Sentencing/Post Conviction

Commuted Sentence Within Guidelines

Updated: Sentencing experts note that President Bush’s decision to commute the 30-month sentence of former aide I. Lewis Libby Jr. is at odds with the Justice Department’s usual stance in sentencing appeals. President Bush said in a statement released yesterday that Libby’s prison sentence was “excessive.” The vice president’s former…

Jul 3, 2007 2:53 PM CDT

Libby Loses Bid to Stay Sentence

Updated: A federal appeals court has refused to delay the prison sentence for former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, increasing pressure for a pardon. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit refused Libby’s request for a stay in a two-sentence ruling, the Associated Press…

Jul 2, 2007 7:58 PM CDT

Funding Innocence

Get-out-of-jail-free cards come easily in the game of Monopoly, though by chance.

Jul 1, 2007 7:27 PM CDT

Ex-CEO Scrushy Sentenced

Former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy has been sentenced to almost seven years in prison for paying a bribe to obtain a spot on a state board that regulates hospitals. U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller refused to stay the jail sentence for Scrushy or for former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, ordered…

Jun 29, 2007 2:44 PM CDT

Israel Prez Admits Sex Offenses, Resigns

In a controversial plea bargain denounced by women’s rights activists, the president of Israel has agreed to step down from office immediately and plead guilty to sexual harassment and abuse of authority charges. Accused of twice raping a female employee, among other offenses, during an earlier stint as tourism minister,…

Jun 29, 2007 12:13 AM CDT

Is Libyan Innocent in Lockerbie Case?

A “miscarriage of justice” may have resulted in the conviction of a Libyan intelligence agent in the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing, requiring that he be granted a new appeal by Scotland’s High Court, an independent review board reported today. Abdel Basset al-Megrahi was found guilty in 2001 of the bombing,…

Jun 28, 2007 7:14 PM CDT

No Bond for GA Youth in Child Sex Case

There will be no bond for a young Georgia man sentenced to a 10-year term in a controversial child sex case, despite an offer by 11 entrepreneurs to pay $1 million on his behalf. Although Genarlow Wilson’s habeas petition was recently granted by a federal judge who said the prison…

Jun 28, 2007 1:16 AM CDT

Law-and-Order Libby Judge Under Fire

The product of a strict childhood under an authoritarian father, U.S. Dist. Judge Reggie Walton expects those who do the crime to do the time. And that includes Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney. But his two-and-a-half-year sentence for Libby in an obstruction…

Jun 27, 2007 11:20 PM CDT

Hotel Heiress: Jail Changed Me

Serving three weeks in jail for probation violation has changed her, making her more religious and encouraging her to turn over a new leaf after her release yesterday, Paris Hilton says. In her first published comments since she was released from a Los Angeles jail yesterday, the hotel heiress, after…

Jun 27, 2007 9:20 PM CDT

N.Y. Sting Lawyer Sentenced

A former New York divorce lawyer who helped convict a judge was sentenced to one year in jail yesterday. Judge Jeffrey Berry of Brooklyn said Paul Siminovsky deserved jail time rather than probation for giving unlawful gratuities, the New York Times reports. “I’m not calling you the devil,” he said,…

Jun 27, 2007 1:42 PM CDT

Convicted Governor Blames Karl Rove for Recommended 30-Year Prison Term

The controversy over alleged White House politicization of the federal prosecution process has moved beyond concern about the perhaps politically motivated dismissals of nine U.S. attorneys to a new issue–the cases they did, or did not, pursue. Now Don Siegelman, a former Democratic governor of Alabama, is contending that he…

Jun 27, 2007 1:46 AM CDT

Mandatory Sentence Laws Harsh, Unfair, Federal Judge Tells Congress

Federal laws requiring federal judges to impose mandatory minimum sentences can be unfair and unduly harsh, and certain individual laws are especially objectionable, the chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on Criminal Law told a Congressional subcommittee today. “I have found the application of one particularly egregious mandatory minimum sentencing…

Jun 26, 2007 8:18 PM CDT

Strangers Offer $1 M Bond to GA Teen

Eleven entrepreneurs have offered to pay a $1 million cash bond to free a Georgia teen who has been serving a 10-year sentence in a controversial child sex case. Due to a sentencing quirk, Genarlow Wilson received this term after being convicted of the felony of aggravated child molestation for…

Jun 26, 2007 6:05 PM CDT

Crime to Pay for Paris Hilton? Hotel Heiress Offered $1 M for Interview

At least for the moment, it looks like crime may not pay for Paris Hilton. Reportedly offered between $750,000 and $1 million for her first post-incarceration interview after she is released from jail next week, the hotel heiress known for her party girl lifestyle has apparently managed to botch the…

Jun 22, 2007 9:53 PM CDT

Sentencing Guidelines ‘Here to Stay’

A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday reinforces the impact of sentencing guidelines, deemed to be advisory in an opinion two years ago. The court held that appeals courts reviewing sentences imposed within the guidelines range may presume the penalty is reasonable. Rita v. United States, No. 06–5754 (PDF).…

Jun 22, 2007 12:29 PM CDT