https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section Latest articles for: Access to Justice Copyright 2026 Portfolio Media, Inc. en-US Tue, 26 May 2026 20:36:44 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2481762?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2481762 A North Carolina man who claimed through a guardian that he was coerced as a teen into falsely confessing to the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl has agreed to a $10 million deal with the state and county law enforcement, in which insurers will foot most of the bill. Thu, 21 May 2026 20:10:12 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2480636?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2480636 A University of Michigan student alleged in federal court Thursday he was harassed and stalked by school officials as retaliation for participating in pro-Palestinian protests and calling for the university to sever ties with Israel. Thu, 21 May 2026 17:15:12 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2480879?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2480879 Tennessee on Thursday halted the execution of Tony Von Carruthers, a man convicted of a triple murder who was forced to represent himself at his capital trial, after officials failed to establish a suitable backup IV line for lethal injection drugs, according to statements from state officials and his attorneys. Thu, 21 May 2026 17:15:04 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2480061?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2480061 A Connecticut man who was exonerated of sex crimes is seeking compensation after at least one rape kit that the New Haven Police Department had long claimed was destroyed was located and tested, ruling him out as a suspect, nearly 38 years after he was locked up. Wed, 20 May 2026 18:13:39 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2480169?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2480169 The Michigan Supreme Court held administrative hearings on Wednesday concerning several proposed amendments to Michigan court rules, including adding more specific guidelines for remote hearings, making language services free for civil cases, and allowing law students and recent law graduates to appear on behalf of indigent people in all Michigan courts. Mon, 18 May 2026 18:44:09 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2478979?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2478979 A North Carolina trial court did not violate state rules when it allowed jurors, at their request, to view in open court a weapon in connection with a case against a man accused of gun and drug charges, state lawyers have told the North Carolina Supreme Court. Fri, 15 May 2026 19:01:25 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2475772?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2475772 The U.S. Supreme Court's short opinion last year finding that an Oklahoma woman's capital trial was potentially marred by sexist and prejudicial evidence has been cited over 100 times since, and not just in cases involving gender bias. Litigants have invoked the ruling to challenge their convictions over a wide range of issues involving prosecutorial prejudice, bias and trial fairness — but courts so far have been reluctant to grant relief. Fri, 15 May 2026 19:01:24 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2468437?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2468437 Doubts about the guilt of Roderick Rankin, an Arkansas man sentenced to death for murdering three members of his ex-girlfriend’s family, have grown since a pastor said Rankin's brother Rodney confessed to the killings. His case sits at the intersection of actual innocence claims, false confessions, intellectual disability and federal habeas law. When the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case earlier this month, it left many of those questions unresolved. Fri, 15 May 2026 18:05:00 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2478255?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2478255 The U.S. Department of Justice told a Rhode Island federal judge that a stay blocking grant conditions tied to immigration status and diversity efforts should apply only to several programs and that a nonprofit coalition is improperly trying to expand its reach. Fri, 15 May 2026 17:30:54 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2478032?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2478032 The Sixth Circuit has upheld a $10 million jury verdict for a Michigan man who spent more than six years in prison before prosecutors concluded he was not guilty of murder, ruling that a Detroit detective could not use the man's vacated conviction to block his civil rights suit. Fri, 15 May 2026 16:33:56 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2478219?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2478219 The governor of Virginia signed a bill Friday enacting resentencing legislation that will allow people who are serving sentences for marijuana-related convictions to seek reductions for conduct that, since 2021, wasn't a chargeable offense in the state, her office said. Fri, 15 May 2026 16:25:39 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2478231?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2478231 The U.S. Supreme Court will take a closer look at a circuit split over the deference that should be allotted to U.S. Sentencing Commission commentary, and a man convicted in the killing of an infant has been released after 27 years served over evidence that points to pneumonia as the likely cause of death. Fri, 15 May 2026 13:38:20 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2469862?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2469862 The inherent power advantage of an attorney in a client relationship is magnified in pro bono representation, but lawyers can help ease this imbalance by implementing several principles, such as sharing control, identifying resource barriers and more, says Alicia Aiken at PLI. Thu, 14 May 2026 20:55:12 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2477841?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2477841 A Colorado Court of Appeals panel unanimously found that two city of Boulder ordinances that ban sheltering in public spaces don't violate the Colorado Constitution, shooting down constitutional challenges from a now-defunct nonprofit and several Boulder residents, according to an opinion announced Thursday. Thu, 14 May 2026 20:15:48 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2478046?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2478046 The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday lifted the Fifth Circuit's stay of execution for a man who sought to challenge the constitutionality of his death sentence on grounds that he was intellectually disabled, granting an emergency petition filed by Texas, which went on to execute the man later Thursday. Wed, 13 May 2026 17:44:15 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2477259?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2477259 A man charged with murder can't have a free additional attorney appointed to defend him in a capital case, a Florida state appeals court said Wednesday, finding in a reversal that since he had privately paid for primary counsel, under state law, he couldn't have gratis help, despite now being indigent. Wed, 13 May 2026 17:14:06 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2477336?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2477336 The pro-legalization advocacy organization Marijuana Policy Project recently made public a report culling data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's crime data explorer showing that states with legalized cannabis have seen dramatic decreases in marijuana-related arrests. Tue, 12 May 2026 22:23:05 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2476060?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2476060 A handyman was convicted for a string of 1991 Colorado bombings based on a forensic expert's testimony that the handyman's tools matched markings on bomb fragments "to the exclusion of any other tool in the world." Decades later, the defendant's successful challenge to the scientific merit and reliability of toolmark forensics has drawn national attention. Tue, 12 May 2026 18:11:25 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2476656?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2476656 The American Civil Liberties Union was joined by several civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups in asking a Michigan federal court on Monday for permission to weigh in support of a suit filed by the state of Michigan and city of Romulus seeking to stop an immigration detention center from taking over a former warehouse site. Tue, 12 May 2026 16:01:20 +0000 https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2476603?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=section https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2476603 A Massachusetts man who was convicted of assaulting police officers was not criminally responsible because the state hadn't shown he wasn't insane, an appeals court majority said Tuesday.