Donnie Brasco

The Justice Building Blog is covering the John Connolly trial, which involves a former FBI agent in Boston (Connolly) who is accused of helping orchestrate a murder in Miami in 1982. The state tried to call the real Donnie Brasco to the stand yesterday, but he refused to testify (even in sunglasses and a hat) because he didn't want his picture taken (via Miami Herald). Is this an argument for or against cameras in the courtroom?

No surprise here...

Kirby Archer, the Joe Cool defendant who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to life in prison today. No ruling yet by Judge Huck on the co-defendant's motion for a new trial on all counts.

Hypo

Those who know me know that I often like to ask hypotheticals... Would you do X in return for Y.

Well here's a real one from the USA Today: Would you amputate your pinkie finger so that you could finish your college football season as a lineman for a division II school?

Trevor Wikre answered yes! Can a doctor agree to such a thing?

Here's some of the article:

Trevor Wikre had a choice: Lose his pinkie finger or lose his football season.
"I said, 'Cut it off,' " Wikre says. He took no time to ponder. "I knew right away," he says. "It wasn't a hard choice."
Wikre, 21, is a guard for Mesa State College, a Division II school in Grand Junction, Colo. He had told teammates a couple of weeks earlier how much he loved them as brothers.
"I said, 'I'd take a bullet for you,' " he says. "Well, this was my chance to put words into action. This was my bullet."
The Mesa Mavericks will play their first game on national cable TV Thursday night (8 ET, CBS College Sports) vs. Western State (Colo.). Mesa is 5-2, 5-0 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
The trauma came Sept. 30 when Wikre's right little finger shattered at practice. He pulled off a glove, saw bone jutting out and asked trainers to tape it up. They declined and got him to the hospital, where doctors advised him that he needed season-ending surgery.
"I'm a senior," Wikre (pronounced WICK-er-EE) says. "If they put pins in there, my career was finished. I told them to just take it off. They said I was being dramatic. I said, yeah, well, losing my season is dramatic, too."

My favorite quote of the article:

"I can't hit the P on the keyboard very well," he says. "I have to train my ring finger to get over there. It takes time."

Sorry for the off-blog article, but I couldn't help myself. I hope to see you all Friday night at the Federal Bar installation dinner... Celeste Higgins is your new president.

"Dancing with the U.S. Marshals''

Now that's funny, Judge Turnoff!

According to Larry Lebowitz's Herald article, Judge Turnoff allowed Helio Castroneves to travel to Australia later this month for a race, over the government objection. Turnoff explained that Castroneves would be "dancing with the U.S. Marshals" if he fled.

''I'm very happy,'' a smiling Castroneves said after the hearing. ``I want to race. This is what I do. I'll do my best to bring a trophy home for the judge.''

A commenter poses the question...

... regarding whether federal district courts should split up into criminal and civil divisions like our state courts do.

My gut tells me that this would be a good thing, but I haven't given it a lot of thought. What do you all think?

"We should start from scratch, because justice hasn't been achieved.'

That was AFPD Brian Stekloff for Guillermo Zarabozo in the Joe Cool case asking for a new trial on all counts. He continued: "Everyone in this courtroom knows how this jury reached this inconsistent and irrational verdict: They didn't understand the law." AUSA Karen Gilbert responded: "This scenario is not one where the court should set the verdict aside. We live with it. That's the verdict."

Judge Huck took the matter under consideration and set trial for January on the hung counts. Judge Huck did note that the jury's verdict "raises on eyebrow."

(via Sun-Sentinel, AP, Herald)

"If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law, it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."

Cheryl Stein has a nice op-ed in the Washington Times regarding Herring v. United States, a case the Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday. (Today is the first Monday in October -- Yippeee!) It raises the following question: whether courts must suppress evidence seized during an arrest made as a result of faulty information provided by another law enforcement agency.

Stein argues that the Supreme Court should not abandon the exclusionary rule. Here is her conclusion:

The contention that we should not allow a blunder by the police to confer a benefit on a criminal defendant would be reasonable only if most illegal searches are the result of good-faith mistakes. The sad fact is, however, that the vast majority of illegal searches are the result of deliberate misconduct by the police.

Political commentators and law professors who have never been in a courtroom except to defend their own traffic tickets may not understand that fact, but every practicing criminal defense lawyer knows it to be true. The rule provides the only legal brake on police misconduct. Without its sanctions, the Constitution's guarantee against unreasonable searches would be empty.

Finally, the critics fail to address one of the most important reasons the rule was adopted in the first place: to preserve the integrity of our court system. The Supreme Court explained its necessity more than 40 years ago: "If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law, it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy." The rule "gives to the individual no more than that which the Constitution guarantees him, to the police officer no less than that to which honest law enforcement is entitled, and, to the courts, that judicial integrity so necessary in the true administration of justice." To forget that teaching is to abandon all that is best and brightest about our system of government.

Start your engines

Team Penske star Helio Castroneves has been charged with tax evasion in our District. (via the Miami Herald).

Here's a picture of him with Julianne Hough from Dancing with the Stars. He is scheduled to make his initial appearance tomorrow in magistrate court.

UPDATE -- Here's the AP article. And the indictment, which has been assigned to Judge Graham. Prosecutor: Matt Axelrod.