Harrisburg cops had no legal grounds to search man for gun based on a second-hand tip, U.S. court says
Updated Jan 29, 2021;
A federal appeals court overturned the 6 ½-year prison sentence for a Harrisburg man Friday after concluding city police had no grounds to stop and search him for a firearm based on a tip they received second-hand.
The panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit also voided Devin Bullock’s related federal conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Judge Theodore A. McKee concluded in the circuit court’s opinion that police simply didn’t have solid probable cause to search Bullock and his SUV outside the 1400 Club on North Third Street on the night of Sept. 30, 2016.
Decades-long federal prison terms backed for men who applauded livestream rape of 6-year-old boy
Updated Dec 14, 2020;
Two men who watched and applauded the livestream rape of a 6-year-old central Pennsylvania boy received a fair trial before being sentenced to decades in prison, a federal appeals court has decided.
The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit shoots down arguments by Dylan Heatherly and William Staples that the jurors should not have been allowed to see the graphic Zoom video of the brutal rape because it prejudiced the panel against them.
Judge Stephanos Bibas found in the circuit court’s opinion that prosecutors were justified in showing that video and other child porn from the chat room Heatherly and Staples frequented because “the evidence was highly probative of the conspiracy and the defendants’ awareness of what they were involved in.