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High Court Agrees to Hear Indecency Case
Legal News |
2008/03/17 17:00
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| The Supreme Court will decide whether it is indecent when some foul-mouthed celebrity drops the F-word on live television, stepping into its first major broadcast indecency case in 30 years.pThe high court said Monday it will hear arguments in a case over whether the government can ban fleeting expletives, one-time uses of familiar but profane words./ppThe case grew out of decision by the Federal Communications Commission in 2006 that two broadcasts of the Billboard Music Awards show were indecent, though the agency levied no fines. Cher uttered one fleeting expletive beginning with F and Nicole Richie uttered a variation of the same word and another one beginning with S./ppFox Broadcasting Co. and others appealed the decision, saying that the agency had changed its enforcement policy without warning and that the new ban was unconstitutional./ppA federal appeals court in New York agreed, 2-1, throwing out the ban and sending the case back to the agency, which appealed to the Supreme Court./ppFCC Chairman Kevin Martin told The Associated Press Monday that he was pleased the justices are stepping in. He said the appeals court had put the commission in an untenable position by giving it the responsibility to enforce indecency rules but not the tools to take action./p |
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Inmate Wins Supreme Court Review
Law Firm News |
2008/03/17 16:58
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| A Texas inmate acting as his own attorney persuaded the Supreme Court on Monday to hear his case.pCarlos Jimenez was sentenced to 43 years in prison in 1995 after pleading guilty to burglary and violating the terms of his probation. Jimenez had a prior felony conviction for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon./ppIn 2005, acting as his own lawyer, Jimenez petitioned a federal court, challenging his burglary conviction and asserting that he had not received proper legal representation when he went before the state courts in San Angelo, Texas./ppThe federal judge said Jimenez had waited too long to file his petition and refused to extend the deadline. Federal law gives state inmates one year after a conviction is final to petition a federal court for review of their cases./ppAt issue is Jimenez's argument that the one-year clock should have started all over again in 2005 because of the unusual circumstances of his case./ppIn 1996, a state appeals court dismissed Jimenez's appeal after a court-appointed lawyer said in court papers that in his professional opinion, Jimenez had no grounds for an appeal./ppNearly six years later, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agreed to let Jimenez file an appeal based on his argument that his attorney in 1996 had not properly notified him of what the attorney was planning to do. The appeals court wrapped up its work on Jimenez's belated petitions in 2005, after affirming his conviction and sentence./p |
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Court Will Decide Wash. Shooting Case
Law Firm News |
2008/03/17 16:57
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| The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider reinstating the murder conviction of the driver in a gang-related drive-by shooting that horrified Seattle in 1994.pThe court will hear arguments in the fall in the case of Cesar Sarausad II. He was convicted for his role as the driver in the shooting in which Melissa Fernandes, 16, was killed and Brent Mason, 17, was wounded outside a Seattle high school on March 23, 1994./ppThe 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned the conviction because of faulty jury instructions./ppIn his instructions to the jury, Judge Larry A. Jordan said Sarausad could be convicted of murder regardless of whether he knew of any plan for a killing. The appeals panel ruled that the jury should have been told Sarausad could be convicted of murder only if he knew what was being planned./ppThe state of Washington asked the Supreme Court to reinstate the conviction, which had been upheld by state appeals courts./p |
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Court Accepts Crime Lab Case
U.S. Court News |
2008/03/17 11:02
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| The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether prosecutors can use crime lab reports as evidence without having the forensic analyst who prepared them testify at trial.pThe reliability of crime labs has been questioned in several states and at the federal level in recent years./ppState and federal courts have come to different conclusions about whether recent Supreme Court decisions affirming the constitutional right of a defendant to confront his accusers extend to lab reports that are used in many drug and other cases./ppThe case the justices accepted, and will consider in the fall, comes from Massachusetts. Luis Melendez-Diaz was convicted of trafficking in cocaine partly on the basis of a crime lab analysis that confirmed that cocaine was in plastic bags found in the car in which Melendez-Diaz was riding./ppRather than accept the report, however, Melendez-Diaz objected that he should be allowed to question the person who prepared it about testing methods, how the evidence was preserved and a host of other issues./p |
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