Appellate Practice

Latest Lionel Tate Sentence Puts End to Court Saga

After a nine-year court saga that has drawn international attention, it appears that Lionel Tate can now focus on serving his time. The 21-year-old was at one point reportedly the youngest person in the U.S. to be sentenced to life in prison. Tate was 12 when he was arrested and…

Feb 20, 2008 5:44 PM CST

College Caper Appeal Backfires, Robbers to Get Even More Time

Four college buddies who spent nearly a year planning to rob a group of very rare and valuable books from a Kentucky university would have been better-advised to focus on their studies. For starters, they botched the robbery (the supersized tomes, including a $5 million volume of Audubon bird prints,…

Feb 5, 2008 7:57 PM CST

Delay Lightens Capital Appeals Caseload of Ohio Federal Judge

The chief federal district court judge in southern Ohio has lightened the caseload of a colleague who had five unresolved death penalty appeals sitting on his docket for between three and eight years. Judge Walter Rice agreed that the cases should be moved to another judge’s docket, reports the Enquirer.…

Jan 25, 2008 6:23 PM CST

15 More to Go Free in Ohio Drug Case Built on Informant’s Lies

Only because a federal informant relented and recanted his false testimony, it appears, are 16 wrongfully convicted defendants being freed from prison. After informant Jerrell Bray got into a fight in Cleveland in May and was arrested for allegedly shooting a man, he admitted, while in prison, that he had…

Jan 23, 2008 10:34 PM CST

San Diego OKs $750K Attorney Payment to Settle Cross Case

The city council of San Diego has agreed to pay a plaintiff’s lawyer $750,000 to settle his legal bill for representing an atheist in a lengthy lawsuit over the placement of a large cross on city land. The 6-2 vote doesn’t completely settle the 1989 constitutional case, however, according to…

Jan 17, 2008 12:57 AM CST

Acquitted Terror Prosecutor Seeks Legal Bill Reimbursement

A former federal prosecutor who was acquitted last fall on criminal charges that he withheld evidence favorable to four North African suspects in a high-profile 2003 Detroit terrorism trial is now seeking reimbursement of his personal defense costs. Richard Convertino contends that the Justice Department to pursue him in criminal…

Jan 15, 2008 7:39 PM CST

Biased Comments Bench Fla. Judge

A Florida appeals court has removed a state judge from presiding over a blackmail case in which her comments implied that she might not be fair to the prosecution. After Grammy-winning singer, Alejandro Sanz, who is the victim of the alleged blackmail attempt, objected to his deposition in the criminal…

Dec 20, 2007 6:26 PM CST

Driver With Amnesia Not Competent for Car Homicide Trial?

A Washington state woman found guilty of vehicular homicide concerning an auto accident she can’t remember has filed an appeal seeking to overturn the felony conviction, arguing that she was unable to assist in her own defense. Cleora Swirtz, now 25, also suffered life-threatening injuries in the 2004 accident that…

Dec 19, 2007 7:50 PM CST

Law Firm May Be Liable for Earlier Errors

A divided California appeals court has upheld a malicious prosecution claim against a law firm that apparently resulted from conduct of the plaintiff’s lead counsel. LaFave & Rice argued, essentially, that it didn’t know of alleged defects in the case, which was filed by another law firm, but the panel…

Dec 18, 2007 6:10 PM CST

Law Prof to Would-Be Supreme Ct. Clerks: Keep Trying

Being a stellar law student isn’t all it takes to win a U.S. Supreme Court clerkship. Perseverance is almost as important as the prerequisite U.S. Court of Appeals clerkship, a law prof who’s been there told students at a recent Harvard Law School meeting. Even if the first application or…

Dec 7, 2007 9:25 PM CST

Lawyer-Poet a Tough Trial Opponent

Being a trial lawyer isn’t that different, in some ways, from being a poet, says Forrest Hainline III. He should know, since he does both. In addition to trying business cases, the San Francisco partner of Goodwin Procter also pens succinct poems on topics ranging from reverent to racy, reports…

Dec 3, 2007 9:18 PM CST

Judge Axes Verdict Due to Racist Remarks

A federal judge in Utah has thrown out a guilty verdict in an assault case against an American Indian defendant because of jurors’ racist remarks during deliberations. Rather than focusing on the allegations against defendant Kerry Dean Benally, who was accused of assaulting a federal officer investigating a report that…

Dec 3, 2007 8:37 PM CST

U.S. to Judge: We Can Kidnap Suspects

Extradition is only one way for the U.S. government to get suspected criminals in foreign countries back to American soil for trial. Another legitimate option is to kidnap them, a lawyer representing the United States reportedly told an appellate judge in a United Kingdom case, causing an uproar there once…

Dec 3, 2007 5:15 PM CST

Justice Scalia Teams With Writing Expert for Book

Judges have long complained about deficiencies in lawyer advocacy. Now U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is doing something about it. Scalia is working with legal writing expert Bryan Garner to write a book on the art of persuasive lawyering. Scalia said in a statement that he hopes the book…

Nov 27, 2007 12:39 PM CST

Judge: Put Capital Appeals in Lower Calif. Courts; Lawyers: Pay Us More

In an effort to deal with a backlog of death penalty appeals and speed up the appellate process, the chief justice of the California Supreme Court is calling for a constitutional amendment to allow some of the appeals to be shifted to lower state courts. It now reportedly takes more…

Nov 21, 2007 7:57 PM CST