Sentencing/Post Conviction

‘I Just Wanted to Die,’ Former Ohio Legal Eagle Testifies

Updated: Once a top trial lawyer in Cincinnati, Ken Lawson was taking 100 pills a day when he hit bottom in 2006. As his admitted addiction to prescription drugs destroyed his law practice and put him, potentially, en route to a prison sentence, “I just wanted to die,” Lawson testified…

Apr 8, 2009 12:51 AM CDT

The New Tarasoff? 6th Circuit OKs Hospital Suit Over Ax-Wielding Ex-Patient

Decades ago, the groundbreaking Tarasoff decision made the tort law casebooks after the California Supreme Court found that a treating psychotherapist had a duty to warn a third party of potential danger posed by his patient. The rule applied by the court was was later codified into state law, and…

Apr 7, 2009 8:49 PM CDT

Can’t Pay Court Costs? Jail Is Alternative, in Florida & Other States

Most people may think of debtors’ prisons as a relic of history. But they arguably still exist in this country, where judges in criminal cases routinely employ a strong-arm collection tactic concerning court-imposed fees that isn’t available to the most aggressive civil creditor: They put people in jail. As courts…

Apr 6, 2009 11:15 PM CDT

Fed’l Judge in Sen. Stevens Case Puts Spotlight on Prosecution

Six days into a high-profile corruption trial of then-Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., knew they’d made a major mistake. A February 2007 document in the FBI file concerning the government’s chief witness could well be helpful to the defense. But the prosecution hadn’t turned it over…

Apr 6, 2009 5:42 PM CDT

Stevens Debacle Shows More Oversight of Prosecutors is Needed, Experts Say

In the aftermath of a stunning reversal of fortune for once-victorious federal prosecutors in the political corruption case against former Sen. Ted Stevens, experts—and, it appears, the U.S. attorney general—are calling for increased attention to the issue of government misconduct in other cases. The Alaska Republican’s initial conviction, based on…

Apr 4, 2009 12:44 AM CDT

NY Judge Slams Mom Who Tried to Seduce Juror After Son’s Murder Trial

The mother of a convicted murderer made Vanity Fair last year by reportedly bleaching her hair, buffing up and going undercover in an effort to discredit—and seduce—a juror in her son’s 2005 trial in Brooklyn, N.Y. But Doreen Giuliano, 46, also incurred the ire of New York Supreme Court Justice…

Apr 2, 2009 7:08 PM CDT

Web-Savvy Law Student Helps Win Release of Battered Woman Jailed 29 Yrs

Updated: The sixth try was the charm for a California woman imprisoned for 29 years for sitting in a car while her husband and his cousin robbed a liquor store and killed the store’s owner. Connie Keel’s successful parole petition is being credited, in part, to the work of second-year…

Apr 2, 2009 1:18 PM CDT

Woman Who Got Life for Stealing 2 Purses Wants Plea Tossed

An Oklahoma City woman who received a life sentence after she pleaded guilty to shoplifting two purses from a Dillard’s department store is asking that her plea be thrown out. Before sentencing in March, Oklahoma County District Judge Ray Elliott called Cecelia Cathleen Rodriguez a “one-person crime wave” and noted…

Apr 2, 2009 12:30 PM CDT

Ex-Brown & Wood Partner Gets 6 Yrs in Tax Scheme

Former Brown & Wood partner Raymond Ruble was sentenced to six years and six months in prison for his role in a fraudulent tax shelter scheme that also saw the conviction of two former KPMG employees. Ruble was accused of writing opinion letters supporting fraudulent tax shelters. The letters assured…

Apr 2, 2009 10:31 AM CDT

Convicted Teen Spits in Lawyer’s Face; Pa. Judge Orders Him Bound & Gagged

Apparently feeling that he had little to lose, a 17-year-old convicted in February by a Pennsylvania jury of first-degree murder shouted expletives at a court hearing yesterday. As James Canady spouted off—at one point calling the judge, the prosecutor and his own defense attorney “f—ing crackers”—Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart…

Apr 1, 2009 9:51 PM CDT

US Sues BP Sub Over Alaska Oil Spills, Seeks Maximum Penalties

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed suit against a subsidiary of a global oil company, contending that two discharges totaling some 200,000 gallons of crude oil into Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope in 2006 violated federal clean air and water laws and seeking maximum penalties. Filed in federal…

Apr 1, 2009 9:15 PM CDT

High Court Says Gov’t Must Pay for Clemency Counsel

In a 7-2 opinion Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the government should pay federally appointed lawyers for working on state clemency requests for death row inmates. The underlying case involved a clemency petition by Edward Jerome Harbison, who wanted the government to pay for his petition to the…

Apr 1, 2009 3:30 PM CDT

U.S. Moves to Drop Charges Against Sen. Stevens

Updated: In a stunning development this morning, the U.S. Department of Justice moved to drop charges against former Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska. Justice Department officials are getting out of the case rather than continuing to defend the DOJ against accusations of prosecutorial misconduct. Indeed, the New York Times is…

Apr 1, 2009 1:10 PM CDT

Tough Job for Problem-Solver Pa. Judge: Up to 1,200 Invalid Youth Convictions

Fixing the result of massive corruption in the Luzerne County, Pa., juvenile justice system won’t be easy. As many as 1,200 cases reportedly may be involved in a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling yesterday concerning cases decided between between 2003 and 2008 by Mark Ciavarella Jr., the former president judge of…

Mar 27, 2009 9:59 PM CDT

Top Pa. Court Reverses Perhaps 1,200 Juvenile Convictions

In the latest chapter in an ongoing state-court corruption saga in Pennsylvania, a state supreme court ruling today is expected to reverse perhaps as many as 1,200 juvenile court convictions entered by a now-convicted judge. The ruling affects juvenile convictions between 2003 and 2008 in cases heard by the former…

Mar 26, 2009 8:52 PM CDT