• Upcoming argument to be heard on March 23, 2009.
• Issue: Under the Double Jeopardy Clause, may the government retry defendants who were acquitted of some charges on factually related counts on which the jury failed to reach a verdict?
• Background: F. Scott Yeager was prosecuted on multiple counts of insider trading, money laundering, conspiracy, securities fraud, and wire fraud. The jury acquitted Yeager of the conspiracy, securities fraud, and wire fraud charges, but deadlocked on the insider trading and money laundering charges. Yeager argues that his retrial on the hung counts should be barred because when the jury acquitted him, it resolved in his favor an issue of ultimate fact that was common to both the acquitted and the hung counts.

• Oral Argument heard on March 4, 2009.
• Issue: When a defendant accidentally discharges a firearm during a crime of violence or drug trafficking, is it still subject to a ten-year sentencing enhancement under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A)(iii)?
• Background: On November 10, 2004, Christopher Michael Dean robbed a bank while carrying a pistol. While Dean was behind the counter, quickly grabbing money from a drawer, he accidentally discharged his gun into his right hand. Dean argues that his conviction was erroneous because § 924(c)(1)(A)(iii), which enhances the sentence of a defendant who discharges a firearm, includes an intent element.

• Oral Argument heard on March 4, 2009.
• Issue: When a person uses a cell phone to buy drugs for personal use, which is a misdemeanor, can he also be charged with the separate crime of using a phone to facilitate the sale of drugs, which is a felony?
• Background: On several occasions, Salman Khade Abuelhawa called a drug dealer to purchase a gram of cocaine. Federal agents intercepted these phone calls, arrested Abuelhawa, and charged him with a misdemeanor for purchasing drugs for personal use and a felony for using a phone to facilitate the sale of drugs. The defendant argues that it is unreasonable to transform a misdemeanor into a felony simply because the crime was facilitated through a cell phone, rather than face-to-face.

• Oral Argument heard on March 2, 2009.
• Issue: Does the Due Process Clause give a defendant the right to access a state’s biological evidence after he has been convicted?
• Background: In 1994, William Osborne was convicted of assault and rape. While he did not match the victim’s description of the perpetrator, he was convicted because his DNA matched the DNA found in the condom that was used in the crime. However, the type of DNA used to match Osborne to the condom is found in one out of every six or seven African-Americans. Now Osborne wants access to the DNA so that he can use a more reliable DNA test to attempt to prove his innocence.

• Oral Argument heard on February 25, 2009.
• Issue: Can a defendant be convicted of “aggravated identity theft” under 18 U.S.C. § 1028(a)(1) when he used a false means of identification without knowing it belonged to another person?
• Background: In 2000, Ignacio Flores-Figueroa, a Mexican citizen, used a fake social security number and resident alien card to work at a steel company in Illinois. These documents bore an assumed name and the social security and alien registration numbers did not belong to a real person. Six years later, Flores-Figueroa acquired new counterfeit cards, and this time the numbers belonged to a real person. Flores-Figueroa claims he was unaware of this.

• Oral Argument heard on February 23, 2009.
• Issue: Does a criminal defendant’s conviction need be automatically reversed when the court erroneously denied his preemptory challenge, which resulted in a challenged juror being seated?
• Background: Michael Rivera was charged with two counts of first degree murder and sentenced to 85 years of incarceration. At the defendant’s trial, he raised a preemptory challenge to a juror being seated, but the trial court dismissed that challenge when it, sua sponte, raised a challenge under Batson v. Kentucky. The lower court agreed, but did not hold that this was reversible error.

• Slip Opinion: Issued on March 9, 2009.
• Background: Brillon was charged with aggravated assault and he already had three prior felony convictions, so he was facing a life sentence. While he was awaiting trial, his public defender made several continuance motions and the case was delayed for various reasons. The case had been delayed for three years when it was finally brought to trial.
• Holding: The Supreme Court upheld Brillon’s conviction. It followed the general rule that delays in a case are attributable to the defendant, not the attorney. Therefore, because the delays were not attributable to a state actor, the Vermont Supreme Court erred by reversing the Defendant’s conviction.

