More On "Brain Fingerprinting"

Jimmie Ray Slaughter has always denied any knowledge of the double murders for which he was convicted and sentenced to death in 1994. Now he may have the evidence to prove it.

A controversial new technique, known as a brain fingerprinting test, purportedly shows that Slaughter has no knowledge of certain details of the crime about which the real perpetrator would have to have known. �To me, this test proves that Jimmie Ray Slaughter is innocent,� says Norman, Okla., lawyer Robert Jackson, one of Slaughter�s appellate attorneys.

I linked to an earlier BBC article about this here. More details from the current article in the ABA Journal are here.

Prosecutors Reinact Alleged Sex Assault in Court

Wide-eyed jurors watched Thursday as two prosecutors acted out a scene in which, a woman alleges, her church pastor sexually assaulted her.

Over the defense lawyer's strong objections, Assistant District Attorneys Kelly Siegler and Paul Doyle demonstrated as the woman described what she says happened during closed-door counseling sessions with James Tucker. . . .

[S]iegler, a veteran Harris County prosecutor, is known for aggressive questioning and occasional courtroom theatrics. She drew nationwide attention recently during the murder trial of Susan Wright, who stabbed her husband nearly 200 times.

At one point during the March trial, Siegler brought the couple's bloodstained mattress into the courtroom and, grasping a knife, straddled Doyle on the bed to demonstrate how she believed Wright killed her husband.

I don't know about you, but if I were a judge, this kind of thing would not take place in my courtroom. Details here from the Houston Chronicle.

U.S. Charges 4 Under New Anti-Spam Law

Federal authorities say they managed to pierce the murky underworld of Internet spam e-mails, filing the first criminal charges under the government's new "can spam" legislation.

Court documents in the landmark case in Detroit describe a nearly inscrutable puzzle of corporate identities, bank accounts and electronic storefronts in one alleged spam operation.

At one point, investigators said, packages were sometimes delivered to a restaurant, where a greeter accepted them and passed them along to one defendant.

Officials at the Federal Trade Commission, who planned to announce the arrests in Washington on Thursday, told U.S. postal investigators they had received more than 10,000 complaints about unwanted e-mails sent by the defendants.

Court records identified the defendants as Daniel J. Lin, James J. Lin, Mark M. Sadek and Christopher Chung of West Bloomfield, Mich., near Detroit.

They were accused of disguising their identities in hundreds of thousands of sales pitches for fraudulent weight-loss products and delivering e-mails by bouncing messages through unprotected relay computers on the Internet.

I say "hang 'em high." I have spent hundreds of dollars and countless hours dealing with and trying to prevent spam. And my computer is now loaded up with so much anti-spam and anti-virus software that it runs painfully slowly. It's time for some of these people to be put to trial.

Details here from the AP via LexisOne.com.

Music Industry Sues More Computer Users

The recording industry sued 477 more computer users Wednesday, including dozens of college students at schools in 11 states, accusing them of illegally sharing music across the Internet.

The Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group for the largest labels, praised efforts by colleges and universities to use technology and school policies to crack down on music piracy on their computer own networks. But it said the most egregious offenders on campus deserved to be sued. . . .

[T]he latest filings brings the number of lawsuits filed by the recording industry to 2,454 since last summer. None of the cases has yet gone to trial, and 437 people so far have agreed to pay financial penalties of about $3,000 as settlements.

Details here from the AP via LexisOne.com.

9th Circuit to Rehear Internet Jurisdiction Case

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will reconsider a ruling from last year allowing an East Coast business to be sued in California, even though it has no stores there.

The jurisdictional hook, a three-judge panel held, was Maine retailer L.L. Bean's Web site, which the company uses to sell its wares worldwide.

Thursday's decision to take the case en banc was closely watched by practitioners in the still-developing realm of e-commerce law. The outcome will help settle disputes involving the myriad companies that post catalogs on the Internet and sell their products all over the world.

Details here from The Recorder via Law.com.

Jurors Deal World Trade Center Leaseholder Major Setback

World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein suffered a major defeat Thursday when a federal jury found that several insurers were governed by a temporary policy that limited the payment for the destruction of the twin towers to one occurrence.

In the second week of deliberations, a jury told Southern District of New York Judge Michael B. Mukasey that it had reached a verdict on the facts for all but one insurance company, albeit the one with the largest stake in the dispute.

Silverstein claims that the attacks were two occurrences and he should therefore be paid double the almost $3.5 billion all parties agree he is owed at a minimum.

Thursday's partial verdict reduced the amount that could be doubled by $1.06 billion, leaving the rest in doubt.

But even for those policies that still might have to pay for more than one occurrence, the question remains whether the twin attacks on the towers were two occurrences, or only two parts of a single occurrence. In other words, the fight is far from over.

Details here from the New York Law Journal via Law.com.

Former Congressman's Defamation Suit Against Columnist Goes Forward

A federal judge has refused to dismiss a slander suit brought by former California Congressman Gary Condit for statements made by columnist Dominick Dunne about the disappearance and death of Chandra Levy.

