Should Obama be doing even more with his commutation power?

The WP says yes.  From the intro:

PRESIDENT OBAMA began August by commuting the sentences of 214 federal inmates, and he ended the month by commuting 111 more. Generally the pardon and commutation power is used sparingly and gets attention only when presidents use it to help cronies or former staffers. Now it is being used to commute the sentences of people who could not spare a dime to donate to a political campaign. This is a historic milestone — but it is also not nearly enough.

Mr. Obama’s August tally is the highest one-month presidential commutation total ever — even including those last-minute flurries of commutations and pardons presidents typically unleash during their final days in office. In a single month, Mr. Obama doubled the number of sentences he has shortened since taking office — to 673. His accelerating pace reflects an initiative to use the commutation power with more ambition than any modern president. His cumulative total is higher than that of the past 10 presidents combined.
The president has the power to shorten sentences in order to compensate for inequities in the justice system, an authority and responsibility that most neglect. Two years ago, the Obama Justice Department announced a program to encourage certain types of federal prisoners to petition for clemency. Mr. Obama chose to target inmates who are serving long sentences for nonviolent crimes, mostly drug-related, and who would be sentenced more leniently under current rules. The White House points out that more than a third of those the president has commuted were serving life sentences, even though they were relatively low-level offenders.

You have the right to confront an actor against you.

Another "terror" trial and another set of witnesses allowed to testify in disguise.  From the Herald:

The federal government’s secret informant and undercover agents who helped catch a suspected Key West terrorist last summer may testify at trial using fake names and even disguises, a judge has ruled.
***
Two FBI agents and one confidential informant “may testify under their undercover pseudonyms at trial without disclosing their true identities,” Magistrate Judge Lurana Snow wrote in an Aug. 17 ruling. “The defense shall be prohibited from asking any questions seeking personal identifying information from or about [them].”
Also, the witnesses may enter and leave the courthouse from a non-public doorway and their voices and pictures may not be publicly disclosed through any recordings or images, Snow ordered.

Election Tuesday

Thank goodness we don't elect judges in federal court. I'm not saying it's a great system we have, but I think it beats elections. Asking the lawyers that appear before you for money... Ads that have nothing to do with judging... Yuck. 

Anyway, I was very proud of having the blog after lasts week's comments and posts about Hogan and Richey. People wrote such beautiful tributes and memories. Speaking of which, there is a memorial this Friday for Jay Hohan at the Biltmore at 11am. 

Judge Gayles' new clerk was just married and it's in the NYT

Here.


 

Shahrzad Daneshvar, the daughter of Afsaneh Pournaderi Daneshvar and Farhang Daneshvar of Fair Oaks, Calif., was married Aug. 25 to Travis Viola, a son of Teresa Viola and Vincent Viola of New York. Judge Ann Claire Williams of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit officiated in her chambers in Chicago.

On Sept. 17, A. Reza Sheikholeslami, emeritus professor of Persian studies at Oxford, is to lead a traditional Persian ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

Ms. Daneshvar, 28, is keeping her name. Next month, she is to begin a clerkship in Miami for Judge Darrin H. Gayles of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. She graduated summa cum laude from George Washington. She also received a master’s degree in education from the University of Miami and her law degree with honors from the University of Chicago.

Her father retired as an industrial engineer in Fair Oaks.

Mr. Viola, also 28, is the vice president for hockey operations for the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League. He graduated from Fordham. His father is owner, chairman and governor of the Panthers.

The couple were originally supposed to meet on a blind date in 2010. Though that date was canceled, they kept in touch, and met in person five months later in New York.

Jay Hogan obit in the Herald

Jay Weaver starts with a story I just love hearing about every time it's told:

Everyone seems to have a story about courtroom legend James Jay Hogan, who died this week at age 82, but no one will ever forget this surreal moment: In the mid-1980s, the Miami defense attorney got a key government witness to testify that in his previous life he was Hollywood icon Jean Harlow.

The credibility of the witness, it is safe to say, was instantly in serious question.

During the federal trial, Hogan unveiled a blown-up photo of the Roaring Twenties blonde bombshell, who died in 1937 of a brain infection. The man testifying was born five years later. Hogan’s client, a Miami lawyer accused of preparing phony real-estate documents for the witness, was acquitted.

Former law partner Hy Shapiro recalled how Hogan dug up the tidbit about Harlow from a little-known book written by the witness, a revelation that drew gapes and howls from jurors. He said Hogan’s secret weapon was his work ethic.

“He would eat, sleep and breathe a case when he got into it,” Shapiro said on Thursday. “He would delve more deeply than anyone into a witness’ life.”


Here's the newspaper story from the time, which is fun to read.