Criminal Procedure

Spector Jurors Say They’re Deadlocked

A week after deliberations began, jurors in Phil Spector’s second-degree murder trial say they can’t agree on a resolution. But although the panel reports it’s divided almost equally between those who believe the famed music producer is guilty and those who don’t, the case isn’t over yet, reports the Los…

Sep 19, 2007 12:02 AM CDT

Chicago 7 Trial Sketches Spark Memories

With his feet propped up, 1960s activist Abbie Hoffman reads a book. Blue-jeans-clad cohorts munch snacks and catch up on their sleep. No, this wasn’t some student-lounge gathering but one of Chicago’s most famous trials, at which at least one celebrity poet testified in Sanskrit. Arrested after a violent confrontation…

Sep 18, 2007 10:14 PM CDT

ACLU Backs Craig in Restroom Case

The ACLU has filed a supporting brief in Sen. Larry Craig’s effort to revoke his guilty plea to a disorderly conduct charge in a restroom sex sting. The conviction violates Craig’s right of free speech under the First Amendment and is unconstitutionally vague, the American Civil Liberties Union says says…

Sep 18, 2007 12:29 AM CDT

Novel Court Order: No Gang Loitering

In an unusual and controversial approach to criminal activity by street gangs, a California judge issued a preliminary injunction today prohibiting more than 100 alleged members of a notorious Riverside street gang from gathering together in certain public areas. If it is made permanent by Superior Court Judge Edward D.…

Sep 14, 2007 11:38 PM CDT

Sen. Craig Gets Hearing on Plea Change

An embattled Republican Senator from Idaho will get a hearing later this month on his request to withdraw his guilty plea to a disorderly conduct charge resulting from a Minnesota restroom sting operation. Sen. Larry Craig will get his day in court on Sept. 26, a few days before the…

Sep 11, 2007 9:39 PM CDT

Judge Gags Spector as Jury Deliberates

The trial judge in Phil Spector’s second-degree murder case issued a gag order prohibiting the famed music producer and his wife from commenting to the media as the jury began deliberations today. Saying that the Los Angeles case “will be decided based on the facts in the courtroom,” Superior Court…

Sep 10, 2007 7:26 PM CDT

Craig: ‘Intense Anxiety’ Prompted Plea

Sen. Larry Craig has filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct in connection with an airport sex sting, saying he acted in response to an officer’s assertion that the allegations would remain secret. Papers filed with a Hennepin County, Minn., court say Craig was in a…

Sep 10, 2007 6:30 PM CDT

Rape Victim Sues Judge Over R-Word Ban

An alleged acquaintance-rape victim has sued the Nebraska judge who banned her from using the word “rape” in testimony, in what her lawyer describes as a troubling trend. A federal lawsuit filed in Lincoln contends Lancaster County District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront violated Tory Bowen’s rights of due process and free…

Sep 10, 2007 4:39 PM CDT

Congressman Claims DOJ Race Bias

A congressman accused of bribery says the Justice Department is trying him in Alexandria, Va., because juries there have fewer African-Americans. U.S. Rep. William Jefferson is asking a judge to move his trial to Washington, D.C., where many of the alleged crimes are said to have taken place, the New…

Sep 10, 2007 11:33 AM CDT

Court OKs Sleeping Judge at Jury Trial

Saying that a jury trial requires a judge’s physical presence rather than his attention, a divided Australian appeals court panel decided that a slumbering judge did not require retrial of two men convicted on drug charges. Each was sentenced to more than a decade in prison. The judge, who suffered…

Sep 6, 2007 6:07 PM CDT

Law Prof Battled Bush at the White House

What many contend was an excessive use of executive power by President George W. Bush is suddenly the topic of the month. An insider who happens to be a law professor has written something of a tell-all book on the subject, and major publications are vying to offer the most…

Sep 6, 2007 12:29 AM CDT

Judge: Put Entire UK in DNA Database?

A senior judge in Great Britain has ignited a national DNA debate by suggesting that all citizens—and all visitors to the United Kingdom—should be included in a database of DNA profiles. However, the country’s prime minister says no such plan is now on the drawing board. Including everyone in the…

Sep 5, 2007 7:31 PM CDT

Trial of Millennium: Osama Bin Laden

It’s not a real trial, of course. But some of the country’s best-known lawyers are talking about how they would defend the nation’s most-wanted terrorism suspect, if they were lucky—or unlucky—enough to draw the job of representing Osama bin Laden, were he to be captured. The case would probably start…

Sep 5, 2007 10:09 AM CDT

Deja Vu: Same Case, New Charge

A man who served 20 years for shooting a Philadelphia police officer has now been charged with homicide in the same 40-year-old case. William J. Barnes, 71, was charged Sunday after his victim, Walter T. Barclay, 64, died last month of an infection. His family says he was paralyzed, unable…

Sep 4, 2007 10:28 PM CDT

Moussaoui v. The United States

How due process thwarted a courtroom jihad

Sep 1, 2007 8:00 AM CDT