State Supremes

SCOTUS curbed life without-parole for juveniles, but MN Supreme Court finds “consecutive sentences exception”

In 2010, at the age of 16, Mahdi Hassan Ali committed a terrible crime in Minneapolis. During the course of a store robbery, Ali shot and killed three people. He was tried as an adult, and a jury found him guilty of two counts of felony murder and one count of first-degree murder. On the felony murder convictions, the Hennepin County District Court sentenced Ali to two consecutive life sentences with the possibility of release on each after 30 years; on the first-degree murder conviction, Ali was sentenced to mandatory life imprisonment without the possibility of release.
In 2012, after Ali had been sentenced, the United States Supreme Court in Miller vs. Alabama ruled that the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishments” bars juvenile offenders like Ali from being sentenced to mandatory life sentences without opportunities for parole.

NY high court ruling leaves Facebook users exposed to unchecked inquiries by NY criminal prosecutors

JD Supra

Facebook’s four-year battle on behalf of its users, seeking to quash 381 warrants obtained by the New York County District Attorney’s Office, has come to a close. The decision of the New York Court of Appeals—which is New York’s highest court—leaves Facebook users exposed to wide-ranging and largely unchecked inquiries by New York criminal prosecutors into their Facebook accounts.

The story begins in July 2013, when the New York Supreme Court—which is the trial court in New York—issued 381 warrants arising out of the district attorney’s (DA) application for warrants under the Stored Communications Act (SCA). The DA was investigating an alleged Social Security Disability fraud scheme.

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Ohio Supreme Court Justice says it’s time for the state to decriminalize marijuana

AP:

An Ohio Supreme Court justice who’s mulling a run for governor thinks it’s time for the state to decriminalize marijuana.

Justice William O’Neill, the lone Democrat holding an Ohio statewide office, said making marijuana legal is working in Colorado and doing it in Ohio would bring hundreds of millions of dollars in sales taxes.