No Supreme Court Appeal in Case that Put Prosecutor Tactics on Trial

Prosecutors have declined to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a ruling that threw out 13 indictments because the government pressured the defendants’ employer to stop paying their legal fees.

The New York City-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled in August that prosecutors violated the employees’ Sixth Amendment right to counsel because of the pressure. The defendants had been employed by the accounting firm KPMG and charged in a tax shelter fraud case.

The government did not seek certiorari by last week’s deadline, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports.

Two other defendants in the case have already pleaded guilty, and four others are now on trial in Manhattan, the New York Times reports. One of those on trial is former Sidley Austin partner Raymond Ruble.