Sentencing/Post Conviction

Investors fleeced in $6B Stanford scheme get a penny on the dollar from court-appointed receiver

Investors fleeced of $6 billion by now-imprisoned swindler R. Allen Stanford have gotten restitution checks from a court-appointed receiver. They range from $2.18 to $110,000, amounting to less than a penny of recovery for each dollar lost, reports the Center for Public Integrity. The receiver, Ralph Janvey, and his team…

Oct 11, 2013 4:10 PM CDT

New trial sought because juror didn’t reveal he was an attorney and blogged about case

A burglar who was sentenced to nearly 39 years in prison as a habitual offender is asking a federal appeals court to reverse his conviction due to the conduct of a California lawyer who served as foreman of the jury that convicted him. Defendant Donald R. McNeely initially filed the…

Oct 11, 2013 3:05 PM CDT

Former Detroit mayor, an ex-lawyer, gets 28 years in federal corruption case

Convicted of public corruption for operating what the prosecution called a money-making racket out of Detroit’s city hall as the city descended toward bankruptcy, former mayor and ex-lawyer Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced Thursday to a 28-year prison term by a federal judge in Detroit. “The government has asked for a…

Oct 10, 2013 7:29 PM CDT

Can drivers be so drunk that they can’t exhibit depraved indifference? New York high court to decide

Three New York drivers convicted of second-degree murder in auto accidents claim they were so impaired that they didn’t have the necessary state of mind required by the law. New York’s highest court considered the issue in oral arguments on Tuesday, the New York Times reports. The issue, the story…

Oct 10, 2013 11:35 AM CDT

‘Arrogant, power-abusing’ ex-justice should apologize as ordered, prosecutor says

An “arrogant, power-abusing” former Pennsylvania justice won’t change her ways unless she apologizes as ordered by a sentencing judge—in letters accompanied by a photo of herself in handcuffs, according to a brief filed by a deputy district attorney. Former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin contends that making an…

Oct 9, 2013 2:11 PM CDT

Ex-CEO blames lawyer for 20-year prison term in $800M fraud case, seeks do-over

Saying his lawyer misled him about the terms of a potential plea deal, the former CEO of LeNature’s Inc. has moved to vacate his 20-year federal prison term and is seeking to unseal the transcript of a sidebar hearing at sentencing in the Pittsburgh case that he says will prove…

Oct 8, 2013 5:20 PM CDT

Weeping disbarred lawyer is sentenced to prison for aiding client’s plot to hide jewels

A disbarred Florida lawyer wept in court on Monday as he was sentenced to three years in prison for helping a client hide more than $1 million in jewelry purchased with money from her husband, convicted Ponzi schemer lawyer Scott Rothstein. The disbarred lawyer, Scott Saidel, pleaded guilty in January…

Oct 8, 2013 2:09 PM CDT

Inmate held 41 years in solitary dies just days after court orders his release from prison

An inmate held in solitary confinement for 41 years for the murder of a Louisiana prison guard has died just a few days after he was released from prison because of a federal judge’s order. The New York Times reports that the inmate, Herman Wallace, died Friday morning from liver…

Oct 7, 2013 3:33 PM CDT

Faulty jury instructions mean new murder trial for man who said he was assisting a suicide

A state appeals court has overturned the second-degree murder conviction of a New York man because the jury was improperly instructed on the assisted suicide defense to murder. Kenneth Minor is serving a 20-years-to-life sentence for the 2009 murder of a Long Island man whom Minor said had enlisted his…

Oct 4, 2013 7:00 PM CDT

Judge Jed Rakoff’s stance on the SEC deals draws fire, praise—and change

Over lunch in New York City in 2009, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff took a dare. Then-executive assistant U.S. attorney Fred Virella complained that the prosecutor’s office had lost four games in a row in the Lawyers Co-Ed Softball League. Rakoff joked that it likely had to do with Virella…

Oct 1, 2013 10:10 AM CDT

Judge gives murderer 53 years to life, then conducts his marriage ceremony and provides cake

Earlier this month, San Diego Superior Court Judge Patricia Cookson gave a convicted California murderer 53 years to life. Then she married Danne Desbrow, 36, to his longtime girlfriend, Destiny, 33, and even provided two slices of cake, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune. The couple lost contact after she became…

Sep 30, 2013 4:30 PM CDT

Lawyer accused of shooting himself, making up story of attack by third party takes misdemeanor plea

Originally facing a felony obstruction case, an Indiana lawyer accused by authorities of falsely reporting he had been shot by an unknown third party at a state park has taken a misdemeanor plea. Peter Raventos, 44, pleaded guilty to false informing and the obstruction charge was dropped in the Owen…

Sep 30, 2013 3:40 PM CDT

Wrong juror serves in rape case, spurring a mistrial

A Miami-Dade judge declared a mistrial on Friday after discovering that the woman who served as the foreperson was the wrong juror. Judge William Thomas had called out the jurors selected to serve in the rape trial last Wednesday, and Gricel Acosta stepped forward when he read the name “Acosta.”…

Sep 30, 2013 12:12 PM CDT

Family of executed man seeks investigation into possible innocence

Corrected: The family of a Texas man who was executed in 2004 for the murder of his three children is asking Gov. Rick Perry to order an investigation into whether the man should be posthumously pardoned. Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted in 1992 on three counts of first-degree murder for…

Sep 27, 2013 8:00 PM CDT

Wasted peremptory on juror who should have been excused for cause warrants new trial, court says

The Florida Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for a murder defendant because his lawyer had to use a peremptory challenge to remove a prospective juror who should have been excused for cause. The court ruled in the case of Rafael Matarranz, who was convicted of murder and burglary…

Sep 27, 2013 5:53 PM CDT