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Court refuses to reconsider Spector's appeal
Headline Legal News |
2011/05/30 11:21
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An appeals court on Friday refused to reconsider music producer Phil Spector's appeal of his murder conviction, saying there was overwhelming evidence of his guilt.
The California 2nd District Court of Appeal panel acknowledged it did not consider an issue that defense lawyers now say was critical to his conviction.
The panel blamed the lawyers for failing to sufficiently brief the point and said they had no obligation to consider it.
They quoted case law saying, "Issues do not have a life of their own: if they are not raised ... we consider the issues waived."
Spector, a legendary rock music producer, was convicted two years ago of fatally shooting actress Lana Clarkson at his Alhambra mansion in 2003. He is serving 19 years to life in prison on a second-degree murder conviction. |
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Court: Sex-offender list is not cruel punishment
Topics in Legal News |
2011/05/29 11:21
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The Michigan appeals court has overturned a Washtenaw County judge and said a young man who committed sexual misconduct at school must be on the state's sex-offender list.
Judge Darlene O'Brien said registration in the case was cruel punishment that violated the Michigan Constitution, but the appeals court disagreed.
A man identified in court papers as T.D. was 15 in 2006 when he was accused of putting a chokehold on a girl and exposing her breast while another boy tugged on her belt. T.D. was placed in a youth home and completed therapy.
AdvertisementHe was required to register when he turned 18. The appeals court says it's not punishment but a way to inform the public even if the risk of another offense is low. |
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Appeals court reinstates charges against Worley
Headline Legal News |
2011/05/28 11:22
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A state appeals court has reinstated five felony charges against former Secretary of State Nancy Worley for a second time.
The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals issued a 4-0 ruling Friday. The charges accuse the former Democratic officeholder of violating election laws during her unsuccessful campaign for re-election in 2006. Her attorney, James Anderson, says he will ask the court to reconsider.
The charges resulted from an investigation by the attorney general. They were originally thrown out by a Montgomery judge. Then the Court of Criminal Appeals reinstated them. The Alabama Supreme Court reversed that ruling in September and told the appeals court to take another look.
The appeals court ruled Friday that prosecutors presented sufficient evidence to support the felony charges. |
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Appeals court upholds sentence in NC bus stop case
Court Watch |
2011/05/27 11:21
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A man who a federal judge ruled had sex with his adopted sister has lost an appeal of his 2½ year prison sentence.
The judge ordered Royce Mitchell to jail because he decided his sexual relationship with 15-year-old Tiffany Wright violated terms of his 2007 probation on a federal drug charge.
Wright, who was eight months pregnant, was shot to death as she waited for the school bus in September 2009. Police named Mitchell a person of interest, but later concluded he wasn't involved with the killing.
But Wright told a detective that she had sex with Mitchell before she died.
Mitchell continues to deny the allegations, and Wright's lawyer said a DNA test that found Mitchell was not the baby's father proves they didn't have sex. But The Charlotte Observer reports that the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decided that just because prosecutors couldn't independently verify Wright's allegations doesn't mean they aren't true. |
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"Killing Time" An 18 Year Odyssey from Death Row to Freedom
Legal Marketing |
2011/05/26 11:22
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http://lbishow.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=349:featured-guest-john-hollway-author-of-killing-time&catid=51:americas-best-selling-authors-series
According to Harry Connick Sr, the former New Orleans District Attorney for 30 years, Angola's death row isn't such a bad place for an innocent man to spend 14 years, according to the New Orleans DA's office. Connick stated that John Thompson did not deserve the $14 million a jury awarded him, because nobody raped him and he got to play chess and watch TV. He wasn't denied medical treatment and made several pals in prison, prosecutors argued in an appeal brief. Our question to former DA Connick....How much would it have been worth it to you if you had spent the last 14 years of your life for a crime you were "FRAMED By" The New Orleans District Attorney's Office?
Thompson was railroaded in 1983, when Harry Connick was DA. In 2007, Thompson, who was wrongfully convicted of murder by Connick's DA office due to evidence withholding, was awarded a $14 million verdict by a federal court jury.
The jury found "that Thompson's 18 years behind bars (14 of which he spent in solitary confinement on death row) were caused by Connick's deliberate failure to train his prosecutors on their obligations to turn over exculpatory evidence"
"Killing Time-an 18 Year Odyssey from Death Row to Freedom" is a sobering look at our justice system, told with journalistic precision by our Guest John Hollway and his writing partner Ronald Gauthier. Told in careful timeline fashion, it details the story of John Thompson, an African American who was, in 1984, wrongfully convicted of the brutal murder of a New Orleans Hotelier, and sent, under a death sentence to Angola Prison to await execution. Thompson adamantly and unceasingly proclaimed his innocence. After Philadelphia lawyers Michael Banks and Gordon Cooney take on his case, they struggle to find areas of misconduct in his previous trials while grappling with their questions about Thompson's innocence. John Hollway and Ronald M. Gauthier have interviewed Thompson and the lawyers, and paint a realistic and compelling portrait of life on death row and the corruption in the Louisiana police and DA's office.
John Thompson, having been exonerated and freed thanks to the work of Attorneys Banks and Cooney is now deeply involved in the organization Resurrection After Exoneration or REA. He, once again, lives in Louisiana.
The Orleans Parish DA's office appealed and the case, Connick v. Thompson, was orally argued before the U.S. Supreme Court during the October 2010 term. By a 5-4 vote split along ideological lines,[6] the Supreme Court overturned the $14 million award in a decision issued on March 29, 2011.
The majority opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas construed the series of admitted violations to not amount to a pattern of similar violations of Brady v. Maryland (1963), and such a pattern was necessary to hold Connick liable for the incompetence of his employees.
The dissenting opinion, read from the bench by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, noted that Connick's office had in fact committed a pattern of violations, to wit:
• Failing to disclose exculpatory blood-type evidence,
• Failing to disclose audio tapes of witness testimony,
• Failing to disclose a deathbed confession of evidence destruction by the prosecuting attorney Gerry Deegan,
• And Failing to disclose eyewitness identification of the killer that didn't match Thompson.
There are other allegations of systemic misconduct by Connick and his prosecutors. "According to the Innocence Project, a national organization that represents incarcerated criminals claiming innocence, 36 men convicted in Orleans Parish during Connick's 30-year tenure as DA have made allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, and 19 have had their sentences overturned or reduced as a result."
For additional information on John Hollway's "KILLING TIME', please visit www.johnhollway.com |
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