Criminal Procedure

La. Judge Opens Entire Jena 6 Trial

Responding to a lawsuit filed by multiple media organizations, a Louisiana judge decided today to open to the public all trial proceedings in the case of Mychal Bell. The Jena 6 teen is to be tried beginning Dec. 6 in juvenile court for his role in an alleged group attack…

Nov 21, 2007 9:40 PM CST

House Approves Attorney-Client Privilege Protection Act

The Attorney-Client Protection Act was adopted in the U.S. House of Representatives by a voice vote today, but it may not be addressed by the Senate until the spring. Supported by an unusually broad-based coalition of organizations that includes the American Bar Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the…

Nov 14, 2007 1:33 AM CST

Feds May Release 19,500 Early in Crack Cases

The U.S. Sentencing Commission reportedly is considering an unprecedented proposal for a mass commutation of disproportionately harsh sentences meted out in drug cases involving crack cocaine. If approved, it is expected to affect one in 10 federal prisoners and reduce their sentences by about two years, reports the Los Angeles…

Nov 12, 2007 6:43 PM CST

Stevens Rejects Former IL Gov’s Bail Appeal

A long-shot bid by former Illinois Gov. George Ryan to remain free on bail pending his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of his political corruption conviction has been rejected. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens today rejected the emergency bail application that Ryan made to him last week, according…

Nov 6, 2007 6:07 PM CST

Habeas Appeal Barred by Botched State Deadline

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a filing deadline for habeas petitions is not tolled while the inmate pursued a challenge in the state courts that was later dismissed because it was filed too late. The court ruled in the case of inmate Daniel Siebert, convicted of killing Linda…

Nov 5, 2007 6:08 PM CST

U.S. Secretary of State is Subpoenaed

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, among other American intelligence officials, has been subpoenaed to appear as a witness in a federal espionage case against pro-Israeli lobbyists. Accused of receiving classified terrorism-related information from a Pentagon official who has already been convicted and relaying it to an Israeli official and…

Nov 2, 2007 7:40 PM CDT

CA Judge: New Execution Regs Invalid

An effort to enact a new execution protocol in California that would put an end to a death penalty moratorium declared last year by a federal judge has suffered a setback. The protocol is invalid, a state judge has decided, because it was not created in compliance with the required…

Nov 2, 2007 12:39 AM CDT

Justice Stevens Considers Ryan Sentence

Prosecutors have been asked to prepare a response to a long-shot emergency bail application to an individual U.S. Supreme Court justice, made in an effort to delay the start of a prison sentence for former Illinois Gov. George H. Ryan Sr. in a political corruption case. After receiving yesterday’s filing,…

Nov 1, 2007 8:12 PM CDT

Phone Transcripts Released in Jeffs Case

Formerly sealed documents detailing jailhouse phone calls made by the leader of a controversial fringe sect of the Mormon church that advocates polygamy were released Tuesday by a Utah court. A lawyer for Warren Jeffs, 51, who has since been convicted of accomplice rape for pressuring a 14-year-old church member…

Nov 1, 2007 7:33 PM CDT

Supreme Court Debate Over Retroactivity Leaves Lawyers Silent

Justices debated how far states can go in making U.S. Supreme Court decisions retroactive during oral arguments yesterday (PDF) in the case of a man challenging his conviction because out-of-court statements were used to convict him. The petitioner wants the court’s 2004 confrontation clause ruling in Crawford v. Washington to…

Nov 1, 2007 2:04 PM CDT

Jezebel on a Broomstick & Salem Witch Judge

When Eve LaPlante, a Boston area writer, starts thinking about a possible book topic, she doesn’t have to go far from home. In the last several years she has written two books about family forbears, American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans and…

Oct 29, 2007 11:02 PM CDT

ABA Calls for National Execution Moratorium

After a three-year study on state capital punishment systems, the American Bar Association is calling for a nationwide moratorium on executions until an unfair and sometimes inaccurate application of the death penalty is corrected. “The death penalty system is rife with irregularity—supporting the need for a moratorium until states can…

Oct 29, 2007 9:51 AM CDT

Legal Loophole in Deer Custody Case

Snowball is headed back home—for now. Because of a legal loophole, the disabled deer raised by a Molalla, Ore., family after they found her as a fawn along a road five years ago has been saved, as the family sees it, from being sent by the state to an elk…

Oct 27, 2007 12:01 AM CDT

Abortion Doc Tries To Block Grand Jury

In an unusual case emerging out of Kansas, a late-term abortion provider has petitioned the state supreme court to block a grand jury investigation into his clinic practices. Anti-abortion groups took the rare step of petitioning for Sedgwick County to convene a grand jury to probe the Wichita clinic run…

Oct 24, 2007 8:50 PM CDT

Cop’s DUI Cases Tossed After Prosecutor Ride-Along

A Chicago police officer, celebrated for writing the most DUI tickets in Illinois, is seeing his record blemished. Some 50 of his DUI cases have been dropped because improper procedures were followed, the Daily Southtown reports. The paper reports that John Haleas, who has been honored three of the past…

Oct 24, 2007 7:24 PM CDT