Sentencing/Post Conviction

State-Funded Prisoner Religion Program Tossed

A federal appeals court has ruled that a state-financed program that seeks to rehabilitate prisoners through Christian ideals violates the establishment clause. Americans United for Separation of Church and State had challenged the program run by InnerChange, a group affiliated with Charles Colson’s Prison Fellowship that operates in six states,…

Dec 4, 2007 5:55 PM CST

Supreme Court Says It Won’t ‘Recast’ Career Criminal Statute

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against a defendant challenging a sentencing enhancement for being an armed career criminal, SCOTUSblog reports. The defendant, James Logan, who was convicted for being a felon in possession of a firearm, was given a 15-year sentence under the enhancement provision because he had three…

Dec 4, 2007 3:23 PM CST

Judge Axes Verdict Due to Racist Remarks

A federal judge in Utah has thrown out a guilty verdict in an assault case against an American Indian defendant because of jurors’ racist remarks during deliberations. Rather than focusing on the allegations against defendant Kerry Dean Benally, who was accused of assaulting a federal officer investigating a report that…

Dec 3, 2007 8:37 PM CST

Teacher Pardoned for Teddy Bear Naming

Updated: Sudan’s president has pardoned the British teacher convicted of insulting religion for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad. Gillian Gibbons, sentenced to 15 days in jail, has been released and transferred to the British embassy and is preparing for her trip home, the Daily Express reports.…

Dec 3, 2007 1:08 PM CST

Getting Out—and Staying Out

Support builds for bill to help former inmates avoid return trips to prison

Dec 1, 2007 4:44 PM CST

A DNA First: Woman’s Murder Conviction Overturned

A judge has set aside the conviction of a New York woman in the first case of a woman convicted of murder to be freed based on DNA evidence. Lynn DeJac was released yesterday after more than 13 years in prison, Newsday reports. Howver, prosecutors plan to retry DeJac for…

Nov 29, 2007 6:24 PM CST

Ex-Judge Who Wrote Privilege Opinion Backs PD Who Told of Client Confession

The former chief judge of the North Carolina Supreme Court hopes an opinion he wrote on attorney-client privilege will help his new client—a North Carolina man convicted of murder partly based on now-discredited evidence. Former chief judge I. Beverly Lake Jr. is one of the lawyers representing Lee Wayne Hunt,…

Nov 28, 2007 1:11 PM CST

Youth Accepts Plea Deal in Teen Sex Case

A Georgia teen who received a mandatory 10-year sentence for consensual sex with a 14-year-old girl will be released from prison within days under a plea deal. A Georgia judge agreed to the deal for Joshua Widner yesterday, according to the Fulton County Daily Report. Widner had taken his case…

Nov 27, 2007 4:14 PM CST

PD Faces Ethics Complaint for Telling of Dead Client’s Confession

The appellate defender for North Carolina is facing an ethics complaint for testifying that his dead client had confessed he alone committed a double murder for which another man is doing time. Staples Hughes testified in a January hearing for the convicted man that his client confessed 20 years ago…

Nov 26, 2007 12:17 PM CST

Judge: Put Capital Appeals in Lower Calif. Courts; Lawyers: Pay Us More

In an effort to deal with a backlog of death penalty appeals and speed up the appellate process, the chief justice of the California Supreme Court is calling for a constitutional amendment to allow some of the appeals to be shifted to lower state courts. It now reportedly takes more…

Nov 21, 2007 7:57 PM CST

BP Victims Blast ‘Shockingly Lenient’ Plea

Updated: More than a dozen victims of a 2005 Texas refinery explosion have blasted a planned criminal plea deal with BP and successfully sought the recusal of the federal judge in the case. The deal announced last month calls for BP to plead guilty to an environmental crime and pay…

Nov 21, 2007 4:37 PM CST

Mike Tyson Gets 1-Day DUI Sentence

Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson will serve only one day in jail after his guilty plea in September to drug possession and driving under the influence. The 41-year-old Tyson was sentenced today to 10 days, but will only have to serve one day. He will also be required to perform…

Nov 19, 2007 5:30 PM CST

Judge Gets 33 Months in Alleged Mob Money Case

A former New York judge was sentenced to a 33-month prison term today for conspiring with a reputed mobster to launder $400,000 in claimed proceeds from stolen jewelry. David Gross, 45, who served on the Nassau County District Court bench from 1999 to 2005, could have been sentenced to as…

Nov 17, 2007 12:13 AM CST

Conviction for Sex With Bike Sparks Freewheeling Debate

Caught in the midst of a sexual act, behind a locked door in his own bedroom with … his bicycle, a 51-year-old Scottish man is now a convicted sex criminal. After being literally caught with his pants down, Robert Stewart of Ayr admitted a sexually aggravated breach of the peace,…

Nov 16, 2007 8:51 PM CST

Lindsay Lohan’s ‘Day’ in Jail: 84 Minutes

Coming close to Nicole Richie’s celebrity record for the shortest jail stint in recent memory, Lindsay Lohan has reported for her one-day sentence. Actual time served by the 21-year-old actress: 84 minutes, according to Reuters. As discussed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post, Lohan received the one-day sentence in exchange for…

Nov 16, 2007 5:39 PM CST