Federal Law & Legal System – Page 160 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Marquette Law Alum Major Deon Green on WUWM’s “Lake Effect” Program

Post author:Phoebe Williams
Post published:April 16, 2009
Post category:Federal Law & Legal System International Law & Diplomacy Legal Practice Marquette Law School

Our alum, United States Army Major Deon Green (Law 1997), was recently interviewed on WUWM’s “Lake Effect” radio program. Maj. Green is a member of the JAG Corps and serves as the principal legal advisor to the Commanding General of the Third Sustainment Command Expeditionary in Iraq. The Third Sustainment Expeditionary handles all of the logistics and supplies for the 144,000 troops serving in Iraq. As the principal legal advisor, Major Green directs a team of fifty attorneys and legal assistants who address a broad array of issues—from contract questions to offering legal advice to troops serving in Iraq.

Seventh Circuit Week in Review: Corporate Criminal Liability, Reconsideration of Suppression Rulings, and More

Post author:Michael M. O'Hear
Post published:April 11, 2009
Post category:Circuit Splits Criminal Law & Process Federal Criminal Law & Process Federal Sentencing Seventh Circuit

The Seventh Circuit had four new opinions in criminal cases this week. The cases addressed the mens rea requirements for corporate criminal liability, procedural aspects of suppression hearings, child pornography sentencing, and conditional guilty pleas. Taking the cases in that order:

In United States v. L.E. Myers Co. (No. 07-2464), the defendant corporation was convicted of criminal OSHA violations in connection with the electrocution death of one its employees. The Seventh Circuit (per Judge Sykes) reversed and remanded for a new trial in light of erroneous jury instructions. The errors related to mens rea issues. Myers was convicted under a statute that bases liability on the knowing creation of a hazardous condition in knowing violation of an OSHA requirement.

The problem is that a corporation, as a legal construct, cannot really know anything; the only way a corporation knows something is to the extent the law is willing to impute the knowledge of particular employees to the corporation. Seventh Circuit precedent indicated that “corporations ‘know’ what their employees who are responsible for an aspect of the business know.” More specifically, the corporation was said to know what an employee knows if the employee has a duty to report that knowledge to someone higher up in the corporation.

Seventh Circuit Week in Review: A Lawful Stop, But Just Barely

Post author:Michael M. O'Hear
Post published:April 3, 2009
Post category:Criminal Law & Process Seventh Circuit

There is not much to report from the Seventh Circuit front this week. The court issued only one new opinion in a criminal case, and it was not one that broke any new legal ground. In United States v. Brewer (No. 08-3257), the defendant was convicted of unlawfully possessing a firearm. A police officer responding to a call about gunfire in an apartment complex saw Brewer driving away from the complex. Brewer’s car was stopped on that basis, resulting in discovery of the incriminating weapon. On appeal, Brewer argued that the gun should have been suppressed because the underlying stop was unconstitutional. The court (per Judge Posner) agreed that it was at least a close call (“the case is on the line between reasonable suspicion and pure hunch”), but ultimately determined that the “unusual circumstances” of the case met the test for reasonability.