Anthony Mangione sentenced...

... to 70 months.

You remember him -- the former ICE chief who was caught with child porn on his computer. He then wiped the computer clean with techniques he learned from his time in ICE.

 The sentence was more than the minimum mandatory 60 month sentence he requested and less than the 87 months requested by prosecutors. Fair sentence?

Sonia Sotomayor on Sesame Street

Enjoy:

Big win for AFPD Tracy Dreispul

Appellate guru Tracy Dresipul has done it again, this time in United States v. Bellaizac-Hurtado.

Judge Pryor starts off his opinion this way, which summarizes the issue and the holding nicely:

This appeal presents a novel issue about the scope of congressional power to
proscribe conduct abroad: whether the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act, 46
U.S.C. §§ 70503(a), 70506, exceeds the power of Congress to “define and
punish . . . Offences against the Law of Nations,” U.S. Const. Art. I, § 8, cl. 10, as
applied to the drug-trafficking activities of Yimmi Bellaizac-Hurtado, Pedro Felipe
Angulo-Rodallega, Albeiro Gonzalez-Valois, and Luis Carlos Riascos-Hurtado in
the territorial waters of Panama. Because we conclude that drug trafficking is not
an “Offence[] against the Law of Nations” and that Congress cannot
constitutionally proscribe the defendants’ conduct under the Offences Clause, we
vacate their convictions.

Florida Election Lawyers all dressed up and no where to go

President Obama easily wins, but Florida still not called.  Right now it's Obama up about 45,000 votes or 0.53 percentage points, out of a total of 8.27 million votes, with about 99 percent of the votes counted.  This time though it won't matter how Florida ultimately goes...  I wonder how all of the election lawyers who were geared up just for this scenario are feeling right now. 

So what does Obama's victory mean for the Southern District of Florida.  Some quick thoughts:

1.  Will Thomas will likely be your next federal judge, but it probably won't happen till the beginning of the year.

2.  President Obama will continue to shape this District with intellectual, moderate judges (like Williams, Scola, & Rosenbaum).  Same for the 11th Circuit (like Martin & Jordan).  There are a bunch of district openings coming up, so we will see if Obama does any better with getting judges confirmed quickly in his second term. 

3.  Willy Ferrer will stay on as U.S. Attorney.  It will be interesting to see whether he stays for the entire 4 years.

Any other thoughts?

Field trip to Pakistan

Judge Scola granted the defense motion to take depos in Pakistan, according to Jay Weaver:

In a rare legal move, attorneys for two South Florida Muslim clerics accused of aiding terrorists will be allowed to travel to Pakistan during a Miami trial to question witnesses considered crucial to their defense.
A federal judge has granted permission to attorneys for two former imams of local mosques, father and son Hafiz Khan and Izhar Khan, to travel to Islamabad in February to depose five witnesses during a live video teleconference call with prosecutors remaining in Miami.
Federal prosecutors had opposed the depositions under any circumstances, noting the difficulty of cross-examining the Pakistani witnesses, three of whom were indicted along with the Khans on charges of conspiring to support the Taliban. But the judge disagreed, citing basic fairness.
“All things being equal, the court would prefer that both government and defense attorneys be able to travel to the deposition room in Islamabad,” U.S. District Judge Robert Scola wrote in his 10-page ruling issued Friday.
“But that cannot occur. Government attorneys cannot safely travel to Islamabad to participate in the depositions,” he wrote. “Using [video-teleconferencing] works around this safety problem to preserve evidence critical to defendants combating the charges they face, while still allowing prosecutors to cross-examine [the witnesses].” Scola established logistical requirements for the Feb. 4 depositions, which will take place after the Khans’ trial gets underway in January.
Among them: Two video cameras for the witnesses and deposition room in an Islamabad hotel, and one for the Miami federal courtroom. A Pakistani official must be present in Islamabad to verify the identity of the witnesses. Interpreters must be in Islamabad to translate, and a court reporter must be in Miami to transcribe the depositions live.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/05/3083483/judge-miami-defense-lawyers-can.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy