Criminal Procedure

Supreme Court Accepts Case Blaming Lawyer for Bad Insanity Plea Advice

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case in which an inmate convicted of murder claims his lawyer improperly advised him to withdraw an insanity plea. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the advice violated standards of professional conduct because it was the only…

Jun 27, 2008 4:19 PM CDT

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Death-Row Inmate’s Case for Third Time

The U.S. Supreme Court has twice ruled against Tennessee death-row inmate Gary Cone. Now the justices will decide whether federal courts may consider his claim that the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence. Cone had claimed he was suffering from an amphetamine psychosis when he killed a Memphis couple following a two-day…

Jun 24, 2008 1:03 PM CDT

Pro Bono Counsel Loses Supreme Court Case, But Gets Ginsburg Shout-Out

A former law clerk for Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. has lost his first U.S. Supreme Court case, but he got important praise from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg that is likely to boost his career. Ginsburg’s majority opinion (PDF posted by SCOTUSblog) held that a federal appeals court can’t increase…

Jun 23, 2008 3:54 PM CDT

Inmate Dies in Prison After Waiting 18 Years for Retrial in Ala. Murder

Alabama inmate Shep Wilson Jr. had his murder conviction overturned in 1990, but he was still in prison awaiting a retrial when he died last week from liver failure. An Associated Press story attributes the delay to “a mental evaluation, a sick attorney, changes of judges and prosecutors, and a…

Jun 20, 2008 3:06 PM CDT

Supreme Court Rules Against Schizophrenic Who Wanted to Represent Himself

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that judges can bar mentally ill inmates from representing themselves at trial, even if they are deemed competent to stand trial. The court ruled 7-2 in the case of Ahmad Edwards, who was not allowed to represent himself on charges that he stole a…

Jun 19, 2008 2:58 PM CDT

Tables Turned: Defendant Demands Trial, Prosecutors Seek to Avoid It

A defendant accused of being an agent for Saddam Hussein avoided a trial two years ago because of a ruling made by a judge who is now U.S. attorney general. Now the accused woman is demanding a trial while prosecutors argue she is unfit because of mental illness. Michael Mukasey,…

Jun 18, 2008 4:46 PM CDT

Why the Chief Defense Lawyer Didn’t Seek a Mistrial in the R. Kelly Case

Defense lawyer Edward Genson was so confident that the trial of his client R. Kelly was going well that he decided not to ask for a mistrial when prosecutors disclosed they gave the jurors wrong information. The gamble paid off, the National Law Journal reports. Earlier this month the rhythm…

Jun 18, 2008 3:43 PM CDT

Activists Spurring Grand Jury Probes More Successful Fighting Porn than Abortion

For months, a Kansas grand jury, impaneled by citizen petition, has been investigating whether an abortion provider performed illegal late-term abortions. So far, anti-abortion activists in the state have not succeeded in getting an indictment through use of an 1887 law that permits citizens there to call a grand jury…

Jun 17, 2008 1:25 PM CDT

Supreme Court Rules Judges Don’t Have to Warn of Tougher Sentences

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that judges don’t have to warn defendants when they are considering a sentence tougher than recommended in the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. The court ruled in the case of Richard Irizarry, sentenced to 60 months in prison for threatening to kill his ex-wife and her…

Jun 12, 2008 5:49 PM CDT

NYT Columnist Raps Lerach’s ‘Brazen’ Article Defending Kickbacks

A New York Times business columnist says an article by a former securities class action lawyer serving time for paying kickbacks is “a brazen, shameful piece of work.” “Some guys just don’t know when to shut up,” writes columnist Joe Nocera. “William S. Lerach is one of those guys.” Lerach…

Jun 9, 2008 12:26 PM CDT

Judge in R. Kelly Trial Threatens to Jail Reporter for Not Testifying

A Chicago judge overseeing the child pornography trial of R. Kelly has threatened to jail a newspaper reporter who failed to appear today to testify as scheduled. Jim DeRogatis, a music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, was supposed to testify about his role in receiving from an anonymous source and…

Jun 3, 2008 7:41 PM CDT

Former FBI Chief Calls Death-Row Inmate’s Defense ‘Woefully Deficient’

Former FBI director William S. Sessions in an op-ed published today blasts the lawyer who represented death-row inmate Curtis Osborne. Osborne is scheduled to die tomorrow after a denial of his final bid for clemency by a Georgia pardons board. He was convicted of killing two people in a dispute…

Jun 3, 2008 4:01 PM CDT

Supreme Court Turns Down Appeal of Ex-Illinois Governor

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, who was convicted of racketeering and fraud. Ryan had argued U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer committed error when she continued the trial after dismissing two jurors for failing to disclose criminal records, the Associated…

May 27, 2008 3:44 PM CDT

Canada Must Give Interrogation Info to Omar Khadr

A Canadian citizen captured by the U.S. in Afghanistan at age 15 and held at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has a constitutional right to materials related to interviews conducted there by Canadian officials in 2003, Canada’s highest court decided today. In what a lawyer for…

May 23, 2008 6:03 PM CDT

RIP: Recanter Who ‘Opened the Floodgates’ to DNA Exonerations

A woman who falsely accused an Illinois man of rape and later recanted after the man spent eight years in jail died of breast cancer May 15 in New Hampshire. She was 46. Cathleen Crowell Webb’s decision to recant led to the DNA exoneration of Gary Dotson and opened the…

May 21, 2008 8:09 PM CDT