Justice Fernandez-Vina continued in relevant part: The Appellate Division reversed and remanded Miller’s sentence. The panel concluded that the trial court “engaged in impermissible double-counting,” reasoning that “by its nature, child pornography inherently is especially heinous, cruel and depraved, and Miller’s possession and distribution of it in this case was no different.” 449 N.J. Super. […]

On February 20, 2019, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided the Monmouth County case of State v. Michael D. Miller. Justice Fernandez-Vina wrote for a unanimous court. The principal issue was whether the trial court abused its discretion in applying aggravating factor one and in refusing to merge the offenses of possession of child pornography […]

The unanimous Court concluded in relevant part: Applying those legal principles to the facts and circumstances of this case, the Court concludes that the detention of the motel room occupants, including Chisum and Woodard, was unconstitutional. Just because a location to which police officers are dispatched is a high-crime area does not mean that the […]

The New Jersey Supreme court continued in relevant part: There is no rigid time limitation on Terry stops. However, an investigatory detention may become too long if it involves a delay unnecessary to the legitimate investigation of the law enforcement officers. The reasonableness of a continued detention is determined through application of a two-pronged inquiry. […]

Justice Fernandez-Vina continued in relevant part: The trial court denied defendants’ motions to suppress the evidence. Chisum pled guilty to one weapons charge; Woodard pled guilty to one weapons offense and to a drug possession offense arising from an unrelated indictment. The Appellate Division panel affirmed. The Court granted defendants’ petitions for certification “limited to […]

The Court continued in relevant part: The officers then asked Reevey and the other occupants of the room for their identification. The officers relayed the occupants’ information to dispatch to check for outstanding warrants. Officer Harris stated that the occupants of the room were not allowed to leave until the results of their individual warrant […]

On February 5, 2019, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided the Monmouth County case of State v. Deyvon Chisum. Justice Fernandez-Vina wrote for a unanimous court. The principal issue was whether the police exceeded the scope of a lawful investigative detention in conducting a pat down after dispelling the presence of criminal activity. In this […]

Justice Thomas continued in relevant part: This understanding is buttressed by the then widely accepted definitions of robbery among the States, a significant majority of which defined nonaggravated robbery as requiring a degree of force sufficient only to overcome a victim’s resistance. Under Stokeling’s reading, many of those state robbery statutes would not qualify as […]

On January 15, 2019, the United States Supreme Court decided the case of Stokeling v. U.S. Justice Thomas wrote for the 5-4 majority, joined by Justices Breyer, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh. Justice Sotomayor authored the dissenting opinion, joined by Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Ginsburg, and Justice Kagan. Justice Thomas held in relevant part as follows: […]

The Court continued: Here, approximately three minutes after they knew Wint had unequivocally requested counsel, the two Pennsylvania detectives entered the Camden County interrogation room to question Wint about the Pennsylvania murder charge. That was a clear violation of Edwards. The record does not support the trial court’s finding that Wint initiated a conversation with […]