For the week of June 21, 2010 (cross-posted from the Central District Federal Public Defender blog).
Defenders in the News. The New York Times has a write-up on DFPDs Julia Gatto and Philip Weinstein, who both represent Faisal Shahzad, the suspect in the alleged Times Square bombing plot.
Recent § 2G2.2 Sentencing Trends. You'll find data from the Sentencing Commission on that topic here via Doug Berman, who also posts a useful summary prepared by District Judge Gregory Presnell.
Lyin' Eyes. A new report by New Jersey special master Geoffrey Gaulkin recommends that the state "go beyond what any state or the federal court system has done" to gauge the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.
Probably Not So Good for Weight Loss, Though. Science News chronicles the "long march to credibility for cannabis research." The possible medical applications now appear to go beyond pain management to include multiple sclerosis, Crohn?s disease and other inflammatory conditions, as well as cancerous tumors. (H/T Kay Otani.)
There's a New Judge in Town. The Senate has confirmed Josephine S. Tucker to be United States District Judge for the Central District of California. Welcome, Judge.
The Week in Sausage Making. Measures introduced include H.R. 5566 (animal "crush" videos); S. 3538 (cyber-security); H.R. 5599 (scope of the Wire Act).
Top of the Ninth - 9th Cir. decisions released during the week.
Murdoch v. Castro (habeas) (state court's adjudication was "good enough for government work" (Kozinski, C.J., dissenting)).
U.S. v. Batson (district court may order restitution "for any offense" as part of probation and supervised release).
U.S. v. King (transferee district court has jurisdiction to revoke for violations committed before transfer).
U.S. v. Buzo-Zepeda (defendant's state court "Johnson waiver" of time served in jail is not relevant to calculating term-of-imprisonment calculation under § 4A1.1).
Harrison v. Gillespie (granting reh'g en banc to reconsider ruling that petitioner cannot be sentenced to death).
U.S. v. Valencia-Barragan (denying reh'g/reh'g en banc).
SCOTUS Focus.
Opinions:
Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (material-support
statute's prohibition on speech that "supports" a foreign terrorist
organization - including speech with humanitarian or peaceful aims -
does not violate the First Amendment, where the speech is controlled by
or coordinated with the group).
Magwood v. Patterson (defendant's habeas petition was not "second or successive" because it challenged an intervening judgment).
Skilling v. U.S.
(federal "honest services" fraud is confined to fraudulent schemes that
involve bribes or kickbacks) (pretrial publicity did not prevent fair
trial).
Black v. United States
(defendants did not relinquish objection to honest-services jury
instruction by declining to acquiesce in government's proposed
special-verdict forms).
Grants of Certiorari:
Walker v. Martin
(whether California's timeliness rule for state habeas petitions is
sufficiently defined and consistently-applied that it precludes federal
habeas review of petitions untimely under the rule).
Other Orders:
Weyhrauch v. U.S. (9th Cir. below) (vacatur and remand in light of Skilling, supra).
Short Circuits - other persuasive authority.
Gilbert v. U.S. (11th Cir.) (habeas) (a federal prisoner whose career offender status - a separate "offense" - was retroactively extirpated by Begay may resort to § 2241 to overcome § 2255 limit on successive petitions).
Hill v. Schofield
(11th) (habeas) (state requirement that exemption from execution
requires proof of defendant's mental retardation beyond a reasonable
doubt is contrary to law clearly established by Atkins).
For the Bookworms - New books and scholarly articles of note.
· "Arrest Efficiency and the Fourth Amendment," L. Song Richardson, 95 Minn. L. Rev. (forthcoming, 2010) (SSRN)
(argues that the peculiar failure of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence to
confront the science of implicit social cognition has resulted in a
Fourth Amendment regime that exacerbates inefficient policing).
· "Dirty Hands or Deterrence? An Experimental Examination of the Exclusionary Rule," Kenworthey Bilz (working paper, 2010) (SSRN)
(arguing that recent findings in psychology and data from study show
that judicial integrity rationale is more compelling than deterrence
rationale for exclusionary rule).
· Who Are the Criminals? The Politics of Crime Policy from the Age of Roosevelt to the Age of Reagan, John Hagan (2010) (Princeton U. Press)
(overview of the shift in American criminal justice between the
Roosevelt and Reagan eras, analyzing causal relationship between
increasingly harsh punishments for street crime and de facto
encouragement of white-collar crime through massive deregulation).
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Suggestions or corrections? Email Michael_Drake@fd.org.
