla held that defense counsel had to tell a non-citizen about the deportation of the consequences of his/her plea. People v Gomez, Court of Appeals No. 320485.

Michigan Supreme Court Again Rejects Halbert Retroactivity

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