For the week of July 5, 2010 (cross-posted from the Central District Federal Public Defender blog).
Revised Standards for Correctional Psychologists. Criminal Justice and Behavior has published the newly revised standards for psychologists who work in correctional facilities. To download a copy, click this.
Neurolaw Made Me Do It. NPR follows up on its three-part series on neuroscience, genetics and psychopathy (noted last week's Roundup) with this Talk of the Nation piece on "[b]reakthroughs in neuroscience [that] are changing the way criminals are defended in court."
Summary Dispos and Cert Practice. Tony Mauro notes the uptick in summary decisions by the Supreme Court this term. The upshot is that the Court may be more willing to correct errors that might not normally meet the criteria for granting review, and that practitioners "need to be more careful than ever adequately to address the merits at the cert stage."
Pretty Sketchy. Here's one example of how police drawings might not make the most reliable of identification instruments.
Good Thing the Jury Couldn't See Any Shackles. Otherwise, this man might have been unfairly prejudiced or something.
The Week in Sausage Making. Congress is in recess until next week.
Top of the Ninth - 9th Cir. decisions released during the week.
U.S. v. Johnson (Farreta waiver was binding on defendants under Edwards, notwithstanding their eccentric behavior and absurd legal theory).
Lee v. Lampert
(habeas) (there is no actual-innocence exception to one-year
limitations period under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1) for original petitions).
U.S. v. Graf (defendant was "functional employee" of corporation, and conversation with corporate counsel was not privileged under Bevill test).
U.S. v. Chavez (parsimony provision under § 3553(a) does not create statutory maximum for Apprendi purposes).
U.S. v. Brooks (charges
brought under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1591(a) and 2423(a), both governing
interstate trafficking of minors, are not multiplicitous) (detective
was qualified "expert" on relationship between pimps and prostitutes, a
subject not common knowledge to jury) (pimp-to-prostitute relationship
falls outside scope of § 2G1.3(b)(1)(B) enhancement).
U.S. v. Evans-Martinez
(court improperly used 120-month mandatory minimum for child sex
exploitation count as "starting point" for sentencing on counts of
child sexual abuse and witness tampering).
SCOTUS Focus. The Supreme Court is in recess until October 4.
Short Circuits - other persuasive authority.
U.S. v. Malki
(2d Cir.) (district court's low-end sentence based on improper
guideline was not harmless error, notwithstanding judge's statement
that sentence was "reasonable" and that in light of certain PSR
findings "anything less would be inappropriate," where bottom of
correct guideline range was 58 months less).
U.S. v. Kaiser
(2d Cir.) (jury instruction on conscious avoidance, which suggested
that consciously avoiding available facts was legally equivalent to
knowledge, was plain error) (witness testimony about defendant's
accounting decision was inadmissible hearsay and in any event unduly
prejudicial).
U.S. v. Woltmann
(2d Cir.) (district judge's refusal to consider 5K1.1 letter
recommending sentence below guideline range stipulated to in plea
agreement rendered appeal waiver invalid; reassignment for resentencing
was appropriate given judge's pattern of errors and that resources
would not be wasted by allowing new court to do what "courts do as a
matter of routine").
For the Bookworms - New books and scholarly articles of note.
· "Jury
Poker: A Statistical Analysis of the Fair Cross-Section
Requirement," Richard M. Re (AUSA), 8 Ohio St. J. Crim. L.
(forthcoming, 2011) (SSRN)
(critiques existing approaches of measuring probability of injury from
fair cross-section violations, and suggests two alternative approaches
that are both mathematically simpler and more accurate).
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Suggestions or corrections? Email Michael_Drake@fd.org
