Sentencing/Post Conviction

NYC Mayor Fumes Over Jailhouse Bar Mitzvah

A lavish jailhouse bar mitzvah complete with catered kosher food and a popular Orthodox singer is attracting the ire of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “Clearly, this is not something that should have taken place,” Bloomberg told the New York Post after it carried a report of the event, hosted…

Jun 12, 2009 2:56 PM CDT

Ex-Bristol-Myers Exec’s Sentence Is, in Fact, a Whole Book

It’s an altogether different kind of book deal: A federal judge sentenced a former executive Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. found guilty of giving false information to U.S. regulators to write a book. “I would like to see you write a book” so others “don’t find themselves in a similar situation,” U.S.…

Jun 9, 2009 7:59 PM CDT

High Court: Enterprise Without Name, Dues or Rules Can Still Be Illegal

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a criminal enterprise doesn’t need to be a formal business-like entity to support a conviction under the anti-racketeering law. The 7-2 ruling upheld the conviction of a defendant who was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison for participating in a group that…

Jun 8, 2009 4:44 PM CDT

New DOJ Evidence Debacle: AG Says Gov’t Disclosure Dubious in 2 More Alaska Cases

In the latest prosecutorial embarrassment for the U.S. Department of Justice, the DOJ has admitted it may have fouled up concerning the required pre-trial provision of exculpatory evidence in the cases of two Alaska lawmakers. In a filing yesterday in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco,…

Jun 6, 2009 12:07 AM CDT

Hired By Counsel in Earlier Theft Case, Woman Pleads to Defrauding New Firm

Even as 43-year-old Anna Howell pleaded guilty to money laundering and mail fraud in federal court in Virginia yesterday, the former secretary and bookkeeper for Jessee & Read appeared upbeat. She was hired by the law firm after she pleaded guilty in state court, exactly two years before yesterday’s plea,…

Jun 5, 2009 5:22 PM CDT

Prominent Mo. Lawyer is Criticized in Another Wrongful Conviction Case

A prominent attorney criticized earlier, along with others responsible for a wrongful conviction case in Missouri, is in the spotlight again. A Missouri Supreme Court petition filed on behalf of a man convicted of murdering his mother accuses attorney Kenny Hulshof, a former six-term Congressman and state Republican gubernatorial candidate,…

Jun 3, 2009 11:25 PM CDT

Impeachment Task Force Hustles After Judge Kent Seeks 1 More Year at $174K

An effort by U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent to continue collecting his federal paycheck for almost a year after he reports to prison later this month to serve a 33-month sentence for obstruction of justice apparently is not going over well in Congress. As graphic testimony by two federal court…

Jun 3, 2009 6:53 PM CDT

Ex-Lawyer is Accused of Shoplifting Michael Kors Handbag from Nordstrom

A former Connecticut lawyer who served 15 months in prison for reportedly stealing about $500,000 from her former law firm and clients to help fund her lavish shopping sprees is in trouble again. Elizabeth Zembko, 48, is now charged with shoplifting and burglary concerning two separate incidents over the past…

Jun 2, 2009 9:43 PM CDT

A Reluctant Rebellion

Laws are tough on child pornography. But some federal judges think the time isn’t fitting the crime.

Jun 2, 2009 4:19 AM CDT

June 1, 1942

Eugenics Challenged in Skinner v. Oklahoma

Jun 2, 2009 12:40 AM CDT

Once Set for Life, Ark. Plaintiffs Lawyer Takes Plea in $9.3M Client Theft Case

In an extraordinary April 20 hearing transcript documenting the beginning of the end of Gene Cauley’s enviable story of professional success, a federal judge calls for an investigation of the high-flying Arkansas plaintiffs security lawyer and chastises co-counsel for not keeping closer track of his activities. Now the 41-year-old Cauley…

Jun 1, 2009 9:45 PM CDT

High Court Lectures 6th Circuit on Double Jeopardy in Retarded Inmate’s Appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court is giving Ohio another chance to prove an inmate should be sentenced to death despite evidence of mental retardation. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in an opinion (PDF) for a unanimous court, wrote that a federal appeals court had “fundamentally misperceived” the application of the double jeopardy…

Jun 1, 2009 3:11 PM CDT

Phil Spector Gets 19 Years to Life

Famed pop producer Phil Spector faced the music today, as he was sentenced in Los Angeles Superior Court to 19 years to life for the second-degree murder of Lana Clarkson, reports Reuters. Prosecutors argued at trial that Spector’s shooting of Clarkson was part of a pattern of violent behavior he…

May 29, 2009 5:51 PM CDT

Lawyer Defends Forwarding Admirer’s Revealing Photo to Inmate

The lawyer for a Texas inmate facing a possible death sentence is defending a photo she forwarded to him from a bare-breasted admirer. Vivian King, part of the defense team for convicted killer Robert Fratta, testified Wednesday that the photo was one of dozens of e-mails and letters sent to…

May 29, 2009 1:42 PM CDT

Ohio Lawyer Gets Community Control, Ordered to Apologize in Client Theft Case

An Ohio lawyer who reportedly has a gambling problem, according to his family, has been sentenced to five years of community control in a client-theft case and ordered to pay $17,000 in restitution and apologize in writing to his victims. Charles Bursey II of Dayton pleaded guilty to three counts…

May 27, 2009 10:55 PM CDT