January 2011 - Federal Criminal Law Center

Securities fraud defendant Stanford found incompetent for trial

Posted by Marcia Shein
On January 27, 2011
0 Comments

A U.S. District Court judge in Houston has found financier Allen Stanford incompetent to stand trial. Stanford, who is accused of committing a $7 billion securities fraud, sustained a serious brain injury when he was attacked by an inmate during his pre-trial detention. Since then, he has been over-medicated to the point of addiction and […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On January 24, 2011
0 Comments

In the case of an Ohio man who was given the death penalty after being convicted of robbery and murder, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ruled that he must be resentenced. The Court granted the man’s petition for habeas corpus relief based on ineffective assistance of counsel. The Eighth Amendment […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On January 21, 2011
0 Comments

Last June, the Justice Department indicted eight companies and 22 executives in the liquid crystal display (LCD) electronics market, accusing them of participating in a broad price fixing conspiracy. Among those indicted were five executives at the Taiwanese company AU Optronics Corp., including CEO Lai-Juh Chen. In August, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ordered Chen […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On January 19, 2011
0 Comments

Over the past two decades, criminal defense attorneys and civil rights advocates have been pressing for changes to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines as they apply to offenses involving crack cocaine versus powder cocaine. As the law stood, defendants convicted of possession with intent to distribute crack faced sentences as much as 100 times harsher than […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On January 14, 2011
0 Comments

Finally ending a nearly six-year ordeal for the defendants, New York’s attorney general has dropped all remaining charges against eight insurance executives from Marsh & McLennan Companies. The eight executives were among 29 insurance executives allegedly involved in a massive 2004 insurance fraud scandal which led to state-court antitrust charges related to alleged bid rigging […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On January 12, 2011
0 Comments

The public defender for Dalton, Georgia’s municipal court has filed a motion requesting that at least seven people be released from jail because the city has held them for as long as three weeks without charging them. Holding someone for longer than 48-72 hours before filing criminal charges has been held to be a violation […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On January 7, 2011
0 Comments

Police like to use dogs trained to detect the presence of drugs. With a positive indication of the presence of drugs by a drug-sniffing dog, police officers have probable cause to search a stopped vehicle. What state-compiled data in Illinois recently showed, though, is that drug-sniffing dogs are usually wrong in their conclusions about whether […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On January 4, 2011
0 Comments

After thirty years in prison, Cornelius Dupree Jr. has been declared innocent of the crimes a court convicted him of. Dupree went to prison in 1979 because of a rape and robbery with which he had no involvement whatsoever. Dupree was originally sentenced to 75 years in prison. It was DNA evidence that exonerated him […]

Securities fraud defendant Stanford found incompetent for trial

Federal Appeals Court Orders Death Penalty Defendant Resentenced

Federal Judge Allows Price-Fixing Defendant to Travel Abroad

Federal Judge Resentences Man to Remedy Cocaine/Crack Disparity

New York Drops Last Insurance Fraud Charges Against Marsh Execs

Public Defender: Dalton City Court Unlawfully Detained Defendants

Drug-Sniffing Dogs Are Usually Wrong

Convicted Man Is Exonerated By DNA Evidence