Back to work

I'm back from a wonderful week in Colorado. We got to see fall and winter weather (from one day to the next there was 7 inches of snow).
















Also, thanks to the guest bloggers during the past week -- Marcos Jimenez, Brian Tannebaum, and "Not Scalia".

Unfortunately, it wasn't a complete break for me.... Next time, I'm leaving the blackberry at home.

DNA Evidence Frees a Man Imprisoned for Half His Life

This is an incredibly tragic story from the New York Times. Sixteen years ago, Jeffrey Deskovic was convicted of raping, beating and strangling a high school classmate in a jealous fit of rage. DNA evidence presented at his trial showed that semen in the victim's body was not his, but the police testified that he had confessed.

Yesterday, he walked out of the courthouse a free man after the DNA from the crime scene was run through a national database and matched that of a man who is serving time for another local murder. This man now has confessed to the murder.

The case against Mr. Deskovic hinged largely on a confession he made after six hours of questioning in a small interrogation room where two detectives took him for a polygraph test. At the time, Mr. Deskovic was 16 years old.

At his trial, investigators said they grew suspicious of Mr. Deskovic because he was late for school the day after the murder and seemed overly distraught about the death of a girl who was not his close friend.

Jeanine Pirro, the former district attorney, who took office after his trial refused to review the case. Ms. Pirro's successor, Janet DiFiore, agreed to run the evidence through a national DNA databank after she was approached in June by Barry Scheck, a director of the Innocence Project, which works to free the wrongly convicted.

New disclosure requirements for federal judges

The New York Times reports today about the new disclosure rules for federal judges. Judges will be prohibited from accepting reimbursement for attending a private seminar unless its sponsor has filed a public disclosure statement on the content of the program and all sources of financing. Judges will have 30 days to report their attendance at such seminars, and both the judges and the seminars reports will be available on judicial Web sites.

These new disclosure requirements have been adopted by the Judicial Conference, in part, because of complaints that two organizations that have provided free trips to hundreds of federal judges received large contributions from tobacco, oil and other corporate interests. An article about these complaints can be found here.

Despite my blog name I agree with Justice Scalia that "if it is reasonable to think that a [judge] can be bought so cheap, the nation is in deeper trouble than I had imagined." Notwithstanding, transparency is a good thing and Chief Justice Roberts should be applauded for his role in this development. Of course, these new rules do not apply to members of the Supreme Court who have no written ethical rules.

Federal Indictments, Federal Elected Officials

The Miami Herald has two stories today on new Southern District indictments where the defendants, or their conduct, are linked to U.S. Senator Mel Martinez, and U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

1. Three employees of the engineering firm PBS&J are charged with a $36 million dollar embezzlement scheme and a contribution of $11,000 to Senator Martinez. The contribution is the reason this story makes the front page of the main section of the Herald. The story is here.

2. A 36-count indictment was returned against a 14-year aide to Representative Ros-Lehtinen charging insurance fraud related to billing for HGH. Because the indictment is unrelated to any conduct of Ros-Lehtinen, it falls to page 6, of the local section. The story is here

Condolences

Paul H. Roney, former Chief Judge of the Eleventh Circuit passed away yesterday.

The Tampa Tribune published this obituary and the St. Petersburg Times published this article.

Money and Movies

Two articles in the Review today that you should check out.

The first concerns the highest billing rates charged by the South Florida legal elite. Eugene Stearns earns first prize with a jaw dropping $700 per hour. I guess you can charge this rate when you win a $1.1 billion verdict against arguably the most powerful corporation in the country.

In the second article, John Pacenti reports on a crazy federal kidnapping case before Judge Huck. The case began with a $7.4 million heist from a Lufthansa Airlines flight at MIA. The case apparently involved both a real kidnapping and a fake one as everyone scrambled for their share of the loot. $5 million from the score has not been recovered. Judge Huck told the lawyers that Hollywood producers should be contacted.

If David were here I am sure he would have a poll on who would play the participants:
Judge Huck
U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta
Defense lawyer Alex Michaels

Any suggestions?

The true "Miami Mafia"

Fidel and Raul call the Cuban-American exile community the "Miami Mafia," and some criminal case defendants in town are referred to as members of an actual Miami mafia, but the true "Miami Mafia" is located at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. These former colleagues from the US Attorney's Office in Miami have carried that moniker for years and risen to top posts, prompting Abbe Lowell to joke at last week's NACDL white collar crime conference in Washington that the Miami Mafia has taken over the department. It may appear that way, as, among others, Ed Nucci is Acting Chief of the Public Integrity Section, Mike Mullaney is Acting Chief of the Counterterrorism Section, Paul Pelletier is Acting Chief of the Fraud Section, Barry Sabin is one of the Deputy Assistant Attorney Generals for the Criminal Division, Andrew Oosterbaan is Chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Ken Blanco is Chief of the Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section, Steve Tyrrell did important work as Deputy Chief of the Counterterrorism Section, and Mary Butler is doing a great job in the Abramoff corruption probe (you can read her plea agreement in the Bob Ney case here). My apologies to those I missed. Congratulations to these fine public servants, and remember them when you need to grovel up at DOJ for any of your clients. Your new guest blogger (blame Markus), Marcos Daniel Jimenez

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lunch

I didn't want to forget to thank David for allowing me to guest blog this week while he's away. Thanks David. Enjoy Aspen.

Remember the Order requiring two civil lawyers to play rock, paper, scissors?

In the continuing efforts to show civil lawyers how to get along, here's an order requiring a lunch date between a plaintiff and defense lawyer.