• Slip Opinion: Issued on February 24, 2009.
• Background: The defendant, Randy Hayes, was indicted for violating 18 U.S.C. §922(g)(9), which prohibits anyone convicted of a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” from possessing a firearm. In 1994, Hayes had been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence in West Virginia, but he argued that this did not qualify as a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” under §922(g)(9). He argued that that §922(g)(9) requires a domestic relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, so the West Virginia indictment did not qualify because this was not an element under the West Virginia statute.
• Holding: The Supreme Court held that, under the plain language of the statute, a domestic relationship is not a necessary element of a qualifying predicate offense. For this reason, the Court reversed and remanded with instructions to uphold the defendant’s conviction.

The attorney for alleged al-Qaida sleeper agent Ali al-Marri said Tuesday he hopes what his client endured for five years will never again be repeated in the United States. Al-Marri was turned over to civilian authorities earlier in the day, after being held in a nearby Navy brig as an enemy combatant without charge for more than five years.

A judge has moved the East Texas trial of two white men accused in the death of a black man who was run over and dragged by a pickup truck. The case was set to be tried in Paris, a town with a history of tense race relations. Judge Scott McDowell ruled Thursday that defendants Shannon Finley and Charles Crostley will be tried separately in Sulphur Springs in Hopkins County. That's about 40 miles south of Paris, which is in Lamar County.

A hearing is set in Virginia on whether Michael Vick should be brought from a Kansas prison to testify in his bankruptcy case. Federal authorities have objected to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank Santoro's demand that the suspended NFL star testify in person at his Chapter 11 confirmation hearing early next month. The U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria says it would be burdensome and expensive for federal marshals to move Vick.

The Department of Justice is reviewing procedures and tactics used by a Southern California police department's officers involved in use-of-force incidents. The probe follows four recent police shootings that outraged many in the Los Angeles County city of about 110,000.

A retired Pennsylvania Superior Court judge is appealing his conviction on charges of falsely collecting $440,000 from insurance companies. Michael Joyce was sentenced Tuesday to three years and 10 months in federal prison. He was convicted in November of two counts of mail fraud and six counts of money laundering. Prosecutors say the suburban Erie man exaggerated neck and back injuries from an August 2001 crash to collect the insurance money.

Commenting on recently released reports on incarceration, Boston Globe columnist, Derrick Jackson, challenged the Obama administration in tackling the United States' prison problems – particularly the disparity rates caused by harsh drug laws. Jackson writes: “The big question is whether the Obama administration can rebalance the scales at home, where the corrosive underbelly of injustice is quiet terrorism. Consider the prison boom that accompanied Draconian federal and state laws, laws that became racist in their application.”

In a retrospective of crack cocaine sentencing over the past two decades, the San Francisco Chronicle published a feature article about the individuals affected by harsh sentencing laws nationally. Reporting on policymakers' haste in creating crack sentences which targeted black communities, the article states: “Cracking down on kingpins was the idea all along. But Congress got it wrong in every way. As the U.S. Sentencing Commission reported in 1995, "the stereotype of a drug-crazed addict committing heinous crimes" was simply fiction. And the crack laws shifted the focus to drug quantities that a neighborhood pusher might carry, not a national or international trafficker.”www.sanfranciscochronicle.com

After 35 years of filling the state's prisons with drug offenders who needed treatment and disproportionately punishing poor and minority offenders, New York is on the verge of dismantling its infamous Rockefeller drug laws,” states a New York Times editorial on a recent Assembly vote to restore judicial discretion and curtail mandatory sentencing for many nonviolent, low-level drug crimes. “Once the measure becomes law, courts would be able to sentence many addicts to treatment instead of cramming them into prisons where addiction generally goes untreated.”

A Pennsylvania man said his state’s courts had no jurisdiction over him because he was his own country. A judge would not allow the DUI case to proceed until the man received a mental exam.

A Los Angeles city councilman has announced a $50,000 reward for help solving the 30-year-old slaying of a gym manager believed to be the inspiration of a "Rocky" movie character.

FBI agents arrested two men following a search of the DC technology chief’s office. They were the offices of Vivek Kundra—President Obama’s choice to oversee government technology. Kundra was not a focus of the raid.

