Latest Case: Allen v. State (Criminal Law)

The Twenty-Sixth Amendment and the Real Rigging of Georgia’s Election

VIKRAM DAVID AMAR

Illinois law dean Vikram David Amar explains why Georgia’s law allowing persons 75 years and older to get absentee ballots for all elections in an election cycle with a single request, while requiring younger voters to request absentee ballots separately for each election, is a clear violation of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment. Dean Amar acknowledges that timing may prevent this age discrimination from being redressed in 2020, but he calls upon legislatures and courts to understand the meaning of this amendment and prevent such invidious disparate treatment of voters in future years.

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COVID Comes to Federal Death Row—It Is Time to Stop the Madness

AUSTIN SARAT

Austin Sarat—Associate Provost and Associate Dean of the Faculty and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence & Political Science at Amherst College—explains the enhanced risk of COVID-19 infection in the federal death row in Terre Haute, not only among inmates but among those necessary to carry out executions. Professor Sarat calls upon the Trump administration and other officials to focus on saving, rather than taking, lives inside and outside prison.

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Allen v. State

Docket: 20S-XP-506

Opinion Date: December 22, 2020

Judge: Goff

Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the trial court denying Appellant's petition for expungement, holding that because the trial court may have denied the petition on the erroneous belief that Ind. Code 35-38-9-4(b)(3) rendered Defendant ineligible for expungement, remand was required. Appellant pled guilty to Class B felony conspiracy to commit burglary. After completing the terms of his probation without any violations and waiting the required three years, Appellant petitioned for expungement under section 35-38-9-4. The trial court denied the petition for expungement without explaining its reasoning. The Supreme Court reversed, holding (1) a trial court may consider facts incident to the conviction when evaluating an expungement petition; and (2) because the trial court did not articulate why it denied Appellant's petition, the case must be remanded with instructions for the court to reconsider its decision consistent with this opinion.