Southern District of New York Judge Peter K. Leisure said Tuesday that Condit has asserted enough facts to survive dismissal, based on comments Dunne made about the Levy case on three national talk shows and at dinner parties where he regaled guests with rumors concerning the congressman.

This one has been under my radar. The article recounts some of the details Dunne stated publicly about Condit's alleged involvement in the case, which are totally bizzarre. Details here from the New York Law Journal via Law.com.

Larry Ellison's War Means Pricey Work for Elite Law Firms

The professional fees for Peoplesoft alone already exceed $55 million, according to this article from The Recorder via Law.com. That's alotta scratch. And to think, I used to practice at one of the "elite law firms" mentioned in the article.

Law School Turf War Ignites

An ideological turf war has broken out in many of the nation's law schools, as liberals try to raise an army of law students and lawyers to fight what they call a conservative dominance of American law.

Enter the American Constitution Society (ACS), a fledgling group of lawyers, law students and left-leaning academics who have united to counter the better-known Federalist Society, a two-decades old group that promotes conservative thought and has taken on the role of watchdog of the American Bar Association.

Details here from The National Law Journal via Law.com.

S.C. Courthouse Named for Lawyer Perry

When Matthew Perry started trying cases in South Carolina 50 years ago, judges made the young black lawyer sit in the balcony until his case was called.

Now the 82-year-old judge's name sits atop the columns of South Carolina's new federal courthouse, which was dedicated Friday in honor of the civil rights pioneer.

Congratulations to Judge Perry. Details here from ABCNews.com.

Mich. Prosecutor Accused of Intervening in Rape Case for Campaign Money

A suburban Detroit prosecutor was indicted Thursday on charges he helped a convicted rapist win a new trial in exchange for contributions to his 2002 run for Congress.

Macomb County Prosecutor Carl Marlinga, the chief law enforcement officer in Michigan's third-largest county since 1985, was charged with conspiracy and fraud.

Authorities said he helped reopen the case of convicted rapist Jeffrey Moldowan in return for donations to his failed campaign. Moldowan eventually was granted a new trial and acquitted.

Marlinga, a 57-year-old Democrat, returned the $34,000 in contributions after an outcry from Republicans. He has repeatedly denied intervening improperly in the appeal.

Details here from the AP via CourtTV.com.

New Specialty: Bug Law

In the beginning, they invaded his dreams.

"I would wake up in the middle of the night, worrying about termites devouring my house," said Pete Cardillo, a Florida lawyer who began suing pest-control companies eight years ago.

He got over it.

Now Cardillo's whole practice is devoted to this niche. It's all termites all the time. He may be the first lawyer in the country to establish this specialty.

If he's right about its potential, he won't be the last. In fact, his new dream about termites is to open additional offices in the "termite belt" that spans much of the South.

Cardillo and his colleagues have found a niche suing pest control companies for fraud and even RICO violations, usually over their failure to perform follow-up inspections and treatments, as required by their contracts. Details here from The National Law Journal via Law.com.

"The Ancient Crime of Violation of a Sepulchre"

Two teenage boys who cut off the head of a corpse and played with it in a graveyard have escaped jail.

Sonny Devlin, 17, and a 15-year-old, whose name is protected by law, were both given probation at the High Court in Edinburgh.

They were accused of cutting off the head and playing with it in a graveyard tomb at Edinburgh's Greyfriar's Cemetery and were subsequently found guilty at a trial in March.

In a historic case, they were convicted of the ancient crime of violation of a sepulchre.

Details here from SkyNews. (via el chadder)

Court Reprimands Associate for Not Correcting Partner's �Misstatements�

So, you�re a lowly associate, and a partner in your firm says to the judge in front of you things that are, well, not uniform with the facts. What do you do?

This may seem like a trick question: Do you want serious problems with your boss or serious problems with the bar? But the answer is you�ve got to tell the truth, even if it means your job.

That�s what the Connecticut Supreme Court made abundantly clear in its unanimous opinion in Daniels v. Alander, No. SC 17002 (April 6).

"On appeal to this court, the plaintiff claims that his failure to correct falsehoods made by another attorney during a court proceeding cannot form the basis of the disciplinary action taken against him," states Justice Joette Katz in the opinion. "We disagree."

Details here from the ABA Journal.

Judge Tells Feds to Back Off from Medical Pot Group

A judge on Wednesday ordered the federal government to keep away from a California medical marijuana group that grows and distributes cannabis for its sick members.

The order by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose was the first interpretation of a federal appeals court decision here last year that ordered the federal government not to prosecute a sick Oakland woman who smoked marijuana with a doctor's recommendation under a 1996 California medical marijuana law.

Fogel ruled that the Justice Department cannot raid or prosecute the 250 members of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, which sued the government after the Drug Enforcement Administration in 2002 raided its Santa Cruz County growing operation and seized 167 marijuana plants.

Details here from the AP via the San Francisco Chronicle.