|
CHAIR’S MESSAGEgg
|
|
We are coming off a
good series of CLEs and meetings in San Francisco
and Napa
and gearing up for the Annual Meeting in Hawaii in August. The Section has much on its plate. We just
approved DNA Standards. We are closely examining the recently proposed bill by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Sensenbrenner and
issues relating to immigration reform and sentencing. We are also involved
in the ongoing debate over privilege waiver and the Justice Department’s Thompson memo and the ethics of internal investigations and are
looking at the issue of companies that are cutting off defense fees out of
concerns this is necessary to qualify as cooperator. We are also examining
whether the material witness statutes in the federal and state systems need
overhaul. Our Committees remain active but need help. I urge everyone to get involved
in the business of the Criminal
Justice Section. ▬ Michael S. Pasano
|
FEATURED EVENT…
|
|
Hawaii Annual Meeting
This year’s ABA
Annual Meeting will take place in Honolulu,
Hawaii on August 3-8.
The Criminal Justice
Section’s CLE programs will include “Military Tribunals Begin: Must Fairness Give Way to National Security”,
“Deferred Prosecution Agreements: An Effective Way to Punish Corporate
Misconduct or the End of the Adversary System?/Attorney Client Privilege in
a Corporate Setting”, “Sex Slaves in the 21st Century: The Investigation
and Prosecution of Human Trafficking” and “Annual Review of Supreme Court
Decisions – Criminal Cases.” These
programs will be at the ABA CLE Showcase
Center, the Hawaii Convention
Center.
A variety of CJS committee meetings will be scheduled throughout the
conference at the CJS Headquarter Hotel, Hyatt Regency Waikiki.
|
Criminal Justice
Section Calendar of Events
|
Date
|
Event Name
|
Location
|
|
May 17-19, 2006
|
National Institute: Health Care Fraud 2006
|
Fort Lauderdale, FL
|
|
May 30-June 2, 2006
|
15th Annual National Seminar on the Federal Sentencing Guidelines
Wyndham Miami Beach
|
Miami Beach, FL
|
|
June 14-16, 2006
|
National Institute: Civil False Claims
American University
|
Washington, DC
|
|
August 3-6, 2006
|
Criminal Justice Section Annual Meeting Programs
ABA Annual Meeting
|
Honolulu, HI
|
|
September 28-29, 2006
|
National Institute: Securities
Fraud
|
Washington, DC
|
|
October 8-10, 2006
|
2006 ABA/ABA Money Laundering Enforcement Conference
Marriott Wardman
Park
|
Washington, DC
|
|
Nov. 2-5, 2006
|
Criminal Justice Section 2006
Fall Meeting
|
New Orleans, LA
|
|
Feb. 7-13, 2007
|
ABA 2007 Midyear Meeting
|
Miami, FL
|
|
March 1-2, 2007
|
National Institute: White Collar Crime
|
San Diego, CA
|
|
May 10-12, 2007
|
Criminal Justice Section 2007
Spring Meeting
|
Mackinac Island, MI
|
|
Aug. 9-14, 2007
|
ABA 2007 Annual Meeting
|
San Francisco, CA
|
Other Upcoming Events:
(non-ABA co-sponsored
events that are listed are for reference only and do not imply ABA endorsement)
|
Juvenile Justice National Symposium:
Building Successful Alliances to
Improve Outcomes
|
May 31-June 2, 2006
San Francisco, CA
|
|
Second Annual Career Fair
ABA Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO)
|
June 9, 2006
Detroit, Michigan
|
|
National Institute of Justice Conference 2006 The NIJ's annual
conference on criminal justice research, development, and evaluation in the
social and physical sciences.
|
July 17-19, 2006
Washington, DC.
|
|
2006 National Community Policing
Conference
The U.S.
Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)
|
July 27-29, 2006
Washington, DC
|
NEW PUBLICATIONS…
Forthcoming in Fall 2006: The State of Criminal Justice
The revived and newly-formatted report will cover hot issues, overall
trends, relevant case law, current state and federal statistical data and
legislative activity. Each of the Section’s substantive committee will
contribute a chapter to this report. Section members are welcome to send in relevant
information for this report to crimjustice@abanet.org.
Achieving Justice: Freeing the Innocent, Convicting the Guilty
The Ad Hoc Innocence Committee to
Ensure the Integrity of the Criminal Process (Co-Chairs Paul Giannelli and
Myrna Raeder) has produced a 170-page report that alerts state and federal
criminal justice professionals to the policy development in this area by the ABA. It features recommendations and commentary
on issues affecting those wrongfully convicted. For order inquiries on this and other CJ
Section products, visit www.abanet.org/abastore or call (800) 285-2221. Mention product code
5090103
The Criminal Lawyer’s Guide to
Immigration Law: Questions and Answers, Second Edition
By Robert James McWhirter
Presented in a question and answer
format, this concise guide focuses on the criminal lawyer’s most common
questions about immigration law and representing noncitizens. For orders, visit
www.abanet.org/abastore or call (800)285-2221. Mention product code 5090100.
U.S.
SUPREME COURT CASESgg
Holmes v. South Carolina (May 1, 2006)
Bobby Lee Holmes was sentenced to
death after he was convicted of murder and several other crimes. The
prosecution relied heavily on forensic evidence that strongly supported
Holmes' guilt. At trial, he was not
permitted to introduce evidence suggesting that another person had committed
the crimes.
Under South Carolina law, defendants seeking to
present evidence of third-party guilt must limit the evidence to such facts
as are inconsistent with his own guilt, and to such facts that create a
reasonable inference or presumption as to his own innocence. Evidence that merely casts a bare suspicion
on another person is not admissible.
Using this standard, the South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed the
trial court's decision not to allow the evidence.
The United State Supreme Court
vacated the judgment of the South Carolina Supreme Court and remanded the
case for further proceedings. The
Court held that a criminal defendant's federal constitutional rights are
violated by an evidence rule under which the defendant may not introduce
evidence of third-party guilt if the prosecution has introduced forensic
evidence that, if believed, strongly supports a guilty verdict. The Court noted that state and federal rule
makers have broad latitude under the Constitution to establish rules
excluding evidence from criminal trials.
This latitude, however, has limits.
The Constitution guarantees criminal defendants a meaningful
opportunity to present a complete defense.
Day v. McDonough, Interim Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections (April 25, 2006)
Petitioner Patrick Day was
convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 55 years in prison by a Florida trial
court. Day unsuccessfully appealed the
sentence, which was affirmed on December 21, 1999. His time to seek this Court's review of the
final state-court decision expired on March 20, 2000.
Day unsuccessfully sought state
postconviction relief 353 days later.
The trial court's judgment was affirmed on appeal, effective December
3, 2002. Day petitioned for federal
habeas relief 36 days later, on January 8, 2003. Florida's
answer asserted that the petition was timely because it was filed after 352
days of untolled time. A Federal
Magistrate Judge, however, determined that the State had miscalculated the
tolling time: Under the controlling Eleventh Circuit precedent, the untolled
time was actually 388 days, rendering the petition untimely.
After affording Day an opportunity
to show cause why the petition should not be dismissed for failure to meet
the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996's (AEDPA) one-year
deadline, the Magistrate Judge found petitioner's responses inadequate and
recommended dismissal. AEDPA sets a one-year limitation period for
filing a state prisoner's federal habeas corpus petition, running from the
date on which the judgment became final by the conclusion of direct review or
the expiration of the time for seeking such review, but stops the one-year
clock while the petitioner's properly filed application for state
postconviction relief is pending. The District Court adopted the
recommendation, and the Eleventh Circuit affirmed, concluding that a State's
patently erroneous c |
