Sentencing/Post Conviction

Justice Souter Calls Lawyer’s Argument ‘Utterly Irrational’

A lawyer for the state of Tennessee defending prosecutors’ decision to withhold evidence in a death penalty trial encountered skeptical and indignant questioning from several justices on Tuesday. “There were flashes of incredulity and anger from justices” during the oral arguments, the New York Times reports. At issue is when…

Dec 10, 2008 12:07 PM CST

Senator Loses Appeal in Restroom Sex Sting

Sen. Larry Craig won’t be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea in a restroom sex sting. The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled today that a trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying Craig’s petition to withdraw the plea, report the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Minneapolis Star…

Dec 9, 2008 5:49 PM CST

Unusual LA Suit Seeks Damages From Jailed Gang Leaders

A first-of-its-kind lawsuit filed yesterday by the Los Angeles city attorney’s office against nine imprisoned gang leaders seeks to gain possession of their assets and redistribute the money among other residents of the two crime-laden neighborhoods the defendants allegedly still control from their jail cells. “The suit seeks compensation for…

Dec 9, 2008 5:19 PM CST

Ohio Judge Gives Lawyer Six-Month Sentence for Using F-Word

An Ohio judge has sentenced a lawyer to six months in jail for using the F-word to describe an opposing attorney as he was leaving the courtroom. Judge Robert Ruehlman of Cincinnati imposed the sentence on lawyer Michael Brautigam, who was in Hamilton County court representing himself in a condominium…

Dec 8, 2008 3:07 PM CST

Oldest Mass. Inmate, a ‘Criminal Through and Through,’ Dies at 92

Massachusetts inmate Nick George Montos committed his first offense as a teenager and the last at the age of 78. The oldest prisoner in the state, he died Sunday at the age of 92. A former prosecutor once called Montos a “criminal through and through,” the Boston Globe reports. Over…

Dec 3, 2008 4:41 PM CST

S.C. Lawyer Gets Prison Time for Stealing $2M from Client

A South Carolina lawyer who fled to Canada after reportedly taking more than $2 million from a real estate client received a two-year federal prison sentence today. Michael T. Jordan was arrested on Aug. 3, 2007, when he tried to re-enter the United States through New York, the Charleston Post…

Dec 2, 2008 8:50 PM CST

Lawyer, Ex-Clinton Neighbor, Gets 25 Years for Killing Wife

A disbarred New York lawyer who lived just a few doors down from Bill and Hillary Clinton was sentenced today to 25 years for fatally shooting his wife. Carlos Perez-Olivo, 60, got a lecture from Westchester County Judge Barbara Zambelli before she imposed the maximum sentence. According to an Associated…

Dec 2, 2008 7:02 PM CST

‘Otis the Town Drunk’ Racks Up 71 Arrests

There are habitual offenders. And then there’s Douglas E. Smith, a northwest Indiana man who has the infamous distinction of being the most arrested person ever in Porter County. His latest arrest last week was for public intoxication, resisting arrest and intimidation, the Times of Northwest Indiana reports. The 49-year-old…

Dec 2, 2008 4:51 PM CST

Supreme Court Calls for Harmless Error Review of Wrong Guilt Theory

The U.S. Supreme Court has sent a jury instruction case back to a federal appeals court for an analysis of whether an error in felony murder instructions was harmless. The per curiam opinion was the only decision of the day, SCOTUSblog reports. The Supreme Court said the improper instruction—one of…

Dec 2, 2008 4:09 PM CST

Bush and Pardon Recipients Share Trait: They’re Supporters of Right to Bear Arms

Seven of the 14 people forgiven by President Bush last week are former hunting or shooting enthusiasts. Five even wrote Bush expressing their desire to win back the right to own a firearm as the chief reason for wanting the pardon, the Wall Street Journal reports. Leslie Collier, a 50-year-old…

Dec 1, 2008 9:49 PM CST

Judge Pumps Up the Volume on Manilow, Barney & Friends

A Colorado judge says his creative sentencing of noise ordinance violators is doing the trick. After he began requiring offenders to sit and listen to Barry Manilow or the theme from the children’s show “Barney and Friends,” Judge Paul Sacco says he’s seen fewer repeat offenders in court. Sacco told…

Nov 26, 2008 5:40 PM CST

No Well-Known Defendants on New Bush Pardon List

No high-profile defendants were among 14 people pardoned yesterday by President George W. Bush. Among those seeking pardons or sentence commutations are one-time junk bond king Michael Milken, former Hollinger chairman Conrad Black, Olympic sprinter Marion Jones, so-called American Taliban John Walker Lindh, former Congressman Randy Cunningham and former Louisiana…

Nov 25, 2008 11:55 AM CST

LA Lawyer Gets 3 Years in Wiretap Case, Not Beverly Hills Home Confinement

Rejecting a suggestion by a probation officer that Terry Christensen should be confined in his Beverly Hills home, a federal judge in California today sentenced the high-profile Los Angeles lawyer to three years in federal prison for his role in a celebrity wiretapping case. Christensen, who is in his late…

Nov 24, 2008 7:51 PM CST

Over 2,200 Defendants Seek Hearings in Camden, N.J., Program; Officials Stunned

Criminally charged in 1995, after a police officer allegedly found marijuana in her car, Renee Felton didn’t show up for her court date and spent more than a decade dodging a subsequent warrant for her arrest. Now 48, she decided to come into court voluntarily after her niece saw a…

Nov 24, 2008 5:36 PM CST

Slain Judge’s Widow Speaks, Prosecutors Take Heat at Nichols Sentencing

Nearly four years after her husband was gunned down by an angry defendant in his Georgia courtroom, Claudia Barnes, who has attended the trial of Brian Nichols almost every day for four weeks, testified yesterday at his sentencing hearing that she still feels “unbelievable devastation” over the the murder of…

Nov 21, 2008 7:52 PM CST