Jury finds Manafort guilty on 8 counts; judge declares mistrial on 10 other counts

A jury has found former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort guilty of eight counts of bank and tax fraud, the Washington Post, NBC and CNN reported Tuesday.

Aug 21, 2018 5:03 PM CDT

Prison telecom: ‘Technical error’ led to recording of more than 1,000 attorney-client calls

Corrected: The telecommunications company that provides phone services to the Orange County, California, jail system recorded more than 1,000 privileged calls between inmates and their lawyers starting in 2015.

Aug 21, 2018 2:07 PM CDT

Bill proposes greater accountability for New York prosecutors who break the law

In 2013, ProPublica published a series of reports finding that New York prosecutors are almost never punished for misconduct that can land innocent people in prison or let the guilty go free.

That could change in the coming days.

Aug 17, 2018 2:40 PM CDT

DOJ is challenging Tennessee ethics opinion on prosecutors’ obligations to disclose evidence

The Justice Department has picked a fight with an obscure ethics agency in Tennessee about how much evidence—called “discovery”—federal prosecutors should have to hand over to defense attorneys there. It’s the kind of little-noticed move the department makes all the time but could have a lasting impact on the criminal…

Aug 16, 2018 2:00 PM CDT

Voters oust prosecutor who handled probe of cop who shot Michael Brown; ACLU bought education ads

Missouri voters have ousted a longtime St. Louis County prosecutor criticized for his handling of the grand jury inquiry into the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown. Reformer Wesley Bell defeated 28-year prosecutor Robert McCulloch in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, report the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Huffington Post. There is…

Aug 8, 2018 8:00 AM CDT

Manafort prosecutor lashes back when judge tries to speed up Gates’ testimony

A prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller on Monday showed his frustration with the Virginia federal judge overseeing the trial of Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman. Politico describes “a series of prickly clashes” between the prosecutor, Greg Andres, and U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III during testimony…

Aug 7, 2018 8:01 AM CDT

Median pay for public service lawyers rises modestly, NALP reports

Salaries for public service lawyers continue to slowly increase, but their pay is still below that of lawyers in private practice, according to a salary survey by the National Association for Law Placement.

Jul 10, 2018 2:25 PM CDT

California prosecutor is on leave after social media rants about Maxine Waters and Michelle Obama

The lead gang prosecutor in San Bernardino County, California, has been placed on administrative leave after using the C-word to describe U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters on social media.

Jul 10, 2018 7:00 AM CDT

5th Circuit criticizes federal judge for alleged sexist remark about simpler times

A federal appeals court has reinstated an indictment and directed the case be assigned to a new federal judge following the initial judge's alleged remarks about the female prosecutor in the case.

Jul 9, 2018 12:23 PM CDT

Criminal injustice: How Netflix’s ‘The Staircase’ illustrates the inequities of our justice system

I’m fascinated with the fascination over the true-crime genre. It allows audiences to see the unfairness of a system which, too often, keeps its secrets in the shadows.

Jul 9, 2018 7:05 AM CDT

Manslaughter charge is reinstated though lawyer-client conversation was recorded and transcribed

The Indiana Supreme Court has reinstated a voluntary manslaughter charge against a man whose attorney-client conversation was recorded during a break in police questioning, then transcribed and distributed to prosecutors.

Jul 3, 2018 7:05 AM CDT

1881 Initiative aims to increase the number of female AGs

The Democratic Attorneys General Association has launched an initiative to elect more women to an underestimated position: state attorney general. DAGA’s 1881 Initiative is named for the first year two women ran for—and lost—state AG seats. The goal is to ensure that by 2022 at least half the Democratic attorneys general will be women.

Jul 1, 2018 2:10 AM CDT

The Chicago police legacy of extracting false confessions is costing the city millions

Of the 29 wrongful conviction rulings involving false confessions in the United States in 2017, 13 were in Cook County. Of the more than 260 false confession cases since 1989, about 25 percent have come from Cook County.

Jul 1, 2018 12:15 AM CDT

This city may have the first criminal justice system to be led entirely by black women

The city of South Fulton, Georgia, has a municipal court system that is led entirely by black women, but it wasn’t part of any kind of master plan, according to Chief Judge Tiffany Carter Sellers.

Jun 26, 2018 7:00 AM CDT

Opioids, justice & mercy: Courts are on the front lines of a lethal crisis

Court diversion programs are expanding in the opioid crisis, with judges increasingly an advocate on the sidelines. Local courts are pivoting from crime and punishment to carrot-and-stick, using more humane, interventional approaches to deal with the defendants with addictions who are overwhelming their dockets.

Jun 1, 2018 12:30 AM CDT