Sentencing/Post Conviction

Former public defender gets 1 year in federal prison for submitting false payment vouchers

A former panel attorney who worked as a public defender in multiple counties in West Virginia has been sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison for submitting false payment vouchers for her services to the state. Lisa A. Weese, who has since been disbarred by consent, was…

May 13, 2013 5:30 PM CDT

Unhappy with child-custody award, woman and parents plotted to murder her ex-husband and his mom

A former elementary school teacher and her father pleaded guilty Thursday to their admitted roles in a plot to murder her former husband because they were unhappy with a child-custody award in the couple’s divorce case. Then, after onetime third-grade teacher Kathleen Dorsett was arrested in the 2010 slaying of…

May 10, 2013 3:30 PM CDT

Lawyer with little experience can’t withdraw at 11th hour from death-penalty defense, judge says

Gerald Bettman runs a two-attorney law office in Jacksonville, Fla. In addition to criminal defense, the lawyers also focus on divorce and personal injury matters. He has never represented a defendant sentenced to the death penalty during the flurry of appeals that precedes a scheduled execution once the death warrant…

May 9, 2013 6:00 PM CDT

Arkansas seeks return of ailing and aging convict who fled in 1970

The state of Arkansas wants the return of Lester Stiggers, convicted of murder at the age of 15. The 63-year-old Stiggers, who fled to Michigan while on a furlough in 1970, was surprised when an Associated Press reporter informed him of the extradition request. Stiggers no longer works after suffering…

May 9, 2013 2:04 PM CDT

Former Enron CEO will see his sentence cut by as much as 10 years in deal with prosecutors

Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling will get his 24-year sentence reduced by as much as 10 years in exchange for an agreement to halt legal challenges to his conviction. The deal announced on Wednesday allows $40 million seized by the government to be distributed to those harmed by Enron’s failure,…

May 9, 2013 1:19 PM CDT

Picture punishment ordered for convicted former justice on Pennsylvania’s top court

A former Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice will not go to prison as a result of her conviction for using staffers to work in political campaigns. Instead Justice Joan Orie Melvin will serve three years of house arrest and will have to make amends with an unusual punishment, report the Pittsburgh…

May 8, 2013 2:10 PM CDT

Convicted in courthouse slaying, defendant verbally attacks judge and prosecutor in sentencing phase

As the penalty phase of his capital murder case continued Monday, it appeared that a convicted courthouse shooter may have been given good advice by his defense counsel not to testify. But it also appeared that Bartholomew Granger might be intentionally seeking a capital sentence, which he indicated he would…

May 6, 2013 10:59 PM CDT

Guilty plea ends record $38M fraud case that doubled assessments for British Columbia lawyers

After nearly five years of legal battle, a former real estate developer pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud in a Vancouver, B.C., court Friday, putting an end to a record $38.4 million Canadian lawyer-fraud case that doubled the client-compensation assessment payments for attorneys in the Law Society of British…

May 6, 2013 6:35 PM CDT

Lawyer who started on pro bono capital appeal as summer associate hopes to take it to top US court

When William Ernest Kuenzel got married to a social worker in 2008, attorney David Kochman was his best man. He’s also Kuenzel’s pro bono appellate counsel in a death-penalty case in which the attorney is asserting that his client is actually, factually innocent. Kochman, a 33-year-old commercial litigation associate at…

May 3, 2013 5:10 PM CDT

Bizarre plot to kidnap lawyer for ransom nets 20-year sentence for Illinois man

An Illinois man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in an alleged plot to kidnap a lawyer for ransom. Brett Nash, 46, was sentenced on Thursday after pleading guilty in December to solicitation of a crime of violence, report the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Riverfront Times and the…

May 3, 2013 12:11 PM CDT

Imprisoned former lawyer says federal prison supports her release to fight cancer

A disbarred lawyer serving a 10-year-sentence says a federal prison supports her “compassionate release” to fight advanced-stage cancer. Lynne Stewart, a 73-year-old former civil rights lawyer, was convicted in 2005 for helping an imprisoned sheik pass messages to his followers. In a statement released through her husband, Stewart said the…

May 3, 2013 10:40 AM CDT

Maryland gov signs bill abolishing death penalty; fate of 5 men on death row is uncertain

Maryland’s governor on Thursday, as expected, signed into law a bill that abolishes the death penalty. The state is the first south of the Mason-Dixon line to end capital punishment, the Associated Press reports. However, still uncertain is the fate of the five men still on death row, who are…

May 2, 2013 5:35 PM CDT

Man convicted in courthouse slaying shouts that his daughter, not the victim, should be dead

Convicted Tuesday of capital murder over the death of a 79-year-old woman who was a bystander during Texas courthouse shooting spree last year directed at one or more witnesses in a sexual assault case, defendant Bartholomew Granger erupted Wednesday in court at the outset of the sentencing phase. He angrily…

May 1, 2013 6:21 PM CDT

A five-star prison? Yelp reviews of correctional facilities address rude staffers, mistreatment

Self-styled critics can review everything from restaurants to restrooms on Yelp. Add prisons and jails to the list. The Washington Post checked out Yelp and found that six facilities in the D.C. area have earned reviews. And they aren’t the only prisons getting reviews. California lawyer Robert Miller has critiqued…

May 1, 2013 10:55 AM CDT

Does a prisoner have a right to a mohel? School’s new clinic takes on religious liberties case

A recently converted Jewish inmate denied permission to be circumcised is now being represented in his action against the prison by students working at the nation’s first and only clinic specializing in religious liberty cases. Launched in January, the Religious Liberty Clinic at Stanford Law School represents clients in disputes…

May 1, 2013 9:10 AM CDT