Tag: prosecutors
Court’s Strict Interpretation of Bank Fraud Law May Rein In Prosecutors
A recent interpretation of the federal bank fraud statute by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit may prove to be a useful check to overreaching by federal prosecutors, who have tended to use that statute in the past as a catch-all law enforcement tool. In United States v. Nkansah, the Court… Read More
Will High Court Consider Key Issue Defining Prosecutorial Misconduct?
The Supreme Court will soon be considering whether to take up an interesting question involving when monetary sanctions may be imposed for prosecutorial misconduct. More than 50 former federal judges and U.S. attorneys are pushing to get an 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling from last year overturned. In early August, the former judges and… Read More
Judge Was Right to Reject Plea Deal That Included Appellate Waiver
Earlier this summer, a U.S. district judge in Denver rejected a plea bargain in a child pornography case because the defendant had agreed to waive his right to appeal. The decision sheds new light on the extent of prosecutorial power in the practice of negotiating plea agreements and the need for checks and balances to… Read More
Jeff Ifrah Quoted on Historic Online Poker Deal in Wall Street Journal, USA Today, MSNBC, Other Venues
After the $731 milliion deal to resolve federal civil charges against Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars was announced on July 31, 2012, Ifrah Law founding partner Jeff Ifrah was quoted on the subject in a wide variety of newspapers, magazines, and other sources. Here is a sampling of them. Wall Street Journal USA Today… Read More
Jeff Ifrah Quoted on Historic Online Poker Deal in Wall Street Journal, USA Today, MSNBC, Other Venues
After the $731 milliion deal to resolve federal civil charges against Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars was announced on July 31, 2012, Ifrah Law founding partner Jeff Ifrah was quoted on the subject in a wide variety of newspapers, magazines, and other sources. Here is a sampling of them. Wall Street Journal USA Today… Read More
FBI Raid Targets For-Profit School in Florida: Was This Necessary?
When you hear of FBI agents descending upon a place, you might think of a hostage situation, a drug raid, or the penetration of a terrorist cell. But you probably wouldn’t assume that those armed agents were working with the U.S. Department of Education on a raid on a Florida for-profit college. FBI agents raided… 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
Brief Urges Supreme Court to Accept Rubashkin Sentencing Appeal
On May 3, 2012, Ifrah Law filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the Justice Fellowship and a group of law professors who practice in the areas of criminal law and sentencing. The brief was filed in the case of Rubashkin v. United States, a highly publicized case in… Read More
Since DOJ Won’t Confess Error, It’s Time for Others to Stay on the Case
A Washington Post article today points out that in many cases over the past several decades, federal prosecutors knew that the evidence against a defendant was flawed because the science upon which the conviction had relied was not reliable – yet the prosecutors failed to notify the defendants or their attorneys of the problems. The… 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
