Who will be the next U.S. Attorney?

Inside Track has a post here about the slow selection process. Here's a piece:

While other states are starting the interview process, the federal Judicial Nominating Commission in the Sunshine State still has not issued a notice seeking applications to replace Miami U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, whose term is up this summer. Acosta is interviewing Wednesday for the dean’s position at Florida International University’s law school.
The delay in calling for applications could mean that Acosta’s top assistant, Jeff Sloman, would likely serve as acting U.S. attorney. Sloman, a Democrat, is said to be interested in the job permanently.
Meanwhile, another potential applicant has emerged: Broward Circuit Judge Ilona M. Holmes.
After President Obama was elected and a turnover in U.S. attorneys was apparent, talk centered on Greenberg Traurig attorney Jackie Becerra, a Hispanic woman and the former right hand to U.S. Attorney Marcos Jimenez. But word is she’s happy at Greenberg, and her office confirmed Friday that she just adopted a baby. So, congratulations to Jackie.
Another name in the mix is Miami-Dade Assistant County Attorney Wilfredo Ferrer, a former federal prosecutor.
Other legal eagles who have surfaced as possible Acosta replacements are in alphabetical order David Buckner with Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton in Coral Gables, Brian Miller at Akerman Senterfitt in Miami, Curtis Miner at Colson Hicks Eidson in Coral Gables, Mark Schnapp of Greenberg Traurig, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Daryl Trawick and Bruce Udolf at Berger Singerman in Fort Lauderdale.
Diversity came up as an issue for women, blacks and Cuban-American Democrats looking at the makeup of the 56-member commission. Among the names mentioned so far, Holmes and Trawick are black, and the rest are white males.

Will the feds retry Helio Castroneves?

As you all know by now, the jury acquitted Helio Castroneves and his co-defendants of all counts, save for one conspiracy count. Technically the government has the ability to retry Helio on that count. But will they?

In the past, this U.S. Attorney's office has retried defendants after hung juries -- for example, we are on the third Liberty City trial, and the office retried the Joe Cool case after it hung. But this is different because the jury acquitted Helio of every substantive count. I would be really surprised if the feds chose to retry this one count. The sense is that Helio won the trial and was vindicated, so a retrial would look petty and vindictive. Plus, there's no reason to believe that the next jury would have any more reason to find Helio guilty after the first jury rejected almost the entire case. What say you readers -- should the U.S. Attorney's office retry Helio on the one hung count?

(p.s. Rumpole, let me know if you want to double down on your last bet).

Helio Castroneves found not guilty

All three defendants found not guilty. The jury hung on one count as to Helio... I can't imagine that they would retry it. Congrats to him and his defense team.

Rumpole, get that Benjamin ready

The jurors in the Helio case asked for the opening statements to be read back today. Judge Graham said no, telling the jurors that opening statements weren't evidence. From Jay Weaver's article:

The jury said it reached a verdict on two tax-evasion counts against the 33-year-old Castroneves and deadlocked on five others -- including the leading conspiracy charge.
The panel also said it reached a verdict on one charge against the driver's sister/manager, Katiucia Castroneves, 35, but deadlocked on the other six.
Jurors said they did reach a verdict on four counts against Castroneves' sports lawyer, Alan R. Miller, 71, of Michigan, including the main conspiracy charge. Miller was not charged in the three other tax-evasion counts in the indictment.
One of Castroneves' lawyers, Roy Black, urged the judge to bring the deliberations -- now in their sixth day -- to a close. He asked Graham to announce the partial verdicts and to declare a mistrial on the deadlocked counts.
The judge refused.
Miller's attorney, Robert Bennett, then asked Graham if he would at least announce the jury's verdict for his client, saying the anticipation was ``sheer agony.''
Federal prosecutor Matt Axelrod opposed disclosure, raising concern about courtroom ''reaction'' if the jury's verdict on Miller was revealed at this point.
The judge sided with the government, denying Bennett's request.
It appears from the defense lawyers' requests in court that they're confident Miller may have been acquitted and that the jury may also have acquitted the Castroneves siblings on a least a few of the tax-evasion charges. A mistrial declared on the remaining counts would be an additional setback for the government.

BOP listserv moderator Howard Keiffer convicted

Many criminal defense lawyers, prosecutors and judges are members of the BOP listserv, which was started by Howard Keiffer. Keiffer spoke at conferences around the country about the Bureau of Prisons and related issues. I emailed with him a couple times over the years... Turns out he wasn't a lawyer even though he appeared in about 20 different district courts. He was convicted this week in federal court. Here's the AP article:

A man accused of impersonating a lawyer in at least 10 states was convicted Wednesday of mail fraud and making false statements in what a government lawyer hoped would be the first of several federal prosecutions around the country.
It took only about an hour and a half for a federal jury in Bismarck to convict Howard O. Kieffer, who shrank in his chair and gulped as the verdict was read.
Authorities said Kieffer lied on his application to practice law in federal court, but still represented such clients as a former St. Louis Blues hockey player who pleaded guilty to plotting to kill his agent.
At the trial, two witnesses told the jury they each paid Kieffer at least $20,000 to appeal prison sentences for their loved ones, only to find out later that he wasn't a lawyer. Attorneys testified that they thought Kieffer was one of their colleagues because he seemed to know about federal court matters and because they saw him at attorney training seminars.
Kieffer's attorney, Joshua Lowther, called no witnesses, but he said the government did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
The 54-year-old from Duluth, Minn., faces up to 25 years in prison and a $500,000 fine; a sentencing date was not immediately set. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Hagler said Kieffer could be prosecuted in federal court in other states where he posed as a lawyer.

Here's an article by the ABA which goes into some depth about Keiffer. Worth a read.