Court Cases

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that individuals who were given life sentences while juveniles could not be required to pay the costs of re-sentencing them after their original sentences were ruled unconstitutional. The Court reasoned that, although defendants generally have to pay the costs of sentencing, this does not apply when they are resentenced through no fault of their own but instead because of a change in the law.

Weeks after sentencing, the clerk’s office assessed certain court costs and prepared a bill of costs but did not provide it to the defendant. Some of these costs were imposed without statutory authority to impose them. Because the time to file a post-sentencing motion had already passed, the defendant’s counsel—who learned of these costs by happenstance—filed an appeal within the timeframe to do so. The Superior Court refused to consider the appeal, reasoning that the defendant should have first somehow raised this issue with the trial court, even though the costs were not assessed until weeks after sentencing and in violation of due process by failing to notify the defendant.

If a defendant in a criminal case refuses to disclose the password to his encrypted computer, does either the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution or Article 1, Section 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution protect him so that he does not have to reveal it?

Constitutional challenge to the Marsy's Law ballot question, based on the requirement of the Pennsylvania Constitution that changes that impact different sections of the constitution are considered in separate amendments.

Class action lawsuit against the Lebanon County court on behalf of three medical cannabis patients who are on probation