Sentencing/Post Conviction

Ex-judge who blasted appellate counsel is reprimanded; might have been removed if still on bench

A former Kentucky judge who resigned earlier this year after being suspended, with pay, has been reprimanded for blasting an appellate lawyer in a high-profile murder case and refusing to allow a defendant in an unrelated case, who was not represented by counsel, to make arguments on his own behalf.…

Aug 12, 2013 5:23 PM CDT

FCC agrees to limit charges for prison phone calls

The Federal Communications Commission voted to restrict phone rates for calls made by prison inmates. The measure, which comes after nearly a decade of petitioning by families and friends of inmates, will limit phone charges to 21 cents a minute for debit or prepaid calls and 25 cents a minute…

Aug 9, 2013 7:42 PM CDT

Attorney accused of lying about her work as a prostitute agrees to 3-year license suspension

An Illinois attorney who allegedly worked as a call girl from 2005 to 2011 while she was earning her legal degree—and used that income to cover costs of opening her own law practice—has agreed to a three-year suspension of her license. Reema Bajaj, 27, pleaded guilty last year to a…

Aug 9, 2013 3:37 PM CDT

Former schoolteacher and parents get combined 110 years in slaying of ex and plot against mom-in-law

Kathleen Dorsett, a former elementary teacher described by a New Jersey judge as the manipulator of her family, was sentenced Thursday to a 58-year prison term for luring her ex-husband so that her father could bludgeon him to death and then helping her dad load his body into the trunk…

Aug 9, 2013 1:50 PM CDT

‘My sentencing instincts suck,’ blogging judge admits, wishing ex-con-turned-law-student well

This week, we noted that Shon Hopwood—who wrote a rare winning certiorari petition to the U.S. Supreme Court while in federal prison for bank robbery and has since been released and entered law school—has been hired as a clerk for Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals…

Aug 9, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

Former Baker McKenzie partner is sentenced to prison; prosecutors cite deterrent for BigLaw lawyers

A former partner at Baker & McKenzie was sentenced to two years in prison on Wednesday for conduct that a judge deemed a product of “greed, plain and simple.” Martin Weisberg, 62 was sentenced for accepting kickbacks related to clients’ securities offerings and for spending about $1.3 million in interest…

Aug 8, 2013 12:49 PM CDT

Partner reprimanded after taking plea in attorney email hacking case, has also settled lawsuit

Originally charged with multiple felonies, a partner in a Michigan law firm took a misdemeanor plea in a case in which he was accused of hacking into a fellow attorney’s personal email account and has been reprimanded by a state attorney discipline board for his conduct. Steven F. Spender also…

Aug 7, 2013 6:15 PM CDT

Trial begins for final lawyer charged in judicial bribery scheme; convicted ex-judge is star witness

A convicted former South Texas judge testified Wednesday in federal court against an Austin attorney accused of participating in a “cash for court favors” scheme. Eduardo “Eddie” Lucio, who is charged with extortion and racketeering, is the 12th defendant in the case to have his day in court. His case…

Aug 7, 2013 3:55 PM CDT

Ex-administrator gets over 10 years in $1M law firm theft; all but $237K was recovered

A former law office administrator of a Raleigh, N.C., firm has been sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for embezzling over $1 million. Susan Rouse got 131 to 179 months for stealing from Nicholls & Crampton over a seven-year period, WRAL reports. All but about $237,000 of the…

Aug 6, 2013 9:15 PM CDT

Judge cuts Bradley Manning’s maximum sentence in WikiLeaks case to 90 years

A military judge has agreed to merge some of the counts on which Pfc. Bradley Manning was convicted in a court-martial last week, reducing the maximum prison term to which he could be sentenced in the espionage and theft case from 136 years to 90 years. The Associated Press, Reuters…

Aug 6, 2013 6:55 PM CDT

Dying disbarred lawyer asks federal judge to vacate sentence, after compassionate release is denied

Denied compassionate release from federal prison, a 73-year-old disbarred civil rights lawyer serving a 10-year term for passing messages from an imprisoned client in a terrorism case to his followers in Egypt is taking another approach. Lynne Stewart, who is dying of cancer in a Texas prison, is asking the…

Aug 6, 2013 6:34 PM CDT

Inmate with prince of God delusion is executed after asserting he will rise again

An inmate who claimed he was the prince of God was executed Monday evening after the U.S. Supreme Court denied cert in his case. Lawyers for John Ferguson, 65, had claimed he lacked rational understanding necessary for execution. The Associated Press and the Miami Herald report on the inmate’s last…

Aug 6, 2013 12:00 PM CDT

Found not guilty by insanity for killing his family in 1967, defendant is now a college prof

Jim Wolcott left the town of Georgetown, Texas, and seemingly disappeared after a jury declared him sane in 1974. He had been found not guilty by reason of insanity just six years earlier for the 1967 shooting death of his father, a biology professor, and was never tried for the…

Aug 5, 2013 11:10 AM CDT

Lawyer’s money laundering conviction is overturned because of excluded testimony

A federal appeals court has overturned the money laundering conviction of a Kenosha, Wis., lawyer accused of hiding assets in his girlfriend’s bankruptcy. The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cited error in the trial of the lawyer, Walter Stern III, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel blog Proof…

Aug 2, 2013 3:55 PM CDT

Leader of sovereign citizens group gets 18-year sentence for tax crimes

An Alabama man accused of teaching seminars on how to use phony bonds to avoid paying taxes has been sentenced to 18 years in prison. James Timothy Turner, also known as Tim Turner, was convicted in March on charges that included conspiracy to defraud the United States and attempting to…

Aug 2, 2013 1:36 PM CDT