Some of the most common types of property crime charges in Pennsylvania are theft/larceny, robbery and burglary. All involve one person taking property that belongs to another without the owner's permission, but they vary in key details. For instance, robbery...
Criminal Defense
Man charged with selling guns stolen from federal facility
Amid an ongoing spate of horrifying acts of gun violence, lawmakers are discussing ways to limit access to guns by dangerous people. One proposal is to require mandatory background checks for all gun sales. Activists say that many sales take place over the Internet,...
FBI arrests 30 in alleged drug trafficking operation
Although many drug arrests come about as a result of traffic stops and other encounters when police say they find illegal drugs in the defendant's possession, the authorities are always looking for ways to break up drug distribution networks. State and federal law...
Lawsuit highlights problems with state’s public defense system
Even people who have never been arrested and never worked in the criminal justice system are often familiar with the Miranda warning. As heard in countless TV shows and movies, the warning advises arrestees that they have the right to remain silent, the right to an...
The staggering statistics on wrongful convictions in America
America’s criminal justice system is supposed to be fair, impartial and above all, as accurate as possible. Unfortunately, the statistics on criminal justice accuracy are not promising. In recent decades, researchers and advocacy groups like the Innocence...
Pennsylvania seems closer than ever to legalizing marijuana
Pennsylvania may be closer than ever to legalizing recreational marijuana, with two bills in the state Senate that would do just that if enacted. With medical marijuana already legal in the state since 2016 and 59 percent of Pennsylvanians in favor of full...
Ankle bracelets can come at a heavy cost
Many people in Pennsylvania and across the country have been interested in electronic ankle bracelets as an alternative to imprisonment. Commonly used in white-collar cases, people like Paul Manafort and Harvey Weinstein have been released on bail while their movement...
Report reveals racial bias in bail hearings
Both black and white judges in Pennsylvania and Florida treat African American defendants unfairly according to a study published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Researchers from Harvard Law School and Princeton University studied cases involving 93,914...
Identifications made during police lineups are often unreliable
Lawmakers in Pennsylvania have not yet taken steps to revise the way police departments conduct lineups, although such changes have been implemented in many states. The reliability of eyewitness identifications has been a controversial issue for decades, but...
Supreme Court makes landmark Fourth Amendment ruling
The Fourth Amendment protects Pennsylvania residents against unreasonable search and seizure, but the courts have long held that this protection does not apply to information that is willingly shared with third parties such as banks or telephone companies. The digital...