CourtArtist.com

The Trend Toward Anonymous Juries

2010-03-04T10:41:20-05:00

When former congressman William "Cold Cash" Jefferson stood trial in Alexandria last summer sketching the jury was not permitted. Three decades earlier, at the bribery trial of congressman "Dapper" Dan Flood, the "jury-shot" was a standard among the images an artist was expected to turn out, along with the required wide-shot and head-shots. What happened?

While forbidding artists to sketch the jury is not the same as juror anonymity it is part of the same trend. Maryland and Virginia are both currently considering proposals to make all juries anonymous.

The reasons usually given for an anonymous jury are : (1) the defendant's involvement with organized crime, (2) capacity to harm jurors, (3) interference with judicial process, (4) possibility of a severe sentence, and (5) extensive publicity that could expose jurors to harassment.

At the Oklahoma bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh a wall was built in the courtroom specifically to block the artists' view of the jurors, which while perhaps excessive (trust us!) was understandable.

On the other hand, why the jury in the "Scooter" Libby trial was anonymous (identified by number only) escapes me.

Historical note: the jurors in Rep. Dan Flood's trial voted 11-1 to convict on five bribery counts and three counts of perjury. There followed a jury tampering investigation in which the only juror to vote for acquittal failed two lie-detector tests, but no further legal action was taken.

Flood entered a guilty plea before the start of his second trial.

More about anonymous juries here.

Second Amendment, Round Two

2010-03-02T16:49:21-05:00

Lawyers, journalists and spectators, some of whom camped out in front of the Supreme Court over 26 hours, packed the courtroom as the Justices heard the second Second Amendment case in two years (that's a lot of twos!). In Heller v. DC, argued in March 2008, the Court recognized a Second Amendment right for an individual to own a handgun, but it only applied to the District. Today's case seeks to extend that constitutional right to residents of the States.

NYT article here.

Problems With Enron Voir Dire?

2010-03-01T21:13:13-05:00

Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling's Supreme Court appeal made two arguments: that the honest-services law is too vague, and that jury selection was too cursory. Most of the hour of arguments was spent on the questioning of the potential jurors.

In his brief rebuttal at the conclusion of arguments Skilling's lawyer, Sri Srinivasan compared the five hours spent questioning the jury pool to "the Martha Stewart case, for example . . . there were six days of voir dire, . . . And in that case, the only reason you needed an extended voir dire was because of the celebrity status of the defendant. You didn't have the deep-seated community passion and prejudice that characterized the Houston venue in this case."

Justices Dismiss Uighurs Appeal

2010-03-01T17:34:00-05:00

In October 2008 U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina ordered the release of 17 Uighur detainees from Guantanamo into the U.S. That of course never happen as the order was immediately appealed by the government. The DC Circuit ruled that only the President and Congress have jurisdiction over immigration matters, and attorneys for the detainees then appealed to the Supreme Court which agreed to hear what had now become a separation of powers case.

With some of the Uighur detainees, ethnic Chinese Muslims who feared persecution if returned to China, already resettled in other countries and the remaining soon to have new homes - see Saved by the Swiss - the Supreme Court chose to send the case back to the DC Circuit.

NYT story here.

Sketches from the Dustbin

2010-02-26T17:52:24-05:00

The class-action lawsuit brought against the Department of the Interior for its mismanagement of Indian Trust assets is one of the largest and longest ongoing. Beginning in 1996 the case, Cobell v. Babitt, went before Judge Royce Lamberth (pictured, along with Interior Secretary Babitt and Justice attorney Clark, in the second drawing from July 1999) who repeatedly ruled for the Native American plaintiffs, and found Interior Secretaries Gale Norton and Bruce Babitt in contempt of court. In 2006 the Court of Appeals took the unusual action of removing Judge Lamberth, citing his loss of objectivity, and assigned the case to another judge.

A settlement was announced last December with a deadline for congressional approval by December 31, but Congress failed to act and the deadline was extended to February 28. Today the Justice Department announced, "the parties have agreed to extend that deadline through Friday, April 16, 2010.”

Meanwhile the plaintiffs have petitioned the Supreme Court to consider the case.

BLT story here.

Scalia Delivers Unanimous Opinion

2010-02-24T14:10:50-05:00

In an exception to it's 1981 decision in Edwards v. Arizona where the court found that once a suspect asks for a lawyer police may not come back after a "break in custody" and resume the questioning if the suspect then waives his Miranda rights. In today's opinion the court found that if the interval between interrogations is substantial Edwards does not suppress a confession.

Justice Scalia's opinion is here.

"Material Support" Law v. First Amendment

2010-02-23T16:07:30-05:00

Georgetown law professor David D. Cole tried to persuade the Justices that his client, the Humanitarian Law Project, was only engaged in benign, nonviolent activities when it assisted the PKK, a Kurdish separatist group on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations. A 1996 law makes it a crime to provide "material support" to such groups.

Cole argued that the kind of speech activities, such as legal assistance, that the Humanitarian Law Project wants to do should be protected by the 1st Amendment.

Bodies in the Freezer

2010-02-18T10:22:29-05:00

Renee Bowman, accused of choking and beating to death two of her adopted daughters -a third child, now 9 years-old, escaped out a second story window- and keeping their bodies in a freezer for more than a year, is standing trial in Rockville.

WaPo story here.

Supreme Court Jolt

2010-01-22T08:57:09-05:00

“It is a jolt to the legal system when you overrule a precedent.” Chief Justice Roberts at his 2005 confirmation hearings

Overturning its own precedents the Supreme Court yesterday removed limits on corporate campaign spending citing the First Amendment free speech rights of corporations.

