Justia Nebraska Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Defendant was convicted of two counts of first degree murder and other offenses arising from three shootings that occurred at three separate locations. Defendant was seventeen years old at the time of the murders. The Supreme Court affirmed the convictions, vacated all of the sentences, and remanded for resentencing, holding (1) the district court did not err in denying Defendant’s motions for mistrial and for new trial; (2) the two life imprisonment sentences without the possibility of parole imposed for the first degree murder convictions were unconstitutional under Miller v. Alabama; and (3) the district court committed plain error in regard to the sentences imposed for the convictions of use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony, attempted second degree murder, attempted robbery, and criminal conspiracy. View "State v. Ramirez" on Justia Law

Defendant was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment for a murder he committed when he was sixteen years old. More than fifteen years later, Defendant filed an amended postconviction motion challenging his life imprisonment sentence. The district court denied the motion. After Defendant appealed, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Miller v. Alabama, which held that the Eighth Amendment forbids a state sentencing scheme that mandates life in prison without the possibility of parole for a juvenile offender convicted of homicide. The Supreme Court reversed in this case, holding (1) the rule announced in Miller applied retroactively to Defendant; and (2) Defendant’s sentence was unconstitutional under Miller, and therefore, Defendant was entitled to be resentenced. Remanded. View "State v. Mantich" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of two counts of first degree felony murder and other charges arising from three shootings. At the time of the shootings, Defendant was fifteen years old. Defendant was sentenced to two life terms without the possibility of parole for the murder counts. The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant’s convictions in all respects but vacated the sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, holding that the life imprisonment sentences were unconstitutional under Miller v. Alabama, in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that it is unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile convicted of a homicide to a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. View "State v. Castaneda" on Justia Law

Defendant pled guilty to a 2012 driving under the influence (DUI) charge. During a sentence enhancement hearing, the evidence showed Defendant had previously been convicted of DUI in 2003, 2001, and 1999. Defendant argued that the 1999 and 2001 convictions were the same convictions referred to in the 2003 enhancement hearing, and because those convictions did not result in enhancement of the 2003 charge, the State was collaterally estopped from using them for enhancement of the 2012 charge. The trial court found Defendant guilty of fourth-offense DUI, holding that the doctrine of collateral estoppel did not bar the use of two prior convictions for the purpose of sentence enhancement. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that collateral estoppel did not bar the use of Defendant’s 1999 and 2001 DUI convictions as two of the three prior convictions necessary to enhance his 2012 conviction to fourth offense. View "State v. Bruckner" on Justia Law

After an infant boy died in the care of Plaintiff, a daycare provider, Plaintiff was charged with felony child abuse resulting in death. The charge was later dropped after two forensic pathologists retained by Plaintiff concluded that the infant’s cause of death was sudden infant death syndrome. Plaintiff subsequently sued the pathologist whose autopsy report was used to bring the criminal charges against Plaintiff and the pathologist’s wholly owned corporation (collectively, Defendants). The district court granted summary judgment for Defendants on Plaintiff’s malicious prosecution claim. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the district court erred in granting summary judgment for Defendants where differing reasonable inferences could be drawn as to whether the pathologist knowingly provided false or misleading information to law enforcement in his autopsy report. View "McKinney v. Okoye" on Justia Law