|
|
|
Calif. court hears appeal on gay juror dismissals
Court Feed News |
2011/08/05 15:02
|
A federal appeals case pending in California could determine if trial lawyers should be barred from dismissing potential jurors because they are gay.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Thursday in Pasadena that challenge a Los Angeles prosecutor's decision to strike a lesbian from the jury in an assault case against a gay federal inmate.
The Los Angeles Times reports a favorable ruling could extend constitutional discrimination protections to homosexuality, along with race, creed and gender.
Inmate Daniel Osazuwa says he hugged a guard who was homophobic and he overreacted. The guard fell and Osazuwa landed on him.
A public defender argues the trial judge erred in dismissing a lesbian from the jury, but a prosecutor says she was let go for another legitimate reason. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Appeals court overturns rare Mich. death sentence
Court Feed News |
2011/08/03 15:23
|
A federal appeals court on Wednesday overturned a death sentence for a western Michigan man who was convicted of drowning a young woman in a remote lake to prevent her from pursuing a rape case against him.
The court upheld Marvin Gabrion's conviction, but said the sentencing phase of his extraordinary 2002 trial in Grand Rapids federal court must start from scratch.
Gabrion's lawyers should have been allowed to tell jurors that he would not have faced a possible death sentence if prosecuted in state court because Michigan doesn't allow capital punishment, the appeals court said.
U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell barred Gabrion's defense team from making that pitch during the sentencing phase. It may not have made a difference in the ultimate result, but the appeals court said it's a legitimate argument to make to jurors, who unanimously chose the death penalty.
Rachel Timmerman's body was found in a lake in the Manistee National Forest in Newaygo County in 1997. The U.S. attorney's office had jurisdiction because the victim was found in a portion of the lake that is federal property.
During the sentencing phase, prosecutors blamed Gabrion for the disappearance of four other people, including Timmerman's daughter. The body of one, Wayne Davis, was found floating in another lake a few months after the trial. No charges have been filed. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
NJ high court to rule in case of retired judge
Court Feed News |
2011/08/01 15:36
|
New Jersey's Supreme Court has upheld the censure of a retired Superior Court judge.
Steven Perskie was disciplined in March for not recusing himself in a timely fashion from a case involving his former campaign treasurer. A state Supreme Court committee also found Perskie was not forthcoming in his remarks to a Senate committee about the incident when he was facing re-appointment.
Today's ruling found Perskie shouldn't have rejected a request during a 2006 case that he recuse himself. He later recused himself for different reasons.
The court also found that Perskie didn't intentionally mislead the Senate committee when he answered questions about the incident.
Perskie served on the Superior Court in Atlantic County and retired in January 2010. He also served as a state legislator. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ore. sheriff taking pot user gun permit case to DC
Court Feed News |
2011/07/28 12:24
|
An Oregon sheriff who lost a state legal battle to deny a concealed handgun license for a medical marijuana patient has decided to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters has argued that issuing the license would violate federal law, specifically the Gun Control Act of 1968. That argument was rejected by a trial court, the Oregon Court of Appeals and the Oregon Supreme Court in rulings that say state law on concealed handgun permits does not pre-empt federal law, the Mail Tribune reported Wednesday. Cynthia Willis of Gold Hill acknowledged using medical marijuana when she filed her permit application with Winters in 2008, setting off the legal battle. She was issued a concealed handgun license after the sheriff lost in the Oregon Court of Appeals. "I was hoping that it was over, but apparently it is not," Willis said. "I'm just so surprised that there would be a further use of tax dollars in this way." So far, the case has cost the county $13,000 in outside legal fees plus the equivalent of $20,000 in time spent by the county's internal legal team. Washington County, which lost a similar case, also has decided to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Ryan Kirchoff, an attorney for Jackson County, said the Gun Control Act is designed to keep guns out of the hands of people Congress considered potentially dangerous or irresponsible, such as those who use a controlled substance. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Public defenders file new motion in Demjanjuk case
Court Feed News |
2011/07/22 16:41
|
Attorneys for John Demjanjuk want an American court in Cleveland to set aside the ruling that led to his deportation to Germany and his conviction on Nazi war crimes charges. The request for a new hearing on the retired autoworker's denaturalization could bring the decades-old case back to the United States. Demjanjuk's attorneys charge that the government failed to disclose important evidence, namely a 1985 secret FBI report uncovered by The Associated Press that indicates the FBI believed a Nazi ID card purportedly showing Demjanjuk served as a death camp guard was a Soviet-made fake. "The government has kept these materials hidden from view," according to the motion filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland. Demjanjuk, 91, was convicted in a German court on May 12 of 28,060 counts of accessory to murder, finding that he served as a guard at the Nazi's Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland. He was sentenced to five years in prison. Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk was a Soviet Red Army soldier captured by the Germans in 1942. The Munich court found he agreed to serve the Nazis as a guard at Sobibor. Demjanjuk denies serving as a guard at any camp and is currently free pending his appeal. He's been in poor health for years and has been in and out of a hospital since his conviction. He currently cannot leave Germany because he has no passport, but he could get a U.S. passport if the denaturalization ruling is overturned. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ex-CEO convicted in scam at auto-chemical company
Court Feed News |
2011/07/20 16:16
|
A former corporate executive officer of a New York-based automotive-chemical company was convicted Tuesday in a multimillion-dollar investor fraud scheme that enabled him to buy expensive jewelry and take private jets.
A jury in Manhattan state Supreme Court found Cleveland lawyer James Margulies guilty of charges including grand larceny and scheme to defraud. He faces up to 25 years on the top two counts, which could run consecutively. Bail was set at $1.5 million.
Ira London, an attorney for Margulies, said he planned to file "a very vigorous appeal."
"The jury has spoken. I believe they have convicted an innocent man," he said.
While serving as the company's finance chief — and briefly as CEO — of Industrial Enterprises of America, Inc., from 2004 to 2008, Margulies illegally issued millions of shares of stock to friends and relatives, inflating the share price by making the company look more profitable than it was, prosecutors said.
A teachers' pension fund in Ohio and a church were among the victims of the scheme, prosecutors said.
Margulies personally reaped more than $7 million, spending it on lavish luxuries such as a $350,000 diamond ring for his wife from jeweler Harry Winston, prosecutors said.
He also paid more than a million dollars on the mortgage of his first home, bought a second home and spent $500,000 on a vacation club membership, prosecutors said.
Margulies was charged in the scheme in 2010 along with John D. Mazzuto, who pleaded guilty Jan. 14 to his role in issuing fraudulent shares of stock. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent Lawyer News Updates |
|
|
Lawyer News RSS
