Sentencing/Post Conviction

Divided Supreme Court Vacates Execution Stay; Challenge Focused on Drug Shortage

The U.S. Supreme Court lifted a stay of execution on Tuesday in the case of a death-row inmate who challenged the foreign origin of a lethal injection drug. Jeffrey Landrigan was put to death Tuesday evening after the Supreme Court lifted the stay in a 5-4 order that reversed the…

Oct 27, 2010 11:38 AM CDT

Death Penalty Conviction Axed, New Trial Ordered Due to Judge’s Bias Against Defense Counsel

In what the Ohio Supreme Court describes in a slip opinion (PDF) today as a “highly extraordinary” case, it has vacated a death penalty conviction and ordered a new murder trial because of the trial judge’s bias against defense counsel. As Judge Douglas Rastatter of the Clark County Court of…

Oct 26, 2010 9:22 PM CDT

Watchdog Still Seeks to Sanction Top Texas Criminal Judge re Execution-Eve ‘We Close at 5’ Ruling

An attorney for the top criminal court judge in Texas hailed the elimination of a public warning earlier this month as a conclusive win for his client in a legal ethics case over the court’s refusal to accept a late appeal on the eve of the defendant’s execution. But the…

Oct 26, 2010 5:54 PM CDT

Ga. County Uses Inmates to Clean Up Homes in Foreclosure

A county in Georgia is using inmates to clean up the yards of properties in foreclosure in a program that may be one of the first of its kind. Inmates in Clayton County have so far cleaned up 60 out of 390 homes, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The county bills…

Oct 22, 2010 3:53 PM CDT

Stevens Hits Scalia Sentencing Opinion in Little-Noticed Speech

Retired Justice John Paul Stevens had some pointed criticism for his one-time colleague, Justice Antonin Scalia, in a little-noticed speech earlier this month. Speaking at the National Legal Aid & Defender Association, Stevens took aim at Scalia for his 1991 opinion in Harmelin v. Michigan upholding a mandatory life sentence…

Oct 21, 2010 11:00 AM CDT

Pizzeria Owner Sentenced to Give Homeless Shelter a Slice of His Business

The owner of a Buffalo, N.Y., pizzeria was found to have wrongly withheld more than $100,000 in sales taxes over a four-year period. Joseph J. Jacobbi was spared a prison term of up to seven years, the Buffalo News reported, but he must pay back what he owes and, starting…

Oct 19, 2010 10:41 PM CDT

Study: Felon Voting Rights Expanded in 23 states Since 1997

According to a new study by the Washington, D.C.-based Sentencing Project, 23 states have given increased voting rights to convicted felons in the past 13 years and added 800,000 former felons to voter rolls. Nine states have either repealed or amended mandates that convicted felons be permanently disenfranchised; eight have…

Oct 19, 2010 10:09 PM CDT

Supreme Court Turns Down Prisoner Voting Rights Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by inmates who claim a ban on voting violates the Voting Rights Act. The decision lets stand a ruling by the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld a voting ban in Massachusetts, according to Bloomberg, the Associated…

Oct 18, 2010 3:07 PM CDT

Reporters Can Tweet & Text Trial Plea, But Can’t Broadcast Audio, Ontario Judge Rules

Journalists will be allowed to tweet and send live-text accounts of an expected guilty plea in a high-profile murder trial of an air force commander, a Canadian judge has ruled. And they will even be allowed to take audio clips of the proceedings concerning Col. Russell Williams, 47, Ontario Superior…

Oct 15, 2010 12:00 PM CDT

Lawyer Sentenced to Anger Course After Elevator Incident with Social Security Judge

A federal magistrate judge found an Oregon disability claims lawyer guilty of disorderly conduct and sentenced him to a year of probation and an anger management course after a three-year series of incidents between Daniel Bernath and a social security judge escalated into an elevator altercation at an administrative hearing…

Oct 14, 2010 4:38 PM CDT

Debtors’ Prisons a Reality for Defendants Unable to Pay Fees and Fines

Debtors’ prisons are making a comeback as states jail defendants who can’t afford to pay court-imposed fines and fees, including “pay-to-stay” jail fees and public defender charges, according to reports by two public interest organizations. Judges view the collection of debt as a critical income stream, but jailing indigent defendants…

Oct 14, 2010 3:20 PM CDT

‘Highly Technical’ Oral Arguments Downplay Drama in Inmate’s Quest for DNA

The U.S. Supreme Court considered Wednesday whether a Texas death row inmate has a right to DNA evidence in arguments so dry that several publications were compelled to comment. “The drama was missing” in oral arguments on the DNA quest by inmate Hank Skinner, convicted of murdering his girlfriend and…

Oct 14, 2010 2:04 PM CDT

‘CSI Effect’ Grips the US Supreme Court

U.S. Supreme Court justices may have been a little too fascinated with blood and gore in oral arguments in a habeas case on Tuesday. The legal issue in the case centers on whether the lawyer for convicted murderer Joshua Richter was incompetent for failing to seek forensic blood evidence that…

Oct 13, 2010 2:23 PM CDT

Ex-Attorney Rothstein’s Right-Hand Woman Gets 10 Years in $1.4B Ponzi Scheme

Exceeding the prosecution’s recommendation of a seven-year sentence, a federal judge in South Florida today imposed a 10-year prison term on an aide to ex-attorney Scott Rothstein for her role in his approximately $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme, in which he sold expected income from fake legal settlements. Debra Villegas, 43,…

Oct 8, 2010 5:24 PM CDT

Allergan to Pay $375M in Criminal Case Over Off-Label Marketing of Botox

A federal judge in Atlanta yesterday okayed a $375 million settlement of a criminal case by Allergan Inc. concerning the company’s marketing of Botox drug for off-label purposes not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Although Allergan denies wrongdoing, aside from one misdemeanor count over its marketing of…

Oct 6, 2010 5:05 PM CDT