Defendants, who were charged with murder in aid of racketeering, filed a motion to dismiss the charges against them or, in the alternative, to stay the case until a jury could be assembled that comported with the Sixth Amendment and the Jury Selection and Service Act (Act), 28 U.S.C.S. § ...

Defendant was convicted on ten capital charges under 21 U.S.C. § 848(e)(1)(A) and 18 U.S.C. § 2. She moved in limine to exclude, from the penalty phase of her trial, evidence of statements made by a previously convicted coconspirator to a jailhouse informant, where the coconspirator refused to testify at ...

Prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. v. Booker, 125 S.Ct. 621 (2005), appellate review of sentencing decisions essentially hinged on the district court’s application of the (then-mandatory) Guidelines. In Booker, the Supreme Court replaced that standard with "a practical standard of review already familiar to appellate courts: review ...

Reversing the district court, the Eighth Circuit held that the state’s four year delay in incarcerating the defendant after her conviction became final did not amount to a waiver of jurisdiction over her under the Due Process Clause, even though the Court acknowledged that “erroneous release (and delayed incarceration) of ...

This is another of the growing breed of cases that exposes the Government’s predilection to use its fight against terrorism as a means of taking away or suspending significant constitutional and statutory rights.

In this case, two Muslim immigrants, Ehab Elmaghraby, an Egyptian who ran a restaurant in Times Square, ...

The government moved for an anonymous jury in a death penalty case involving the alleged murder of five witnesses to defendant's drug-trafficking or other alleged criminal conduct.

The government sought to protect the jury from the alleged threat to their safety posed by defendant and his associates. Defendant contended that ...

This is a complex decision that addresses the application of the Federal Wiretap laws to e-mails; and the decision contains one of most detailed and articulate descriptions of how e-mails travel over the Internet.
The technical legal question before the Court was “whether [the] interception of an e-mail message in ...

Charles Hildenbrandt threw a Molotov cocktail into an apartment that was occupied by his former girlfriend and her current boyfriend, resulting in extensive property damage and the death of a pet. Hildenbrandt was then convicted at trial of two counts: (a) knowingly attempting to damage or destroy a building by ...

On October 7, 2003, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Government, seeking information regarding the mistreatment of detainees being held at various military prisons, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The ACLU has said that ...

The issue before the Court in this case was whether a district court may bifurcate a single-count felon in possession trial pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) absent the government's consent. Reasoning that the potential prejudice to a defendant caused by the introduction of his prior felony conviction during the ...

Here, Judge Mills denied the motion of defense counsel, who was appointed to represent the indigent defendant pursuant to the provisions of the Criminal Justice Act (“CJA”) (18 U.S.C. § 3006, et seq.), for legal fees in the amount of $18,000. Defense counsel argued that he had spent more than ...

In a death penalty case, involving the alleged murder of five witnesses to defendant's drug-trafficking or other alleged criminal conduct, the government filed under seal a motion to have defendant wear a stun belt at all times while in court or while being moved to or from the courtroom, that ...

In U.S. v. Green, 389 F.Supp.2d 29, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19037 (D.Mass. Sept. 2, 2005), a capital case involving two African-American defendants, Judge Nancy Gertner crafted a landmark ruling designed to alleviate her concerns that African-Americans were significantly underrepresented in the jury pool. In describing the “profoundly disturbing” system ...

Defendant was charged with a capital crime. The government filed a motion for an anonymous jury pursuant to 18 U.S.C.S. § 3432. The government's motion was granted. Defendant moved for reconsideration.

Seven years earlier, defendant was on trial for drug trafficking, an offense which carried a term of imprisonment. Defendant ...

Petitioner enemy combatant filed an application for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C.S. § 2241. The combatant filed a motion for summary judgment.

The combatant was a Qatari national who entered the United States on September 10, 2001 after attending a terrorist training camp. Later, he was arrested ...

“I have been a judge on this Court for more than twenty-five years. In that time I have seen many death penalty cases and I have applied the law as instructed by the Supreme Court and I will continue to do so for as long as I remain on this ...