On May 3, two appellate courts issued rulings on appeals of criminal convictions in which gay men in the jury pool were dismissed on “peremptory challenges” by the prosecuting attorneys. The California 3rd District Court of Appeal decided that the defendant in People v. Douglas, 2018 Cal. App. LEXIS 403, a gay man, is entitled to a new trial. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled in Morgan v. State, 2018 Nev. LEXIS 31, 134 … <Read More>
A unanimous three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on October 5 that Raymond Berthiaume is entitled to a new trial of his claims against the City of Key West and Police Officer David Smith stemming from Berthiaume’s arrest by Smith early on October 27, 2013. A jury ruled against Berthiaume at the first trial, after the judge had refused Berthiaume’s request that potential jurors be questioned about any anti-gay bias. … <Read More>
An 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel voted 2-1 in United States v. Bates, 2014 WL 5421846, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 20564 (Oct. 27, 2014), to vacate the child pornography conviction of Cameron Dean Bates, who had been convicted by a Southern District of Florida jury and sentenced to 240 months in federal prison for receiving, accessing, distributing, and possessing child pornography. The majority of the panel concluded that the trial judge … <Read More>