Federal judge: Lawyer must pay costs of producing imprisoned ex-attorney Rothstein at her trial

Disbarred attorney Scott Rothstein, who is serving a 50-year prison term for his role in a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme, must testify as a defense witness at the January trial of one of the lawyers who formerly worked for his South Florida law firm, a federal judge has ruled. However,…

Nov 25, 2013 9:50 PM CST

Southwestern Law School professor and evidence expert Myrna Raeder dies

Myrna S. Raeder, a longtime Southwestern Law School professor and ABA criminal justice section leader, has died. Raeder, 66, died Saturday of breast cancer at her Los Angeles-area home, according to a news release posted Monday on the school’s website. Raeder, who had taught at the school since 1979, was…

Nov 21, 2013 9:40 PM CST

Were women convicted in ‘ritual abuse panic’? Junk science law aids their release

Three women who were convicted of sexually abusing two girls have been released from prison, thanks to a new “junk science” law in Texas. The women were accused of abuse in 1994 at a time of headline-making ritualistic abuse cases. They were released on bond on Monday through a deal…

Nov 19, 2013 4:57 PM CST

Judge denies Jodi Arias bid to move murder-sentence retrial, but bans TV cameras in court

The sentencing-phase retrial in the high-profile murder case of Jodi Arias won’t be moved away from Phoenix, an Arizona judge has ruled. But television cameras that streamed live coverage of the trial in which Arias, now 33, was convicted in May of the first-degree murder of her onetime boyfriend, Travis…

Nov 18, 2013 6:00 PM CST

SCOTUS considers constitutionality of home search when suspect objects and girlfriend later consents

The U.S. Supreme Court considered on Wednesday whether police had the right to search a home after arresting a robbery suspect and then getting consent from his live-in girlfriend. Justice Sonia Sotomayor commented that allowing the search would mean there’s nothing left to a 2006 ruling on differing consent, the…

Nov 14, 2013 7:33 PM CST

Larry Flynt joins with ACLU to fight execution of serial killer who shot and paralyzed him

Hustler publisher Larry Flynt has spent decades in a wheelchair since being shot on March 6, 1978 as he stood on the steps of a Georgia courthouse in which he was facing an obscenity prosecution. His admitted assailant, Joseph Paul Franklin, 63, has been convicted of racially motivated murders in…

Nov 12, 2013 3:00 PM CST

Police don’t pay judgments against them, article says | A bulletproof business suit? Is that legal?

Corrected: When University of Denver law professor Nancy Leong teaches criminal procedure, she always arranges for a police officer to come to class. “I remember one time in particular when a student asked an officer whether the officer would be more unhappy if evidence he found was excluded from trial…

Nov 8, 2013 2:30 PM CST

SCOTUS rules for officer who kicked in gate in pursuit of man who ignored his order to stop

An officer who kicked in a gate to pursue a man who ignored his order to stop was entitled to qualified immunity in a suit by the injured homeowner who was standing behind the gate, the U.S. Supreme Court has concluded. The Supreme Court ruled Monday in a summary reversal…

Nov 5, 2013 3:10 PM CST

Ex-NJ attorney general works to reform the pretrial process with a Texas foundation’s backing

Nov 1, 2013 8:40 AM CDT

Judge: Let’s make apps for ex-cons

Nov 1, 2013 7:00 AM CDT

Jailed based on mistaken identity, some who did nothing wrong are held days, weeks or months

At least 100 people have been wrongfully jailed in St. Louis over the past seven years, sometimes for lengthy periods, based on mistaken identities. Yet, through the use of technology, such as fingerprinting, it should have been relatively easy to verify the claims of those wrongfully incarcerated that they were…

Oct 29, 2013 7:05 PM CDT

Swiss bank exec faces US extradition in $20B tax case, due to vacation in Italy

After he was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2008 in a $20 billion U.S. tax fraud conspiracy case, Swiss banking executive Raoul Weil declined to be extradited and his legal counsel said he had done nothing wrong. That put the criminal case against him on hold, since Switzerland…

Oct 22, 2013 4:15 PM CDT

Once the ‘meanest lawyer in Houston,’ author shares story of love for his murdered brother (podcast)

David Berg was an ambitious young lawyer in Houston in 1968 when his older brother, Alan, disappeared. Alan, who had followed their father into the carpet business, had been killed by a hit man over a business dispute. His body wasn't discovered for another six months. The trial of Charles Harrelson (notorious killer-for-hire and father to actor Woody Harrelson) which followed–and the subsequent acquittal–was so painful for Berg that he barely spoke of his brother's death for another 40 years.

Oct 22, 2013 1:29 PM CDT

DOJ asks US attorneys to postpone or curtail civil litigation during shutdown

The federal courts may be open for business during the government shutdown, but business there is anything but routine. Criminal litigation continues without interruption, Third Branch News reports. But the Justice Department has asked (PDF) U.S. Attorneys across the country to curtail or postpone civil litigation that is not absolutely…

Oct 7, 2013 9:13 PM CDT

Faulty jury instructions mean new murder trial for man who said he was assisting a suicide

A state appeals court has overturned the second-degree murder conviction of a New York man because the jury was improperly instructed on the assisted suicide defense to murder. Kenneth Minor is serving a 20-years-to-life sentence for the 2009 murder of a Long Island man whom Minor said had enlisted his…

Oct 4, 2013 7:00 PM CDT