A 21-year-old Coloradoan was cited for criminal mischief after crashing his truck into a high school football stadium’s bleachers.

Red light cameras are spreading to communities throughout the United States. Nevertheless, questions grow concerning their effectiveness and legality.

A Washington man was arrested for placing a dummy in his car in order to use that state’s high-occupancy-vehicle lanes.

A suburban Seattle man—a Romanian national—pled guilty to accepting stolen goods. The exceptional part of this case: the stolen good was Adolf Hitler’s bookmark given to him by his mistress, Eva Braun.

A UK resident detained at Guantanamo Bay has released alleged MI5 memos which he claims show British government collusion in his interrogation. Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohamed, 30, claims MI5 agents fed his US captors specific questions which led to him falsely confessing to terrorist activities. In response to allegations of mistreatment and torture, an allegation of possible criminal wrong-doing in the case of Mr. Mohamed has been referred to the Attorney General. Shami Chakrabati, director of campaign group Liberty said: "It makes an immediate criminal investigation absolutely inescapable."

Two former New York Police Department detectives were sentenced to life in prison without parole Friday for operating as Mafia hit men while employed by the NYPD. According to prosecutors, the detectives were paid $4,000 a month by the Mafia and were personally paid $65,000 by Luchese crime family underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso for killing another mobster during a phony traffic stop. Although they reiterated their innocence at Friday's sentencing, the two detectives were found guilty of participating in or aiding eight murders, two attempted murders and one murder conspiracy, as well as witness tampering, witness retaliation, obstruction of justice, money laundering and drug charges.

A plea proceeding is scheduled Thursday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan for Bernard L. Madoff to plead guilty to defrauding thousands of investors out of billions of dollars in what is widely believed to be the biggest investment fraud in history. Madoff's attorneys confirmed that Madoff is waiving his right to a grand jury indictment and that there have been ongoing negotiations regarding a possible settlement. Legal experts say a defendant waiving his right to indictment usually indicates the case is close to resolution.

Judges at the International Criminal Court ordered the arrest on Wednesday of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, charging him with war crimes and crimes against humanity for a concerted government campaign against civilians in the Darfur region. Sudan has vowed to defy the court.

After serving 25 years for a crime that he did not commit, Joseph R. Fears, Jr. is getting a second chance at life outside the prison. Two tickets to the Arnold Sports Festival were waiting for Fears yesterday, but he will have to wait a few more days to enjoy his weekends and, more important, his freedom. Fears, 61, was convicted in 1984 of two Columbus rapes but was proved innocent by DNA testing and was expected to be released from the Ross Correctional Institution yesterday. However, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Charles Schneider said that he is unable to release Fears without a personal appearance in court, and Tuesday morning is the earliest he could schedule hearing. Attorneys involved in the case also were concerned about Fears' well-being if he were released without a short-term plan for life on the outside, and plans are being made accordingly.

Twenty-year-old Timothy Gutierrez of Cortez appeared in federal court in Durango, Colorado, after turning himself in, and is charged with sending threatening e-mails to the FBI in Washington, D.C. Prosecutors say the first e-mail threatened President Obama, and the second warned of explosives at the Mall of America. Gutierrez has said the threats were a prank.

A waiting list grows for criminals to serve time, brought on by overcrowding at a county jail and fewer remaining deputies. Judges are instead using alternative methods, such as electronic home monitoring. However, even this is a limited alternative. Municipal Judge Brad Greenberg says he had to send a convicted drunken driver home Friday without punishing him for a probation violation because no monitor was available.

Over the past three decades, the nation's prison population has exploded from 307,000 to 1.6 million. With so many states facing major budget crises, our failed policy of "mass incarceration" is moving in favor of systematic and adequately funded re-entry efforts. The Second Chance Act, signed last year by then President Bush, was a welcome acknowledgment that the country needs to get better at reintegration. States are now under orders to systematically review barriers to ex-cons' finding housing and jobs. New York, for instance, is opening a number of specialized re-entry units closer to home, where inmates spend the last three to four months of their sentences meeting with state and community social-service agencies to help line up housing, jobs and information on drug-rehab programs and reconnect with their families and neighborhoods.