Crack, Fines, & the Supreme Court

No health care opinions, but two criminal law opinions today, both favoring the defense.  From ScotusBlog:

We have the opinion in Dorsey and Hill, the Fair Sentencing Act cases.  The opinion is by Breyer.  The Seventh Circuit is vacated and remanded.  The vote is 5-4.  Justice Scalia dissents, joined by the Chief and Alito and Thomas.
The Court holds that the FSA's new mandatory minimums applies to sentences for crack cocaine imposed after the Act for pre-Act crimes.  Dorsey and Hill have the more traditional line-up that we have come to expect in 5-4 cases.

The full opinion is at this link.

Re Fines and Apprendi:

Justice Sotomayor has opinion. The rule of Apprendi v. NJ applies to the imposition of criminal fines. The First Circuit is reversed. The vote is 6-3. Justice Breyer dissents, joined by Kennedy and Alito.

The full opinion is available at this link.

Don't drink the Thallium

From the 11th yesterday in Trepal v. Florida, a death penalty case:

In 1991, a Florida jury convicted Trepal, a sophisticated chemist and Mensa member, of murdering his neighbor Peggy Carr and attempting to murder six other members of Carr's family. Trepal poisoned the victims by adding the toxic element thallium to bottles of Coca-Cola in the Carrs' home.

Trepal’s trial lasted a month, with more than 70 witnesses together providing overwhelming evidence of Trepal’s guilt. For example, several independent witnesses chronicled Trepal’s long-running conflicts with and animosity toward the Carr family. Evidence established Trepal’s extensive
knowledge of chemistry, as well as his possession of chemistry laboratory equipment, a number of toxic chemicals, and a homemade journal on poisons and poison detection in human organs. Finally, multiple experts uniformly testified that (1) the victims were poisoned by thallium, (2) thallium was found in both the empty and unopened Coca-Cola bottles in the victims’ home, and (3) thallium was found in a brown bottle in Trepal’s garage. Thallium is a heavy metallic element that is both rare and toxic to humans. When dissolved, it is odorless and tasteless. A lethal dose of thallium is approximately 14 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, which for an average person is around 1 gram of thallium.

The appeal involves fascinating Giglio claims regarding the FBI chemist, but in the end, the court finds them harmless.  Harmless error regarding a lying chemist in a death penalty case seems like a hard (thallium?) pill to swallow.

Roger Clemens acquitted

Congrats to Rusty Hardin and his team for this great result.  I wonder if the Feds are starting to get the message that these sorts of cases (Clemens, John Edwards, etc) are a waste.  The federal government used to bring the biggest and most serious cases and leave the rest to the discretion of the States.  Now, it seems, the feds bring anything they can bring -- big or small, important or not.  If Republicans are as serious about small government as they claim to be, then I would think they should push to reduce the machinery of the federal criminal justice system. 

Heat

For all the credit Lebron is getting this post-season, he's not getting enough.  He's put the Heat on his shoulders in the playoffs.  Wade has been average.  Bosh has been hurt and hasn't been 100% since he's been back.  Miller can't hit the side of a barn.  The only role player doing anything is Battier.  Lebron has really been unstoppable. 

My personal email account (Hotmail) got hit with a virus this weekend.  What a pain.  How does that happen anyway?  I'm trying to figure out how to stop it in the future, but the advice on the net (change your password often and check your computer for viruses) doesn't seem like it will prevent the hack.

We're nearing the end of the SCOTUS Term.  Here are the remaining cases to be decided, which obviously includes the health care cases.  I'm betting that Michael Caruso gets cert in the Padilla case.  We'll see...

Rajat Gupta was convicted pretty quickly.  The over-under line on his sentence is ten years.  Any bettors?

For those who are bored and looking for some summer reading, check out this NY Times article about a guy who crossed Niagra on a wire.  If you are looking for a good beach book, try Ender's Game, which I just finished and recommend. 

Willie and Ben answering questions from Michael Caruso and the CJA lawyers