Brady Violation Leads to Reversal of Conviction in D.C.
Editor’s note: This is a guest blog post by David Deitch, a Washington, D.C.-based litigator and the author of the White Collar Criminal Defense Blog. He can be reached at dbdeitch@nulldeitchlawdc.com. According to the D.C. Court of Appeals, when it comes to Brady disclosures, late is not necessarily better than never. In Miller v. United States,…
Read MoreThe Recession’s Effect on Federal Prison Sentences
On March 2, 2011, Jeff Ifrah, founder of Ifrah Law, and Jeffrey Hamlin, an associate in the firm, published the following article in the Los Angeles Daily Journal. Prison inmates in the United States may have reason to thank Wall Street for the 2008 recession. The bloated federal deficit is forcing agencies to tighten their budgets, including…
Read MoreBig Boeing Award, New Rules Won’t End DOD Conflicts of Interest
After a decade of delays and embarrassing missteps, on February 24 the Air Force awarded one of the largest contracts in military history, a $35 billion deal to build nearly 200 giant airborne refueling tankers, to the Chicago-based Boeing Company. At one point, the Air Force had awarded the contract to a team composed of…
Read MoreWill the Internet Taint a Loughner Verdict?
As Arizona plans a trial for accused Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner, a new set of questions has arisen: How will a jury be able to sit in impartial judgment, untainted by nonstop online coverage of the crime and its aftermath? What safeguards should a judge impose to keep the jury from following the case…
Read MoreFacebook Friends and Judicial Ethics
Last December, another legal ethics commission addressed the question of whether a judge may become a “friend” on a social networking site with attorneys who appear as counsel in the judge’s courtroom. The Ohio Supreme Court Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline opined that a judge may “friend” attorneys as long as the judge…
Read MoreIs D.C. on the Way to Legalizing Online Poker?
An amendment introduced to the District of Columbia Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Support Act and approved with little fanfare or advance warning could signal a major change in the law of i-gaming. The amendment, introduced by at-large Democrat Councilmember Michael A. Brown, would allow the D.C. Lottery to administer online poker by defining the D.C.…
Read MoreAmicus Briefs Urge Reduction in Rubashkin Fraud Sentence
We first posted about Sholom Rubashkin—the former plant manager at the now-defunct Agriprocessors, Inc. — back in May 2010, when Rubashkin was awaiting sentence for more than 80 counts of fraud in connection with his operation of the kosher slaughterhouse. Since then, Chief U.S. District Judge Linda Reade of the Northern District of Iowa sentenced…
Read MoreCalifornia Court OKs Warrantless Search of Cell Phone
The text messages in a defendant’s cell phone are in no way different, for the purposes of a police search after an arrest, from the defendant’s clothing or a cigarette package. That was the holding of the California Supreme Court on January 3, 2011, in People v. Diaz, a case in which the state’s highest…
Read MoreWhy Is an Assault on Congress Member a Federal Crime?
The charges against Jared Loughner for shooting Representative Gabrielle Giffords put into sharp focus a little-known federal statute, 18 U.S.C. 351. This law provides for a death penalty for killing a member of Congress, a presidential or vice presidential candidate, or a Supreme Court justice, as well as imprisonment up to life for attempting to…
Read MoreA Tragic Result of the Stevens Case
We have discussed the fallout from the Ted Stevens prosecution several times in this blog. See this post, this post, and this post. The Jan. 3, 2011, issue of the New Yorker magazine has a fascinating article about another, very sad result of that case – the September 26, 2010, suicide of Nicholas Marsh, a…
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