Sentencing/Post Conviction

Gang Rape Victim to Get 200 Lashes

A gang-rape victim in Saudi Arabia who appealed her original sentence of 90 lashes has indeed won a change in the penalty imposed on her for violating the country’s laws requiring segregation of the sexes. But it was not the one she had hoped for. Instead of reducing the 19-year-old…

Nov 16, 2007 12:48 AM CST

Government May Seek Assets From Estate of Dead Enron Founder

A Houston federal judge has given the government the go-ahead to seek nearly $13 million in assets from the estate of Enron founder Kenneth Lay, who died last year after his conviction for fraud and conspiracy. The government will have to prove it has a right to the assets in…

Nov 15, 2007 6:54 PM CST

N.Y. Lawyer Stole $24M, Gets 10 Years

Updated: It isn’t every dishonest lawyer who manages to steal $24 million. But Anthony Bellettieri, a former real estate practitioner in wealthy Westchester County, N.Y., pleaded guilty earlier this year to doing so and was sentenced yesterday by a federal judge to a 10-year prison term. The onetime partner of…

Nov 14, 2007 8:05 PM CST

100 Protest N.J. Dog’s Death Sentence

More than 100 people protested outside Princetown Township Municipal Court in New Jersey over a judge’s order to euthanize a dog. The 2-and-a-half-year-old German Shepherd named Congo was determined to be vicious after he attacked and mauled a landscaper who came into his yard last June, reports an ABC-affiliated station…

Nov 13, 2007 11:59 PM CST

ABA Experts: Cut Crack Cocaine Sentences

In testimony this week before the U.S. Sentencing Commission, experts representing the American Bar Association are among the scheduled witnesses expected to call for the reduction of relatively high prison sentences imposed on a largely African-American group of defendants convicted of crimes related to crack cocaine. In written statements concerning…

Nov 13, 2007 5:00 PM CST

Feds May Release 19,500 Early in Crack Cases

The U.S. Sentencing Commission reportedly is considering an unprecedented proposal for a mass commutation of disproportionately harsh sentences meted out in drug cases involving crack cocaine. If approved, it is expected to affect one in 10 federal prisoners and reduce their sentences by about two years, reports the Los Angeles…

Nov 12, 2007 6:43 PM CST

Lifer Freed in Challenge to Tough Parole Changes

Inmates sentenced to life in prison are filing constitutional challenges to changes in parole procedures that subsequently made it tougher to win early release. In a Michigan case, a Detroit federal judge ruled that such changes violated the ex post facto clause that bars the government from increasing punishments retroactively,…

Nov 12, 2007 12:56 PM CST

Release of Man Who Shot George Wallace

Slightly more than 35 years after he shot Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who was then a presidential candidate known for his segregationist policies, Arthur Bremer is scheduled to be released tomorrow. Originally sentenced to 63 years for the attempted assassination at a Laurel, Md, campaign rally, Bremer subsequently won a…

Nov 9, 2007 12:10 AM CST

Jury of Peers Has Impact in Md. Teen Court

Most of the jurors who decide punishments in a teen court in Montgomery County, Md., do as well as adults, says the judge who oversees the program. Terrence McGann told the Washington Post the teens take their jobs seriously. “I’ve found that their sentences for the most part have been…

Nov 8, 2007 6:59 PM CST

New York’s Oldest Inmate to be Released

New York’s oldest inmate, an 89-year-old former physician with terminal cancer, has been granted parole. At one time Charles Friedgood was a wealthy surgeon, the New York Times reports. He was convicted of murdering his wife in 1976 after police arrested him at the airport with $450,000 from her estate.…

Nov 8, 2007 4:01 PM CST

Court Notes Snipers’ ‘Reign of Terror,’ Calls Appeal Ironic

A Maryland appeals court has upheld the conviction of John Allen Muhammad, convicted of six sniper shootings in the Washington, D.C., area, in a biting opinion that said his claims of injustice were ironic. The Court of Special Appeals referred twice to the “reign of terror” perpetrated by Muhammad and…

Nov 5, 2007 7:52 PM CST

Inmates See Tragedy of Power Grab in Dramatic Form

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company chose the murder tragedy Macbeth for its debut at a maximum security penitentiary in Maryland. The actors had to substitute wooden swords for the stainless steel variety, and two parts played by child actors were eliminated because of security concerns, the Washington Post reports. The warden…

Nov 5, 2007 1:27 PM CST

Crack Sentences Cut

New federal sentencing guidelines took effect yesterday that will cut the recommended sentences for crack cocaine offenses and reduce the prison population. The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s new guidelines cut the average sentence for crack possession to 8 years 10 months from 10 years 1 month, the New York Times reports.…

Nov 2, 2007 3:04 PM CDT

High Cost of Getting High

Music Fan Gets Pinched for Pot, Says Taxman Included Too Much Filler on the Scale of Justice

Nov 1, 2007 8:51 PM CDT

Justice Stevens Considers Ryan Sentence

Prosecutors have been asked to prepare a response to a long-shot emergency bail application to an individual U.S. Supreme Court justice, made in an effort to delay the start of a prison sentence for former Illinois Gov. George H. Ryan Sr. in a political corruption case. After receiving yesterday’s filing,…

Nov 1, 2007 8:12 PM CDT