The U.S. Supreme Court has for now cleared the way for states to use foreign sources in obtaining a lethal injection drug used in carrying out the death penalty.

Although the Supreme Court has upheld death by lethal injection, the regimen it has approved includes injection with a dose of sodium thiopental that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration to render the prisoner unconscious so he does not feel pain. In recent months, Hospira Inc., the only U.S. manufacturer of the drug, has been unable to meet demand, citing unspecified problems with its raw material suppliers. The shortage has left death penalty states scrambling to find alternatives.

Enter Arizona and the case of Jeffrey Landrigan. Landrigan's lawyers sought to block his execution because state officials would not say where they were getting the drug for the execution, and defense lawyers contended that there was no way to evaluate the safety of the drug without knowing where it came from. Pressed by a federal judge, the state admitted it was using a drug from a foreign country, but wouldn't specify which one.

The highest court in Massachusetts has rejected an appeal by a former high school student who was convicted of planning a Columbine-style attack at his high school in Marshfield.

Joseph Nee was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and served nine months in prison.

Nee appealed his conviction based on the legal defense of “renunciation,” arguing that he had abandoned the plan by a group of teens in 2004 to blow up Marshfield High School and shoot everyone on a hit list of students, teachers and emergency workers.

In its ruling yesterday, the Supreme Judicial Court said Nee was not entitled to a renunciation defense because he did not acknowledge that he conspired with other students to commit a crime.

The court said Nee failed to reveal and renounce his own crime.

Tully Rinckey PLLC is pleased to announce the addition of attorney J.E. Yancey Ellis as an Associate in its Washington, D.C. law office. Ellis joins Tully Rinckey PLLC after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps for over four years, including a year long deployment in Iraq. Ellis will provide representation to military servicemembers in all aspects of military criminal and administrative law.

As a former Marine Corps Judge Advocate and assistant advisor to a Commanding Officer in Iraq, Ellis earned a reputation as an aggressive, thorough, and highly admired attorney familiar with the legal complexities under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. At Tully Rinckey PLLC, Ellis will specialize in providing all members of the military with high quality legal services including officer misconduct, Non-Judicial Punishment proceedings, Article 32 investigations, desertion and AWOL instances, as well as violent crimes. He will also focus on handling administrative matters relating to the correction of military records.

While on active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps, Ellis served as both a military prosecutor and defender at Camp Pendleton in California as well as a Deputy Legal Advisor while stationed in Iraq. During his time as a military prosecutor, Ellis prosecuted over 100 Marines accused of violating federal or military law, or state law under the Federal Assimilative Crimes Act. In his role as defender, Ellis represented Marines accused under federal and military law of felony and misdemeanor crimes earning Defense Counsel of the Year for the Western United States in 2009.

Ellis earned his Juris Doctorate from George Mason University School of Law, graduating Cum Laude, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from West Virginia University, graduating Magna Cum Laude.

For more information about J.E. Yancey Ellis’ addition to Tully Rinckey PLLC or the firm’s military and national security practice, please contact Ali Skinner at (202) 787-1900 or at askinner@fedattorney.com

A federal judge in New York issued an injunction yesterday that will essentially shut down LimeWire, the big music file-sharing service that has been mired in a four-year legal struggle with the music industry. The case has already resulted in the company and its founder, Mark Gorton, being found liable for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

Although the file-sharing service is on the verge of vanishing in its current form, the company will continue negotiations with the major music companies about a deal to offer music for sale legally.

In her ruling, Judge Kimba M. Wood of US District Court in Manhattan forced the company to disable “searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and/or file distribution functionality’’ of the company’s file-sharing software.

The court is scheduled to decide early next year the amount the company and Gorton will be forced to pay.
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The Federal Reserve won’t join a banking industry trade group in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to let the government continue to withhold details of emergency loans made to financial firms in 2008.

The Clearing House Association LLC, a group of the biggest commercial banks filed the appeal today. The Federal Reserve won’t file its own appeal, according to Kit Wheatley, an attorney for the central bank.

The banks are appealing a lower court order requiring the Federal Reserve to disclose lending records to Bloomberg LP, parent company of Bloomberg News. A federal judge ruled in August 2009 that the Fed had to disclose the names of banks that borrowed from its emergency lending programs.

“Greater transparency results in more accountability, and the banks’ fight continues to engender suspicion among taxpayers about the bailouts,” said Matthew Winkler, Bloomberg News editor-in-chief. “The banks’ move to appeal will deepen the public’s skepticism and defend a position that every other court has disagreed with. The public has the right to know.”

The Fed is facing unprecedented oversight by Congress. The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, known as Dodd- Frank, mandates a one-time audit of the Fed as well as the release of details on borrowers from Fed emergency programs. The Discount Window, which provides short-term funding to financial institutions, would have to disclose loans made after July 21, 2010, following a two-year lag. The Bloomberg lawsuit asks for information on that facility.

A federal appeals court is wrestling with whether the Bush administration's former top procurement official got a fair trial the second time around in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

On Friday, a Justice Department lawyer and an attorney for David Safavian (suh-FAY'-vee-uhn) underwent intense questioning by two of three judges hearing the former White House official's appeal.

Safavian's lawyers say he was the victim of vindictive prosecution at his second trial, in which he was convicted of obstructing justice and making false statements to investigators.

Safavian's convictions rest in part on new charges that the government added after Safavian's successful appeal following conviction at his first trial in 2006.