After this post about the Supreme Court’s busy August, that Court decided two more cases. Both were criminal appeals. Here are summaries: State v. Hannah, ___ N.J. ___ (2021). This was a case involving murder and other charges. Defendant was found guilty. After a lengthy procedural history, the Supreme Court voted 4-3 to grant post-conviction relief and vacate the conviction. The grounds were that defendant’s counsel rendered constitutionally deficient representation, and that, but for the deficient representation, there was a reasonable probability of a different outcome at...

August is often a busy month for the Supreme Court, as the Justices count down to the new Term by deciding most if not all of the remaining cases from the current Term. This year is no exception. So far, the Court has issued an opinion every weekday (except Fridays, when customarily no opinions of the Court are released) in the first two weeks of August. Here is a rundown of the Court’s August rulings to date: Pritchett v. State, ___ N.J. ___ (2021). This unanimous opinion by Justice LaVecchia yesterday affirmed, as modified, an Appellate Division decision that largely upheld a...

State v. Szemple, ___ N.J ___ (2021); J.K. v. New Jersey State Parole Bd., ___ N.J. ___ (2021). The Court decided these two criminal appeals in the last two days. Szemple, issued on Wednesday, was a 4-3 decision, while J.K., which came out yesterday, was a unanimous ruling. Szemple was a murder case that had been to the Supreme Court before. State v. Szemple, 135 N.J. 406 (1994) (affirming defendant’s conviction). Like State v. Lodzinski, in which the Supreme Court deadlocked 3-3, thus affirming defendant’s conviction for murder as discussed here, the Szemple case could easily be...