Criminal Procedure

2 lawyers convicted in scheme to get film-industry tax credits without paying required expenses

Two prominent lawyers were convicted Monday by a federal jury in New Orleans for their roles in a scheme by three business partners to obtain film-industry tax credits from the state of Louisiana without paying required expenses. Found guilty of conspiracy and mail fraud charges were attorneys Michael Arata, a…

Apr 28, 2015 11:00 AM CDT

3 Florida prison guards linked to KKK are charged with plotting to kill inmate

Three current and former prison guards in Florida with ties to the Ku Klux Klan were charged with plotting to kill an African-American inmate. The Orlando Sentinel reported Thursday that Thomas Jordan Driver, David Elliot Moran and Charles Thomas Newcomb have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder.…

Apr 3, 2015 12:05 PM CDT

Indian tribes are retaking jurisdiction over domestic violence on their own land

Diane Millich was only days into her marriage when her husband first hit her. So began her year of "horrific terror."

Millich, a member of the Southern Ute tribe of southwestern Colorado, called tribal police many times from her home on the reservation. But because her husband was not an American Indian, tribal police had no authority over him. Colorado's La Plata County overlaps the reservation, but county sheriffs had no jurisdiction over crimes committed against Indians on Indian land.

Apr 1, 2015 6:02 AM CDT

Kentucky tests new assessment tool to determine whether to keep defendants behind bars

During her time as a prosecutor, Anne Milgram remembers having to rely on her gut instinct to determine whether to seek pretrial detention for defendants. “The detention decision is one of the most important decisions made,” says Milgram, who was New Jersey’s attorney general from 2007 to 2010. Nationwide, more…

Apr 1, 2015 3:50 AM CDT

Defense objected to twin-jury murder trial of 2 men, but wants cases consolidated for appeal

At least one of the defense lawyers representing Johnny Parker, 31, and William Fillyaw, 37, in their joint first-degree murder trial earlier this year asked that their unusual twin-jury trial be severed. But that didn’t occur and now a lawyer for Fillyaw is asking that their post-trial motions be consolidated…

Mar 24, 2015 3:15 PM CDT

Appeals court says magistrate had power to hold former TV judge Joe Brown in contempt and jail him

It appears that a former TV-show judge may be headed back to the slammer over a Tennessee juvenile-court outburst last year, in which he talked himself into an escalated five-day jail sentence after initially getting 24 hours for contempt of court. Although Joe Brown characterized his post-ruling debate with the…

Mar 24, 2015 12:40 PM CDT

Winning app at Hackcess to Justice New Orleans helps clients preserve evidence

Ensuring that all Americans have sufficient access to justice has been one of the top priorities of the American Bar Association. One of the states with the largest gaps between the demand for legal services and the availability of adequate legal resources is Louisiana. According to the National Association of…

Mar 23, 2015 4:15 PM CDT

SCOTUS won’t hear case of inmate on death row for 30 years; dissenters see ‘glaring’ legal error

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear the case of a Texas inmate who claimed that executing him after more than 30 years on death row would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court denied cert on Monday in the case of Lester Leroy Bower Jr., according to the order…

Mar 23, 2015 10:09 AM CDT

Suspended judge loses round in state’s top court in fight to ax prosecutor in domestic violence case

A suspended Ohio judge can continue with his legal battle to get a special prosecutor appointed to oversee his felony domestic violence case. But he will have to do so after trial, the state’s top court says. In a 4-3 decision granting a writ of prohibition, the Ohio Supreme Court…

Mar 18, 2015 10:15 AM CDT

Top state court declines to intervene in dispute between DA and police department

Pennsylvania’s top court has declined to intervene in a dispute between a district attorney and a local police department investigating a claim that she forged a judge’s signature on a court order reducing bail for a defendant. In an emergency petition, Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller had sought…

Feb 18, 2015 10:15 AM CST

Utah inmate forfeited right to counsel after threatening several lawyers, state’s top court says

A Utah inmate has forfeited his right to appellate counsel because of repeated and extreme “dilatory, disruptive, and threatening conduct” toward his lawyers, the Utah Supreme Court has ruled. The inmate, Curtis Allgier, expressed disapproval of a succession of lawyers appointed to represent him in the 2007 murder of a…

Jan 26, 2015 8:55 AM CST

Pretrial detainee shocked with stun gun gets SCOTUS hearing on excessive-force proof

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a pretrial detainee who claims jail officers used excessive force when subduing him with a stun gun must prove his jailers had a subjective intent to cause harm. The court agreed to consider the case of Michael Kingsley on Friday. SCOTUSblog…

Jan 21, 2015 5:45 AM CST

Inmate is entitled to new lawyers after counsel blew habeas deadline by 117 days, SCOTUS says

A Missouri death-row inmate is entitled to the appointment of new counsel after his lawyers filed a habeas petition 117 days after the deadline, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. The court’s per curiam opinion (PDF) on Tuesday summarily reversed a decision by the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court…

Jan 20, 2015 12:02 PM CST

Lawyer’s capital concession can be raised by death row inmate, SCOTUS says in procedural case

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on behalf of a death row inmate whose trial counsel said in his closing remarks that he could not “quarrel with” a death sentence. The court ruled for Robert Mitchell Jennings in a 6-3 opinion (PDF) that considered whether Jennings’ ineffective assistance claim was…

Jan 14, 2015 10:00 AM CST

Should 40,000 cases be tossed over drug-lab issues? Top state court to decide

Over nearly a decade, a rogue chemist at a Massachusetts evidence laboratory potentially could have tainted 40,323 drug cases. On Thursday, the state’s top court will hear arguments about how that issue should be fixed, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. Last year, the Supreme Judicial Court decided it…

Jan 7, 2015 2:55 PM CST