Hot Takes
The latest on high-profile trials, changes to the law, rulings by the Supreme Court, and forensic science news.
Latest in Hot Takes
When the Evidence Is AI-Generated: The Take It Down Act, Section 1466A, and What the Strahler Case Means for Criminal Defense
By Douglas E. Huff | Partner, Deandra Grant Law | Dallas, Texas On April 7, 2026, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio announced the first federal conviction under…
Texas CLR Connect: A New Statewide Forensic Discovery Portal, and What It Will (and Won’t) Change
In August 2026, if the rollout stays on schedule, the way crime-laboratory records reach Texas criminal defendants will change. Not because the underlying law of discovery is changing (the Michael Morton Act…
Arson Convictions, Cameron Todd Willingham, and Texas’s Junk Science Writ
In late April 2026, The Appeal reported on the appeal of Maria Montalvo, a New Jersey woman convicted in 1996 of murdering her two young children in a car fire and sentenced…
Can Police Get Into Your iPhone? How Apple’s New Security Is Reshaping Digital Evidence
By Douglas E. Huff | Partner, Deandra Grant Law | Dallas, Texas In March 2026, Apple released iOS 26.4. Buried in the release was a change that has (quietly) reshaped the landscape…
The Michael Morton Act, the Richard Miles Act and the Heath Opinion Now Under Fire
Most people who are not lawyers do not think much about criminal discovery. It sounds like procedure which is the dry, technical part of how a case moves through the system. But…
New Study: Recreational Cannabis Users Test Like Non-Users
A study published earlier this year in the peer-reviewed journal Comprehensive Psychiatry took a careful look at a question that often goes muddled in the courtroom: does using cannabis make you cognitively…
Pitchford v. Cain: What a Batson Challenge Is, and Why the Jury Is Often Decided Before the First Witness
By Deandra Grant | Deandra Grant Law | Dallas, Texas On May 28, 2026, the United States Supreme Court reversed the conviction and death sentence of Terry Pitchford, a Black man on…
The Bock Sentencing: Why She Received 500 Months in Federal Prison
On May 21, 2026, U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel sentenced Aimee Bock, the founder and executive director of the Minnesota nonprofit Feeding Our Future, to 500 months in federal prison (just over…
Probabilistic DNA Software in the Courtroom: What Defense Lawyers Need to Watch For
This month Cybergenetics (the company behind the TrueAllele probabilistic genotyping system) announced the launch of the TrueAllele Investigative Database (TA-ID), a tool built to re-examine DNA evidence that crime labs previously set…
When the Courthouse Itself Compromises a Fair Trial: What the Murdaugh Reversal Means for Every Defendant
On May 13, 2026, the South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously vacated Alex Murdaugh’s 2023 double-murder conviction and ordered a new trial. The 5-0 opinion did not reach the merits of the murder…