Sentencing/Post Conviction

Local jails are increasingly refusing to hold inmates longer for possible deportations

More and more counties and cities across the country are refusing to keep persons booked on criminal charges in jail for extra days so federal authorities can have more time to deport them, the Los Angeles Times reports. The marked decline of a widespread practice of keeping them in jail…

Oct 6, 2014 2:11 PM CDT

Traffic court defendant didn’t deserve jail for cursing in courthouse hallway, says appellate court

A judge went too far in imposing an eight-day, indirect criminal-contempt sentence for using using the F-word in a traffic court hallway, an Illinois appellate court found last week. Valerie Perez, who was in court for a speeding ticket, uttered the profanity after Will County Circuit Court Carmen Goodman took…

Oct 6, 2014 1:22 PM CDT

Man whose dogs killed woman gets sentence of 15 years to life

A California man convicted of second-degree murder after his pit bulls attacked and killed a 63-year-old woman received a sentence of 15 years-to-life. Prosecutors argued that Alex Donald Jackson, who lives in Littlerock, California, did nothing to stop the attack, and noted that his pets were involved in at least…

Oct 3, 2014 4:27 PM CDT

Federal judge fights to free low-level drug offender he sentenced to 27 years

Corrected: When U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman sentenced Byron McDade, a nonviolent drug offender, in 2002 the judge chafed at the mandatory minimum sentence of 27 years. So, invoking that lowest number on the approved range, he said: “I wish I could do more, Mr. McDade,” the Washington Post…

Oct 3, 2014 3:07 PM CDT

Woman dies during 1,000-mile extradition for violating probation on shoplifting charges

The September death of a woman who was extradited from Kentucky to Florida on a shoplifting probation violation is now being investigated by the Miami-Dade Police Department. According to the Miami Herald, a private transportation company, Prisoner Transportation Services of America, shackled Denise Isaacs in the van with 10 other…

Oct 2, 2014 4:10 PM CDT

Murder conviction stands despite judge’s confession of liberal bias

Two judges are troubled by Donald Kagan’s 1999 conviction for second-degree murder, but the verdict remains intact. The first is now-retired judge Frank Barbaro, who found Kagan guilty in a bench trial. After his retirement, Barbaro concluded he was swayed by liberal bias when he convicted Kagan in the shooting…

Oct 2, 2014 12:22 PM CDT

Privatized probation becomes a spiral of added fees and jail time

Tom Barrett trained as a pharmacist in the Army in the mid-1980s and continued the work after leaving the service in 1990, holding his last job with a national drugstore chain in Augusta, Georgia.

His expertise did not lend immunity to certain pitfalls. Barrett grew addicted to a steady supply of opioid painkillers Army doctors gave him for lower-back pain, though eventually the problem turned out to be kidney stones, which were blasted away with shock waves.

Oct 1, 2014 5:50 AM CDT

Inmate's right to wear a beard is among cases coming up this SCOTUS term

The Supreme Court term opens this month with a docket that is less heated than recent sessions—for now. But the justices will address cases whose rulings could affect Americans in the workplace, at the ballot box, in the observance of their religions and, in a new arena for the justices,…

Oct 1, 2014 3:50 AM CDT

Hacking takes center stage as a tool to improve access to justice

A disaster-relief mobile app that provides individuals with legal information, resources and forms for assistance. An interactive tool that calculates whether a user is eligible for indigent legal services—and how much prison time criminal defendants face. A game that determines whether a user needs legal representation. A website that guides…

Oct 1, 2014 1:40 AM CDT

Lawyer who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting intoxicated woman at his office gets 9 months

A Wisconsin lawyer who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting an intoxicated woman as his office was sentenced to serve nine months in jail. Jonathan G. Evenson of Madison also pleaded guilty to giving the woman the drug ecstasy, the Wisconsin State Journal reports. According to authorities Evenson, 38, met the…

Sep 30, 2014 3:50 PM CDT

Should the species of the victim influence punishment?

Should defendants convicted of animal abuse get jail time? The debate pits animal-rights activists against lawyers who contend a jail sentence can be disproportionate to the crime when an animal is the victim. The New York Times covered the issue raised by the prosecution of Brooklyn man Andre Robinson, 22,…

Sep 30, 2014 11:58 AM CDT

Cancer researcher gets 10 years in poisoning case

A cancer researcher has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for poisoning a colleague, who was also her lover, with a chemical found in antifreeze. Dr. Ana Maria Gonzalez-Angulo, 43, a breast cancer researcher at Houston’s Texas Medical Center, had been convicted Friday of aggravated assault in the poisoning…

Sep 29, 2014 5:17 PM CDT

Judge says lawyer appeared unsteady and disheveled in court, orders drug test and jailing

A Georgia judge held a lawyer in contempt and ordered a drug test based on his courtroom appearance earlier this month. Judge Adele Grubbs says in the contempt order that she ordered the test after Atlanta lawyer Rand Csehy appeared in court to argue a motion for a client looking…

Sep 29, 2014 7:17 AM CDT

Imprisoned ex-cop gets 18 months more for putting ‘Miami Mice’ recording of fellow officers online

Two days before he began serving a four-year sentence in a federal corruption case, a former Miami police sergeant posted telephone recordings of two ex-colleagues on YouTube and a law enforcement site. Entitled “Miami Mice,” the clip was intended to embarrass two officers who worked under Raul Iglesias when he…

Sep 26, 2014 4:40 PM CDT

Daughter of BTK serial killer speaks out against Stephen King story, says her dad enjoys attention

A daughter of a notorious serial killer has for the first time publicly spoken about her father, in response to news that a short story by Stephen King, “A Good Marriage”, was inspired by her family’s experience in living unknowing with a multiple murderer. Kerri Rawson says it’s unfortunate that…

Sep 26, 2014 2:40 PM CDT