Sentencing/Post Conviction

Ex-DA takes plea in wrongful conviction case: 10 days, community service, $500 fine and disbarment

Michael Morton spent almost 25 years in a Texas prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Former Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson, the man who put him there, will get 10 days for contempt of court after agreeing Friday to take a plea in a comprehensive settlement of all…

Nov 8, 2013 11:30 PM CST

Woman gets time and Twitter ban for harassing judge in child-custody case

A woman convicted of stalking a Pennsylvania judge after a harassment campaign that authorities say included repeated Twitter tweets that contained veiled threats and making false legal ethics complaints under stolen identities has been sentenced to serve time. But even after the 34-year-old completes her Mongomery County jail term of…

Nov 8, 2013 8:15 PM CST

Former adjunct law prof suspended for 90 days after taking plea in law-student harassment case

A 70-year-old Minnesota sports law attorney has had his law license suspended for at least 90 days for sexual harassment after taking a plea in a criminal case in which he was accused of exposing himself to a female law student. Clark Calvin Griffith was an adjunct professor at William…

Nov 7, 2013 9:00 PM CST

Ex-probation officer to get 5 years in cocaine case ... unless he supplied drug that killed judge

A federal judge has OK’d a plea deal in which a former St. Clair County, Ill., probation officer is to get five years in a court-related drug case after pleading guilty Wednesday to intent to distribute cocaine and felon in possession of a firearm charges. But that deal is off…

Nov 7, 2013 4:55 PM CST

Prison gang helped escapees get fake court orders granting early release, official says

It wasn’t just phony court orders reducing their Florida prison sentences that helped Joseph Jenkins and Charles Walker escape recently. A contraband cellphone also was found in the Orange County prison cell in which one of the two men had been housed, reports the Orlando Sentinel. But officials don’t believe…

Nov 6, 2013 5:30 PM CST

Man faces $100 fine or 10 days for donning hat as he exited courtroom

A Michigan man has learned a hard lesson about the importance of following a court order. Warned by Kent County Circuit Court Judge James Robert Redford not to put his baseball cap back on until he had exited the courtroom, Ryan Cameron Lasenby, 29, donned it again a few steps…

Nov 5, 2013 9:10 PM CST

Video of cohort ‘confession’ and TV coverage credited in reversal of murder conviction

A man serving a 40-year prison sentence for the murder of a newspaper sports editor he says he did not commit has had his conviction reversed by a Missouri appellate court Granting writ of habeas corpus to Ryan Ferguson, the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District found that the prosecution…

Nov 5, 2013 8:15 PM CST

Angry prospective juror says what he thinks on questionnaire, gets 3 days in jail instead

As a convicted felon, Erick E. Haubenstricker could have been excused from jury duty simply by including this fact on a questionnaire. But the 36-year-old Michigan man took a different tack on the document, adding profanity-laced comments that blasted the system. On Monday, despite apologizing, he was sentenced to three…

Nov 4, 2013 7:25 PM CST

Ex-NJ attorney general works to reform the pretrial process with a Texas foundation’s backing

If you had the chance to reform the criminal justice system—and money was no object—what would you do? Where would you start? And how would you measure your success? These questions aren’t part of a parlor game. They’re the actual issues that faced former New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram…

Nov 1, 2013 8:40 AM CDT

Hearsay

Say What? “My recalcitrance to extend First Amendment protection to the slogan at hand [I ♥ Boobies] is simple—why is this word, boobies, different? Why does it deserve protection?” —Judge Joseph Greenaway of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dissenting in B.H. v. Easton Area School District (Aug. 5).…

Nov 1, 2013 8:09 AM CDT

Judge: Let’s make apps for ex-cons

This is Rachel M. Zahorsky’s last Law Scribbler column. The column is going on a temporary hiatus. Last spring, U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken stood before a crowd of nearly 500 legal tech and software gurus and gave them a problem to solve: Build a smartphone app that will support…

Nov 1, 2013 7:00 AM CDT

2nd convicted murderer wins retrial due to drug case now faced by presiding judge

A second convicted murderer has won a retrial because the Illinois judge who presided over his trial is now facing a criminal drug case in federal court. A public defender for Gregory Muse suggested that St. Clair County Circuit Judge Mike Cook might have been impaired at her client’s March…

Oct 31, 2013 6:50 PM CDT

Death penalty support at 40-year low, poll finds

Popular support for the death penalty has dropped to 60 percent, its lowest point in more than 40 years, a new poll shows. It is the lowest level of support Gallup has found since November 1972, when 57 percent of Americans favored capital punishment, according to this press release. Support…

Oct 30, 2013 4:47 PM CDT

Judge is asked to apologize to victim’s family for officiating at killer’s wedding after sentencing

A California judge is under fire for marrying a criminal defendant to his longtime girlfriend minutes after sentencing him to 53 years to life for murder. An attorney for the victim’s family has asked Superior Court Judge Patricia Cookson to apologize. Paul Kamenar says in a letter to the judge…

Oct 29, 2013 5:50 PM CDT

Posner: Lawyers bad at math are an increasing concern; inmate’s blood-pressure suit shows why

An inmate’s “plainly meritless” suit over a three-week lapse in his blood pressure medication highlights the legal profession’s discomfort with science and technology issues, according to a federal appeals opinion by Judge Richard Posner. The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of the suit by Maurice Jackson…

Oct 29, 2013 12:51 PM CDT