In his dissent Justice Stevens wrote “Under the majority’s view, I suppose it may be a First Amendment problem that corporations are not permitted to vote, given that voting is, among other things, a form of speech.”

Dahlia Lithwick has the story here.

Drawing of the Week

2010-01-17T10:20:24-05:00

The winning drawing of the week didn't make it to broadcast. It is a sketch of defense attorney Steven Kupferberg from Thursday's McKenzie-Gude sentencing "mini-trial" done in anticipation of his cross-examination of the star witness, Patrick Yevsukov, but court adjourned for the day before Kupferberg had a shot at the witness.

The Week in Review

2010-01-16T11:08:48-05:00

On Tuesday the Supreme Court heard arguments in U.S. v. Comstock on whether the Federal government can authorize the civil commitment of sexual predators. WaPo story here.

On Wednesday Gregg Levy, an attorney representing the NFL was trying to persuade the Justices that his client should be considered a "single entity"- not a collection of 32 teams - and therefore not subject to the Sherman Antitrust Act. Dahlia Lithwick has the story here.

Thursday saw a sentencing hearing for 20 year-old Collin McKenzie-Gude, who has pleaded guilty to possession of chemicals to manufacture explosives, turn into a mini-trial expected to go into next week. Prosecutors contend that materials were amassed as part of a plot to kill then presidential candidate Barack Obama. WaPo story here.

And on Friday Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas appeared in DC Superior Court to plead guilty to felony gun possession. You can read about it here.

Underwear Bomber Arraigned

2010-01-09T12:21:55-05:00

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the young Nigerian who attempted to bring down an airplane over Detroit on Christmas day with a device smuggled on board in his underwear, was arraigned under heavy security at U.S. courthouse in Detroit yesterday.

The hearing took all of three minutes, but while waiting for it to begin I was able to do a nice rendering of the stuffed bald eagle that was on display on the left side of the Judge's bench. Not something usually seen in a courtroom.

Detroit Free Press story here.

DC Officer Charged with Murder in Robbery Gone Awry

2009-12-17T14:39:48-05:00

DC police officer Reginald Jones (in red) was arraigned in Superior Court yesterday evening on a murder charge for his part in a robbery in which two men were shot and one died.

Officer Jones was in his patrol car, acting as a look-out, while several men attempted to rob a drug dealer. In an ensuing scuffle one of the robbers was shot and killed by his own son, Arvel Crawford (also pictured), who also took part in the robbery.

WaPo story here.

DNA Clears Prisoner After 27 Years

2009-12-16T07:42:13-05:00

While Donald Gates, convicted of the 1981 rape and murder of a university student, waited in an Arizona prison lawyers in a DC courtroom were asking a judge to release him.

Gates' conviction was based largely on the testimony of an FBI forensic analyst whose work has been discredited.

Pictured are Judge Fred Ugast, the original trial judge, at the lectern is Sandra Levick from the Public Defender Service, and Assistant U.S.Attorney Joan Draper.

WaPo story here.

Supreme Court Hears Honest Services

2009-12-09T07:37:17-05:00

Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben faced an uphill battle yesterday as the Justices questioned the vagueness of the Honest Services Act that makes it a crime to "deprive another of the intangible right of honest services."

In response to Justice Scalia's aggressive grilling Dreeben said, "I think we would all agree, Justice Scalia, that had Congress taken your counsel, I would not be here today defending what the Congress attempted to do."

WaPo story here.

Sicopata

2009-11-18T08:47:28-05:00

Sicopata, spanish for psycho, is the nickname Josue Pena, 26, went by in the DC Columbia Heights neighborhood where 9-year-old Oscar Fuentes died last Saturday evening.

Pena, shown here at his arraignment in courtroom C-10 of DC Superior Court yesterday, is accused of firing through a door the shot that killed the young boy.

Relatives of the boy had ducked into the apartment where Oscar lived with his mother and grandmother as Pena persued them in a robbery attempt. Oscar was tying to look through the peephole when the bullet pierced the locked door.

WaPo story here.

Jefferson Sentenced

2009-11-14T07:53:59-05:00

Former congressman William Jefferson stood with his attorney, Robert Trout, his clasped hands resting on the lectern, as Judge Ellis sentenced him to 13 years in prison. Jefferson, 62, infamous for the $90,000. in cold cash found in his freezer made no statement.

WaPo story here.

Life-Without-Parole for Juveniles?

2009-11-09T22:14:27-05:00

In 2005 the Supreme Court banned the death penalty for youthful offenders under the age of 18. Today the court was asked to establish a similar bar to sentencing non-homicide juvenile offenders to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Pictured is attorney Bryan Stevenson arguing in the second of the two Florida cases, Sullivan v. Florida.

Dahlia Lithwick has story here.

1 Hearing, 39 Defendants

2009-10-15T09:40:06-04:00

Thirty-nine names were on the docket for yesterday's status hearing in the DC Taxicab Commission bribery case. One or two may have been home with the flu, but it was still quite a crowd.

Short WaPo story here.

Pity the Immigrant

2009-10-15T09:25:27-04:00

Shanika Robinson, shown above with her brother Leon, agreed to marry Shahabuddin Rana in exchange for monthly payments of $500. The immigration scam turned deadly when Rana's brother, after learning that Robinson was having sexual affairs with other men, refused to continue paying.

On August 18 Shahabuddin was found dead in the DC pizzeria that he owned with his brother. Shanika, her brother and another man are accused of beating Shahbuddin to death and attempting to set the body on fire.

Yesterday's preliminary hearing will resume on Friday.

WaPo story here.