Category: Federal Criminal Procedure
DOJ Should Not Withhold Information From Defense in High-Profile Leak Case
Lawyers for Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a former federal contractor employee accused of unlawfully disclosing sensitive information, recently filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia criticizing the government’s withholding of information in the case and asking the court to order the government to produce the documents. The government should not… Read More
Brady Rights Require Attention, but This Bill Is Flawed
While the prosecution of former Senator Ted Stevens is long over, the fallout from the prosecutorial misconduct in that case continues. Congress is now considering legislation that attempts to ensure that federal prosecutors comply in a meaningful way with their obligations under Brady v. Maryland and its progeny. The legislation has some provisions that could… Read More
Justice Would Be Served by an ‘Open File’ Policy for Prosecutors
A couple of years ago, the U.S. Department of Justice made an effort to systematize and improve its discovery obligations under Brady v. Maryland, the 1963 Supreme Court case that requires prosecutors to disclose information in their files that would tend to exculpate criminal defendants. A U.S. attorney, speaking at a conference of defense lawyers,… Read More
High Court: Police Tracking of Suspect Via GPS Requires Warrant
Last November, we discussed the U.S. Supreme Court’s oral argument in United States v. Jones, which posed the question of whether police need to obtain a warrant before attaching a GPS device to a suspect’s vehicle during a criminal investigation. We noted that in this case, 21st-century technology had come face to face with the… Read More
Judge Dismisses Lindsey FCPA Case, Finding Prosecutorial Misconduct
In May 2011, a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted Lindsey Manufacturing Co., its president Keith Lindsey, and CFO Steve Lee, on foreign bribery charges for their dealings with Mexico’s state-owned electricity utility, Comision Federal de Electricidad. The prosecutors claimed that Lindsey Manufacturing retained Enrique Aguilar, a Mexican company representative, after repeatedly failing to win… Read More
Ifrah Law Blog Wrap-Up for November 2011
In November 2011, we at Ifrah Law expressed our views on a number of current issues in our blogs, Crime in the Suites and FTC Beat. This post summarizes and wraps up our thoughts from the month. ACLU Wins FOIA Appeal on Prosecutors’ Use of Cell Phone Location Data The Justice Department must turn… Read More
ACLU Wins FOIA Appeal on Prosecutors’ Use of Cell Phone Location Data
For some time now, the American Civil Liberties Union has been concerned about some federal prosecutors’ practice of seeking court orders to track the location of people’s cell phones without probable cause, arguing that this practice infringes on privacy rights and violates the Fourth Amendment. Last month, the ACLU claimed victory in one of several… Read More
Spurned Juror Loses in Court, But His Efforts Lead to New D.C. Court Rule
A former juror in Washington, D.C., recently lost a District Court ruling stemming from his dismissal from a grand jury panel in 2001, but his case appears to have brought about needed change in the jury system there. Peter Atherton, a nuclear engineer, was scheduled to serve on the grand jury for 25 days, beginning… Read More
No Attorney’s Fee Award for This Type of Prosecutorial Misconduct
The case of United States v. Shaygan recently made the news when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit overturned a district court’s award of $600,000 in attorney’s fees to a defendant who was the victim of prosecutorial misconduct. The misconduct was indeed egregious — including recording conversations between a lawyer and a… Read More
Major FCPA Case in Jeopardy Because of Prosecutors’ Errors
In late June, U.S. District Court Judge Howard Matz of the Central District of California, the judge in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) case against Lindsey Manufacturing Co. and two of its executives, invited both sides to submit briefs on the question of whether the defendants’ convictions should be dismissed. It had been revealed… Read More
IFRAH Law
