Jan

20

Cory Maples May Avoid Procedural Default, But Will Anyone Else Ride His Coattails?

Posted by: | January 20, 2012 | 1 Comment

The Supreme Court ruled earlier this week that habeas petitioner Cory Maples may not have to bear the consequences of a truly egregious dereliction of duty by his pro bono lawyers.  The lower federal courts had refused to consider Maples’ petition on the merits because he had missed a filing deadline in state court.  Normally, criminal [...]

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Jan

17

Private Prisons and Accountability

Posted by: | January 17, 2012 | 4 Comments

Last week, in Minneci v. Pollard (No. 10-1104), the United States Supreme Court held that employees of privately run federal prisons cannot be sued for money damages for violations of constitutional rights.  By coincidence, last week also saw the release of a new report on private prisons by the Sentencing Project.  The report raises a multitude [...]

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Dec

27

A Visit From the Ghost of Jury Service Past

Posted by: | December 27, 2011 | Leave a Comment

What do you remember about November 29, 1995? That was the day when one of the jurors in Jesse Webster’s drug trafficking trial was out sick. The next day, with all twelve jurors again present, Webster was convicted. Many years later, Webster claimed in a petition for post-conviction relief that the eleven jurors who showed [...]

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Nov

29

No Harm, No Foul — But How Do You Know If There Was Harm?

Posted by: | November 29, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that gives the Court an opportunity to clarify a longstanding ambiguity in harmless error law.  Even if a defendant’s procedural rights have been violated at trial, a conviction will not be reversed on appeal if the error was harmless.  However, the Court has at different [...]

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Oct

19

Budget Cuts Haven’t Meant Prosecution Cuts Here, Santelle Says

Posted by: | October 19, 2011 | Leave a Comment

In case any criminals reading this are hoping to avoid prosecution because budget cuts are reducing the reach of federal prosecutors, their hopes are ill-founded – at least for now, according to James Santelle, the U.S. Attorney for the eastern district of Wisconsin.   But down the road and even now in places other than eastern [...]

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Oct

2

What Must a Defendant Do in Order to Go It Alone?

Posted by: | October 2, 2011 | Leave a Comment

While awaiting trial on criminal charges in federal court, Michael Campbell wrote the following in a letter to the judge: Your honor I am asking that John Taylor [Campbell's court-appointed lawyer] be removed from my case. I am requesting that you appoint another lawyer to complete the process. If not I would like to proceed pro se. [...]

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Sep

23

Seventh Circuit Clarifies Sentencing of Wholesale Drug Traffickers, Encourages Dose-Based Approach

Posted by: | September 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Wholesalers often sell drugs in relatively pure form, with the knowledge that retailers will dilute the drugs before reselling them on the street. Indeed, some powerful drugs, like the painkiller fentanyl, must be substantially diluted before they can be safely consumed. For that reason, wholesalers may end up selling much smaller quantities than retailers, at [...]

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Sep

20

Why Is This Guy Being Prosecuted? Seventh Circuit Orders New Trial for Forklift Operator Swept Up in Drug Sting

Posted by: | September 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment

As part of a drug sting, an undercover federal agent drove a truckload of marijuana to an industrial park in McHenry, Illinois, on March 18, 2008. The agent had arranged to deliver the drugs to Irineo Gonzalez, a target of the sting. Although Gonzalez showed up to meet the agents, there were some difficulties with [...]

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Aug

30

DOJ Changes Its Mind, Seventh Circuit Does Not

Posted by: | August 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment

As I discussed in this post, the Seventh Circuit earlier this year rejected retroactivity for the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which softened the mandatory minimum penalties for crack cocaine offenses.  In the Seventh Circuit’s view, any crack offenses committed prior to August 3, 2010, when the FSA was signed into law, must still be sentenced [...]

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Aug

28

Seventh Circuit Rejects Retroactivity for Padilla

Posted by: | August 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment

In Padilla v. Kentucky, 130 S. Ct. 1473 (2010), the Supreme Court held that a lawyer provides ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to inform a client of the deportation risks that result from a guilty plea.  However, the Court did not clearly indicate whether its holding must be applied retroactively to cases on collateral review, [...]

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Aug

20

Judge Must Explain New Sentencing Decision After Revocation of Supervised Release

Posted by: | August 20, 2011 | 1 Comment

As I described here and here, the Seventh Circuit has an interesting line of cases that attempt to establish some minimal standards for the way that district judges explain their sentences.  Add to that line the court’s decision last week in United States v. Robertson (No. 10-3543).  I think that Robertson is the court’s first decision to apply the explanation requirement to [...]

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Aug

18

Two Circuits Approve Use of Uncounseled Convictions Against Native Americans

Posted by: | August 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment

In Burgett v. Texas, 389 U.S. 109 (1967), the Supreme Court held that a prior conviction cannot be used to enhance a defendant’s sentence under a recidivism statute if the prior conviction was obtained in violation of the defendant’s constitutional right to counsel. Native Americans, however, must deal with an apparent loophole in the Burgett [...]

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