The Inquirer reported in yesterday’s paper on a critical argument that will be held in the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals this Thursday in the long running case of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal (and truthfully, have there been more than a handful of hot Broadway shows that have run longer than this…
The United States Supreme Court yesterday refused to hear an appeal from former Wordcom CEO Bernard Ebbers, which means that, unless Ebbers is pardoned, he will serve most, if not all, of the rest of his life in prison. I’ve said it before and will say it now again – sentences in our criminal system,…
The California Supreme Court is set to consider whether an intermediate appellate court properly reinstated a second degree murder conviction in the California pit bull presa canario (NB: Thank you, Rachel). mauling/murder case from a few years back. I remember this case when it was tried. Watched most of it on Court Tv. Cheered when…
On a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court yesterday overturned a $79.5 million jury award against tobacco company Phillip Morris, holding that the damages award violated the company’s due process rights because, the punitive damages award was intended, at least in part, to punish Phillip Morris for harm allegedly cause to persons other than the plaintiff,…
The Next Supreme Court Arbitration Case? Common law judges expressed a negative view toward arbitration, apparently based on a belief that such alternative dispute resolution ousted the court’s jurisdiction. In the United States, the legal landscape fundamentally changed with the passage in 1925 of the Federal Arbitration Act. The purpose of the FAA “was to…
I wish I had a dime foir every time I have thought “I wish he didn’t say [or do] that.” If I had been the defense lawyer, Ronnell Wilson’s gesture of sticking out his tongue on hearing a federal jury’s decision to sentence him to death would have been one of those times. Now, I…
The New York Times reports that the United States Tax Court has reaffirmed a ruling finding that a once prominent tax lawyer, now deceased, had engaged in atax evasion scheme. The case has a long and tortured history, having been once to the Supreme Court already, and likely headed there for a second time. The…
In a ruling that is bad news for Major League Baseball in general, and Barry Bonds in particular, the federal 9th circuit court of appeals has ruled that a district court judge erred when he ruled that prosecutors could not be allowed access to the results of baeball’s steroids tests in connection with the BALCO…
