Subscribers to the Criminal Defense Resource Center’s online resources, found at www.sado.org, have access to more than 1,800 appellate pleadings filed by SADO Attorneys in the last five years. The brief bank is updated regularly and is open to anyone who wants to subscribe to online access. On our site, briefs are searchable by keyword, results can be organized by relevance or date, and the pleadings can be filtered by court of filing.  Below are some of the issues presented in briefs added to our brief bank in the last few weeks. For confidentiality purposes, names of clients and witnesses have been removed.

BB 298627:  The trial court erred in finding that defendant was subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years. The original habitual offender notice did not give defendant notice that he was subject to the “super habitual” minimum sentence, and he was affirmatively advised by the court before trial that his minimum sentence could be significantly less than 25 years.

BB 299796:  To apply the additional requirements of SORA added well after defendant was already on the registry for a conviction entered several years prior violates the state and federal constitutional protections against ex post facto laws. Defendant’s convictions for violating those ex post facto provisions must be vacated.

BB 299222:  The lying to a peace officer statute does not apply to defendant, and the evidence is insufficient; defendant’s conviction must be vacated, the charge dismissed, and defendant is entitled to a resentencing.

BB 298807:  The trial court reversibly erred by imposing sentence without obtaining defendant’s consent to be sentenced by a judge who did not conduct the plea proceedings.

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