Sentencing/Post Conviction

Mastermind gets 15 years in ‘mind-boggling’ scheme to fleece Vegas HOAs of millions

Bringing to a close the largest known public corruption case in Southern Nevada, a federal judge on Thursday sentenced a former construction company boss portrayed by prosecutors as its mastermind to 15½ years in prison. The case, which brought down multiple attorneys among a total of nearly 40 defendants, involved…

Aug 7, 2015 11:37 AM CDT

Man seeking state police job takes polygraph test, gets 20 years in prison

A pre-employment polygraph examination for a state police job did not go well for Cedric Lovejoy. He not only wound up without the Missouri State Highway Patrol position he was seeking but, as of Thursday, was sentenced to a 20-year term in federal prison, the Kansas City Star reports. During…

Aug 7, 2015 9:00 AM CDT

Los Angeles County agrees to federal oversight of jail system

The Los Angeles County jail system will submit to federal oversight as a result of a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday. The agreement with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office follows a federal report finding a spike in jail suicides at county jails, from four in 2012…

Aug 7, 2015 6:15 AM CDT

Man spent 110 days in jail in ‘new’ case for which he’d already served his time

Released from a Georgia jail in March 2014, Eric Wyatt was stunned to be escorted by authorities to a jail in another county instead of being set free. He was being arrested under a warrant that charged him with borrowing a truck and failing to return it several years ago.…

Aug 6, 2015 5:04 PM CDT

Disbarred lawyer gets probation after judge noted disheveled appearance and ordered drug test

A now-disbarred Georgia lawyer has been convicted of two felony drug charges stemming from a judge’s order that he undergo a drug test because he appeared disheveled and had trouble standing during a court appearance for a client. The former lawyer, Rand Jason Csehy, 44, was convicted on Tuesday in…

Aug 5, 2015 9:26 AM CDT

Chemerinsky: These 4 lesser-known SCOTUS decisions are sure to spawn more litigation

Although the Supreme Court’s decisions on marriage equality and the Affordable Care Act deservedly got the most media attention, other cases will more likely affect lawyers and judges on a daily basis. Here are four decisions—two criminal and two civil—from the completed Supreme Court term that will have a significant…

Aug 5, 2015 8:30 AM CDT

Restore college-funding eligibility for prisoners, ABA leaders urge Congress

The ABA’s House of Delegates easily passed a resolution Tuesday urging Congress to restore Federal Pell Grant eligibility for prisoners with qualifying needs. Resolution 108B, sponsored by the Criminal Justice Section, would expand on a current Department of Education pilot program unveiled last week. The Second Chance Pell Pilot is…

Aug 4, 2015 11:48 AM CDT

Long-term solitary confinement produces ‘social death,’ psychologist finds

A psychologist who studied inmates held in solitary confinement for most of their adult lives says the men have undergone a “social death” as a result of the experience. The New York Times obtained reports prepared by the psychologist, Craig Haney, for a lawsuit filed on behalf of prisoners in…

Aug 4, 2015 10:58 AM CDT

Jury in case over Batman movie-theater slayings quickly decides not to rule out death penalty

It took little time for the jury who convicted James Holmes last month of killing 12 people and injuring 70 more during a 2012 shooting at a Batman movie screening to take the next step toward imposing the death penalty. On Monday, the Colorado jury found that mitigating factors did…

Aug 3, 2015 4:35 PM CDT

Using hot sauce on boy for ‘Dr. Phil’ show was bid for attention, not discipline, court rules

Determining what constitutes “reasonable parental discipline” can be difficult, because this standard is vague, argued an Alaska mom famous for forcing an adopted child to consume hot sauce as a punishment—and a state appellate court agreed. But that wasn’t the issue in Jessica Beagley’s case, the Alaska Court of Appeals…

Aug 3, 2015 1:15 PM CDT

7th Circuit questions the accuracy of Lex the drug-sniffing dog but upholds car search evidence

A federal appeals court has upheld a car search that uncovered cocaine, though it occurred after an alert by a drug-sniffing drug with a poor accuracy record. The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said officers in Bloomington, Illinois, had probable cause for the search because Lex the drug-sniffing…

Aug 3, 2015 6:15 AM CDT

Crime rate not main reason prison population exploded: It was sentencing policy

Suppose that in 1972, in response to a rising crime rate, then-President Richard Nixon announced plans to build 1 million new prison cells, reserve 60 percent of them for blacks and Latinos and put 3,000 people on death row, said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project. Such an…

Aug 1, 2015 5:31 PM CDT

An admitted murderer seeks justice in the death of his daughter

Edward Montour Jr. is a murderer, serving a prison sentence of life without parole. In fact, he's serving two terms of life without parole, one for the premeditated murder in October 2002 of a 23-year-old prison guard. Montour has confessed eight times and twice pleaded guilty to bludgeoning Eric Autobee to death in a prison kitchen with an industrial-size kitchen ladle, and for that he expects to spend the rest of his life in jail.

Aug 1, 2015 6:30 AM CDT

Courts are giving reduced terms to many child-porn defendants

U.S. District Judge James S. Gwin of the Northern District of Ohio polled a jury in February about what jurors thought a suitable sentence would be for Ryan Collins, a child pornography defendant who was found guilty of having 19 videos and 93 still images on his computer.

Aug 1, 2015 5:50 AM CDT

Former governor may lose pension under measure he signed into law

While still serving as governor of Virginia, Robert F. “Bob” McDonnell signed legislation that strips pensions from government workers convicted of a felony due to official misconduct. Now he himself is feeling its sting. Based on his 2014 corruption conviction, McDonnell should lose his pension under the law, the state’s…

Jul 31, 2015 5:00 PM CDT