Sentencing/Post Conviction

Court OKs Sleeping Judge at Jury Trial

Saying that a jury trial requires a judge’s physical presence rather than his attention, a divided Australian appeals court panel decided that a slumbering judge did not require retrial of two men convicted on drug charges. Each was sentenced to more than a decade in prison. The judge, who suffered…

Sep 6, 2007 6:07 PM CDT

Deja Vu: Same Case, New Charge

A man who served 20 years for shooting a Philadelphia police officer has now been charged with homicide in the same 40-year-old case. William J. Barnes, 71, was charged Sunday after his victim, Walter T. Barclay, 64, died last month of an infection. His family says he was paralyzed, unable…

Sep 4, 2007 10:28 PM CDT

Nifong in Contempt, Gets 1 Day in Jail

The disgraced former prosecutor responsible for filing unfounded rape charges against former members of the Duke University men’s lacrosse team was found in criminal contempt of court today and sentenced to one day in jail. Former Durham County, N.C., District Attorney Mike Nifong’s decision to withhold DNA evidence from defense…

Sep 1, 2007 12:02 AM CDT

Told of Threat to Tot, Lawyer Kills, Repents, Gets 12 Years

A Connecticut patent lawyer who killed his neighbor after his wife reportedly told him the man had molested their 2-year-old daughter was sentenced today to 12 years in prison. Meanwhile, it appears that the alleged Aug. 28, 2006 attack on the toddler that led to the killing may never have…

Aug 31, 2007 9:21 PM CDT

Bad Closing Doc Puts Va. Lawyer in Jail

A former president of the Northern Virginia Bankruptcy Bar Association reportedly has been sentenced by a federal judge to a year and a day in jail for conspiracy to commit bank fraud. The sentence yesterday concerned a closing document that Leslie W. Lickstein, 54, of Fairfax, prepared in 2002 for…

Aug 31, 2007 4:22 PM CDT

$307 K Fee Is Price of Foot-Dragging

California has been burned by a “scorched-earth” approach to litigation over pay policies for inmates who work for private employers on prison grounds. A California appeals court affirmed an award of $307,000 in attorney fees, in addition to nearly $1.5 million already awarded, for litigation over the state’s failure to…

Aug 31, 2007 12:10 PM CDT

Texas Gov Commutes Death Sentence

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has never commuted a death sentence before. But he did so today for Kenneth Foster, 30, who was scheduled to be executed tonight for serving as the getaway car driver in a 1996 fatal robbery. Following another highly unusual development in the case—the Texas Board of…

Aug 30, 2007 8:56 PM CDT

Canadian Cleared in 1959 Murder

Concluding a case that has fascinated Canadians for decades, an Ontario appeals court yesterday acquitted Steven Truscott of a 48-year-old crime that originally resulted in a death sentence for him as a teenager. Sentenced at age 14 in 1959 to death by hanging for the rape and murder of a…

Aug 29, 2007 10:56 PM CDT

Fence-Building Crime Time: 6 Months

A California man with no prior record has been sentenced to six months in jail. His crime? Building a fence at his home on what the city of Torrance apparently told him was his own property, after he called to ask the city to fix a dilapidated fence that was…

Aug 28, 2007 6:55 PM CDT

8th Circuit: Resentence Wal-Mart Exec

A federal judge may have been too lenient in sentencing a former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executive to five years of probation (including about two years of home confinement) in a $500,000 fraud case, an appeals court has ruled. It says Tom Coughlin must be resentenced. A 28-year employee who rose…

Aug 28, 2007 4:27 PM CDT

Receiver Shakes Up CA Prison System

Lawsuits and legislative committees haven’t had quite the impact of the man named to be a federal health-care receiver for the California prison system. Robert Sillen was appointed last year as the result of a class action lawsuit that revealed 65 inmate deaths each year could be avoided by better…

Aug 27, 2007 6:52 PM CDT

Seale Gets Life in 1964 Case

A reputed member of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi was sentenced today to three life terms for his role in abducting, beating and killing two black teenagers in 1964. James Ford Seale, 72, was convicted in June on federal charges of conspiracy and two counts of kidnapping concerning the…

Aug 24, 2007 6:56 PM CDT

Criminal Lawyer in Contempt for Defending Client

A Washington state lawyer has been found in contempt of court for his defense of an alleged serial rapist who has already served his 25-year sentence for a single rape conviction. Kevin Coe, 60, is still being held, however, because he is considered likely to re-offend, and Tim Tragesser advised…

Aug 24, 2007 3:25 PM CDT

Nicole Richie Serves 82-Minute Sentence

Nicole Richie spent just 82 minutes in jail yesterday for driving under the influence of drugs. Authorities said the short sentence was the norm under guidelines adopted to reduce prison overcrowding, the Los Angeles Times (reg. req.) reports. Richie had told police who pulled her over in December that she…

Aug 24, 2007 1:16 PM CDT

Sleeping Lawyer Claim Denied

Alfonso Williams, convicted of cocaine and crack charges, contends his trial attorney slept through his trial—and produced six witnesses who backed up his allegations. But the judge who presided over the 1997 trial in the Northern District of New York doesn’t remember it that way. Judge Rosemary S. Pooler of…

Aug 24, 2007 1:00 PM CDT