Anthony Bosch's sentenced reduced

From the Herald:

Anthony Bosch, the fake doctor who sold illegal muscle-building steroids to Major League Baseball stars including Alex Rodriguez, had the goods on his partners in crime.
Once Bosch’s Coral Gables anti-aging clinic shut down and baseball’s biggest doping scandal erupted in early 2013, it wasn’t long before Bosch began assisting baseball and U.S. authorities to save his neck.
On Thursday, the 52-year-old Bosch received his benefit for snitching when a Miami federal judge reduced his four-year prison sentence by one-third for helping federal prosecutors convict other defendants who participated in his steroid-distribution racket. His sentence was lowered to two years and eight months.
Prosecutors recommended that Bosch, 52, former owner of the anti-aging clinic Biogenesis of America, be given lesser punishment because of his “substantial assistance” in the investigation. His parallel cooperation with baseball authorities resulted in lengthy suspensions of Rodriguez, the New York Yankees star, and 13 other professional ballplayers who purchased banned performance-enhancing drugs from Bosch.
“He provided us with viable information that led to the prosecution of various defendants,” said prosecutor Sharad Motiani, noting that Bosch met with criminal investigators more than a dozen times for lengthy interviews and reviewed hundreds of medical, phone and text records that contributed to the successful prosecutions of at least four other defendants.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article54650210.html#storylink=cpy

CJA hearings in Miami conclude

Celia Ampel for the DBR covers it here:

Lawyers appointed to represent federal defendants who can't afford an attorney sometimes have trouble securing expert witnesses, wading through voluminous e-discovery and persuading judges to approve their expenses, according to testimony at a public hearing Monday and Tuesday in Miami.
The Criminal Justice Act, which provides a system for compensating those attorneys, is under a two-year review by a committee appointed by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. The committee's stop at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse was the second of seven hearings in cities from Portland, Oregon, to Philadelphia.
Attorneys and judges from across the Southeastern U.S. testified at the hearing, including the Southern District of Florida's Federal Public Defender Michael Caruso, U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer and U.S. District Judges Robert Scola Jr., Donald Graham and Kathleen Williams.
The committee questioned the witnesses on whether the authority to approve CJA panel attorney compensation should rest with the judiciary, the public defender's office or an independent body. The group also discussed the challenges of e-discovery.

***

But regardless of their independence, CJA panel attorneys have far fewer resources than federal defenders and the U.S. attorney's office, lawyers testified.
That inequality extends to discovery, which in a multidefendant case can amount to three terabytes of data — or 6,000 filing cabinets of documents, Caruso said.
"You can imagine the CJA lawyer who's a solo practitioner trying to make sense of 6,000 filing cabinets," particularly in a trial-heavy and fast-paced district like the Southern District of Florida, he said.

Judge Graham was really strong on this point saying that prosecutors should be required to hand over hot documents to defense lawyers as a matter of proportionality and basic fairness.  Seems like a no-brainer.

Florida Death Penalty found unconstitutional

The case, 8-1 per Justice Sotomayor, is Hurst v. Florida:

A Florida jury convicted Timothy Lee Hurst of murdering his co-worker, Cynthia Harrison. A penalty-phase jury recommended that Hurst’s judge impose a death sentence. Notwithstanding this recommendation, Florida law required the judge to hold a separate hearing and determine whether sufficient aggravating circumstances existed to justify imposing the death penalty. The judge so found and sentenced Hurst to death.

We hold this sentencing scheme unconstitutional. The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death. A jury’s mere recommendation is not enough.

Kudos to Judge Jose Martinez who was way ahead of this issue and found Florida's scheme unconstitutional many years ago.

"Not many people want to be locked up in a federal penitentiary serving a life sentence." (UPDATED)

But Harlan Salmona does, according to this opinion by Chief Judge Carnes.  The intro:

Not many people want to be locked up in a federal penitentiary serving a life sentence. Harlan Salmona does because it beats the alternative, which is being locked up in a state penitentiary that he believes is less safe. The problem for Salmona is that his life sentence was imposed by a Florida state court, not by a federal court. Salmona claims that because of a promise made to him by the United States Attorney’s Office in a long ago plea agreement the federal government is required to get him transferred from state to federal custody for the remainder of his state sentence. This is his appeal from the district court’s order denying his “Motion to Compel Compliance” with that plea agreement.

The conclusion:

Because the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over Salmona’s claim, its judgment is VACATED and the case is REMANDED with instructions to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.

UPDATE -- from a tipster: The back story on him is fascinating. He is ex U.S. Coast Guard who was arrested by Feds for drug smuggling. He then decided to work off his case by informing on the marijuana organization he worked with. The Government indicted members of the organization based upon the anticipated testimony of Salmona and another informant.  Salmona then murdered the other Government informant in order to enhance his importance to the Government and become the sole key witness.  His state sentence of life was for that murder.

Meantime, it's CJA day at the federal courthouse.  Here's the live-stream of the committee hearings if you are interested.

The district bench is losing one of its stars

Judge John Gleeson is leaving the EDNY bench to go into private practice.  A huge bummer.  He was one of the best judges we had.  We wasn't afraid to rule against the government.  He wasn't afraid to do what was right.  And he wasn't afraid to write opinions explaining his reasoning.  We need more like him.

From the NY Law Journal:

Eastern District Judge John Gleeson is stepping down from the bench after more than 20 years to practice law.
In an email sent Monday to fellow judges, magistrate judges, bankruptcy judges and others, Gleeson wrote, "as difficult as it is to leave the work I love and the colleagues I love, this is the right decision for me and my family."
The email did not give specifics on his next move but said he would be leaving on March 9. The judge, through his chambers, declined to comment Monday.
...
As a judge, Gleeson has been vocal in his rulings about matters like sentencing law and judicial discretion.