Sentencing/Post Conviction

Attorney forgave her sister’s killer and became an advocate against the death penalty

A well-known Illinois lawyer who works as a public defender and opposes the death penalty, Jeanne Bishop is also a woman of faith who views the criminal justice system from a very personal perspective. One of her sisters, Nancy Bishop Langert, was murdered, along with her husband, Richard, in the…

Oct 28, 2013 7:35 PM CDT

Convicted bank robber-turned-lawyer is subject of planned TV show

An unlikely success story, a convicted bank robber who wrote a winning certiorari petition to the U.S. Supreme Court while serving time and went on to a legal career is now the subject of a planned television show. Shon Hopwood, who at last report was soon to earn a law…

Oct 28, 2013 5:35 PM CDT

Disbarred lawyer gets 25 years in client-theft case

A disbarred Texas personal injury lawyer was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison in what a state bar representative called the worst case of client theft she has ever seen. Thomas Corea pleaded guilty to three of nine charges prior to the three-day sentencing hearing this week. He had…

Oct 25, 2013 8:43 PM CDT

Doctor gets life in hepatitis murder case, could win parole after 18 years

A 63-year-old Nevada physician was sentenced to a life prison term Thursday for his role in operating an endoscopy clinic at which unsanitary procedures caused a deadly hepatitis C outbreak in 2007. Dr. Dipak Desai, who was found guilty of 27 counts, including second-degree murder, could be paroled after 18…

Oct 25, 2013 7:45 PM CDT

Judge grants new trial for Kennedy cousin Skakel in 1975 slaying of teenage neighbor

A Connecticut judge has OK’d a new trial for Michael Skakel, a cousin of the famous Kennedy family, due to ineffective assistance of counsel. Skakel, 52, is a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel Kennedy. He was convicted in 2002 of beating to death a teenage neighbor, Martha Moxley,…

Oct 23, 2013 9:30 PM CDT

Must clients pay ex-lawyer attorney fees? Judge’s decision could affect sentence in theft case

A disbarred Texas personal injury lawyer pleaded guilty to stealing from three former clients. But Thomas Corea is effectively on trial this week concerning claimed thefts from other clients, too, as State District Judge Mike Snipes decides what his sentence should be, the Dallas Morning News reports. More than 40…

Oct 22, 2013 7:54 PM CDT

7 prisoners may have used phony court papers in escape attempts; $20K reward offered for information

As an investigation continues into how two convicted Florida murderers were able to obtain forged court documents that—briefly—won their early release from prison, authorities say at least seven individuals are suspected of attempting to escape from state prisons in this manner since 2009. Five of the seven spent time in…

Oct 22, 2013 7:05 PM CDT

Captured: 2 murderers released from jail on phony court orders; probe now focused on who helped them

Two convicted murderers who walked away from a Florida prison in recent weeks with the help of phony court paperwork reducing their “illegal” sentences were captured over the weekend. Joseph Jenkins and Charles Walker, both 34, were found together at a motel in Panama City, where they were waiting for…

Oct 21, 2013 4:35 PM CDT

Freed after 18 years, ex-inmate uses wrongful incarceration cash to honor lawyer who helped free him

Former death-row inmate Anthony Graves is trying to spend $1.45 million wisely, for the most part. Before his exoneration, Graves spent 18 years behind bars for the 1992 slayings of a mother, her daughter, and her four grandchildren. The Texas Legislature awarded Graves $1.45 million for wrongful incarceration, and he…

Oct 21, 2013 11:15 AM CDT

Fired worker loses smartphone privileges for 3 years for hacking into law firm’s server

A former law firm employee and her husband will be on probation for the next three years after taking a misdemeanor plea in a federal criminal case over unauthorized intrusion into a Pennsylvania law firm’s computer system. But likely much worse for Alyson L. Cunningham, and her husband, Jonathan A.…

Oct 18, 2013 9:55 PM CDT

Prosecutor calls bogus court papers used in murderers’ prison escape an ‘ongoing threat’

Updated: Two Florida inmates convicted of murder were released in recent weeks based on forged court documents may not be the only ones. One of the two released men had tried a similar scheme in 2011 but wasn’t let out, officials say. A third man, convicted of killing a police…

Oct 18, 2013 5:10 PM CDT

Prison releases 2 convicted murderers after forged court documents reduce their sentences

Two convicted murderers were released by a Florida prison in recent weeks after forged court documents purporting to reduce their life sentences were filed with the Orange County clerk of courts. The documents included claimed motions by an Orlando prosecutor seeking to correct their “illegal” sentences and orders by Chief…

Oct 17, 2013 8:05 PM CDT

Attorney who said he was tax law specialist understates own income on return, gets 20 months

A Hawaii personal injury attorney who advertised his tax law expertise has been sentenced to 20 months in federal prison for understating his income on his own 2006 return. Andrew Agard was sentenced Tuesday in Honolulu, after pleading guilty in a tax fraud case. He earned about $630,000 in 2006,…

Oct 17, 2013 5:00 PM CDT

Law grad gets 6 months in prison ‘boot camp’ for beheading Vegas casino’s exotic bird

A law graduate of the University of California at Berkeley has been sentenced to spend 190 days in a Nevada state prison “boot camp” for beheading an exotic bird at a Las Vegas Strip casino last October, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Justin Teixeira, 25, pleaded guilty in June to…

Oct 17, 2013 4:10 PM CDT

‘Bulletproof Asset Protection’ author, a former lawyer, is sentenced

A former lawyer who wrote the book Bulletproof Asset Protection was sentenced to nine years in prison on Tuesday for his role in a franchise-type scheme to help people hide assets from the Internal Revenue Service. Former lawyer William Reed pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to defraud the United…

Oct 16, 2013 1:05 PM CDT