Lawyer’s suicide may void his judicial bribery case conviction

Convicted last year in a judicial bribery case and sentenced to three and a half years, a South Texas lawyer may have cleared his conviction by committing suicide Feb. 28 as he was due to report to federal prison. Because Ray R. Marchan, 56, had an appeal pending at the…

Mar 25, 2013 7:16 PM CDT

Legal journalist dies near 50th anniversary of the case he chronicled in ‘Gideon’s Trumpet’

Former New York Times reporter Anthony Lewis has died at the age of 85, just one week after the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court case he chronicled in the book Gideon’s Trumpet. Lewis died on Monday as a result of complications from renal and heart failure, the New York…

Mar 25, 2013 4:41 PM CDT

Due to hunger strike, suspect is found unable to stand trial in murder of his wife

Albrecht Muth was scheduled to go to trial Monday for the murder of his socialite wife, Viola Drath, 91, whom he said he found beaten and strangled to death in the bathroom of their townhome near the nation’s capitol in 2011, after the two had been married for more than…

Mar 22, 2013 5:17 PM CDT

‘Rigged’ jury pool has no black men, lawyer complains; judge then issues gag order

A federal judge overseeing the tax evasion trial of a Chicago politician issued a gag order Wednesday prohibiting lawyers from talking to the media after his defense counsel complained that the 50-member jury pool contained no black men. U.S. District Judge James Zagel did not expressly mention Tuesday’s out-of-court comments…

Mar 13, 2013 8:50 PM CDT

Judge tosses case, holds DA in contempt for refusing to testify

A judge in Dallas County held the district attorney there in contempt of court and threw out a high-profile mortgage fraud case his office brought. Judge Lena Levario has wanted to hear District Attorney Craig Watkins answer questions about allegations that his office was prosecuting oil heir Al Hill III…

Mar 11, 2013 5:42 PM CDT

Suspect sent to solitary for 22 months gets $15.5M settlement

A New Mexico man who was arrested for driving under the influence and ended up in solitary confinement without any court proceeding for 22 months has reached a $15.5 million settlement. Not long after Stephen Slevin was arrested, there was a determination that he was depressed and a suicide risk,…

Mar 11, 2013 3:03 PM CDT

Fifty years after Gideon, lawyers still struggle to provide counsel to the indigent

Mar 1, 2013 11:10 AM CST

Scalia and Kagan appear most skeptical about DNA collection from arrestees

Justice Antonin Scalia appeared unimpressed with the statistics on Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court debated the constitutionality of collecting DNA samples from those arrested for serious crimes. Scalia commented after Maryland’s chief deputy attorney general, Katherine Winfree, offered some statistics, report the National Law Journal, the New York Times…

Feb 27, 2013 2:59 PM CST

Sotomayor: Prosecutor remark tapped ‘deep and sorry vein of racial prejudice’

In an unusual statement issued Monday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor decried a prosecutor’s “racially charged remark” about money, minorities and drug deals, though she agreed with a decision to deny cert in the case. Sotomayor’s statement (PDF) was joined by Justice Stephen G. Breyer. “The prosecutor here tapped a deep and…

Feb 25, 2013 6:36 PM CST

Maximum sentence sought in shooting of Chicago honor student; defense says politics at play

Michael Ward, 18, and Kenneth Williams, 20, have been charged with first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm, in the shooting death of Chicago honor student Hadiya Pendleton. The duo—who were taken into custody just hours after first lady Michelle Obama and other dignitaries…

Feb 13, 2013 9:30 PM CST

3-strike sentences cut for 5 inmates, judge reconsiders life terms of more than 1,000 others

A California judge has reduced punishments for five inmates convicted of relatively minor crimes. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan is responsible for reconsidering the life prison terms of more than 1,000 offenders sentenced for non-serious and nonviolent offenses, under the recently approved Proposition 36, the Los…

Feb 13, 2013 4:00 PM CST

Judge pleads guilty to fixing traffic tickets; cases against 8 others still pending

H. Warren Hogeland pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to mail fraud and conspiracy. He’s one of nine judges—eight cases are still pending—charged with dismissing or reducing citations for friends, family, associates and political allies, the Associated Press reports. While defense attorneys argue that judges didn’t profit financially from the…

Feb 12, 2013 11:53 PM CST

‘Stop and frisk’ lawsuit against city police gets class action status

U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin found Monday that a group of black and Latino residents in the Bronx could bring claims on behalf of a class of potentially thousands of people at risk of being stopped outside certain residential buildings in the New York City borough. The lawsuit contends that…

Feb 12, 2013 10:33 PM CST

Son of accused Delaware courthouse gunman is detained in probation case at judge’s order

A U.S. Magistrate Judge ordered David Matusiewicz detained today until a hearing is held on charges that he violated the terms of his federal probation. Matusiewicz’s appearance occurred three blocks from the New Castle County Courthouse, where police say that Matusiewicz’s father, Thomas Matusiewicz, shot and killed his son’s ex-wife…

Feb 12, 2013 9:25 PM CST

Contempt sentence vacated for teen who apologized for flipping off judge (see video)

The criminal contempt sentence for an 18-year-old Miami woman who flipped off a judge during a hearing for drug possession was vacated Friday after she apologized to the judge, admitted to being under the influence of Xanax during the incident and agreed to enter a treatment program. “My behavior was…

Feb 8, 2013 9:00 PM CST