The JustPod: A murder-for-hire allegation, public corruption trial, and notable acquittal
The Presumption of Innocence Podcast: Episode 56 - A Strategic Gamble: The Risks, Costs and Rewards of Going to Trial
The Presumption of Innocence Podcast: Episode 53 - Diagnosis: Innocent – A Doctor’s Journey to Acquittal
The JustPod is a podcast of the American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Section, hosted by Justin Danilewitz and Geonard Butler. This episode features Nina Marino, founding partner of the white collar criminal defense...more
Statistics weigh heavily against defendants in the criminal justice system. Only 0.4% were acquitted after trial in federal cases during fiscal year 2022. In this latest podcast episode, host Matt Adams is joined by firm...more
For six and a half years, Dr. Muhamad Aly Rifai, a physician from Easton, PA, lived in fear and anxiety that life as he knew it was over. A leader in telehealth psychiatric services since the early 2000s, Dr. Rifai was...more
For too long, judges have been permitted at sentencing to consider anything they deem “relevant,” including allegations that were considered and rejected by a jury. So-called “acquitted conduct sentencing” clearly offends...more
On April 17, 2024, the seven-member panel of the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted to adopt an amendment prohibiting judges from using acquitted conduct in applying the federal sentencing guidelines. Previously, and consistent...more
Since the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Watts, 19 US 148 (1997), judges have been permitted to consider acquitted conduct when calculating a defendant’s sentencing guidelines range and determining their...more
In federal court, “not guilty” doesn’t always mean no punishment. Under a quirk of federal sentencing law, judges are permitted to consider at sentencing anything that they consider relevant, including conduct for which a...more
On September 22, 2023 a federal jury convicted two promoters, CPA Jack Fisher and attorney James Sinnott, in the Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) first criminal trial over allegedly abusive syndicated conservation easements...more
Two labor-market criminal antitrust trials recently ended in acquittals, further demonstrating the challenges the United States has faced in this area (See our previous coverage of this prosecution trend, reported on: Feb....more
United States District Court Acquits all Defendants in US v. Patel - On April 28, 2023, the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut acquitted the defendants in US v. Patel of the charges of conspiring...more
On Thursday, May 11, 2023 the Supreme Court will consider several petitions, presenting questions about whether and how federal judges can consider criminal conduct of which the defendant was acquitted in imposing sentence on...more
Previously relegated to purely civil enforcement, in the last year the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has increased its focus on pursuing criminal charges for anti-poach agreements between companies that attempt to...more
On April 28, 2023, U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden issued the latest blow to the Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) efforts to criminally prosecute individuals who engage in “no-poach” agreements by granting the defendants’...more
ME trial reminiscent of DaVita anti-poaching case that also ended in acquittal; DOJ strategy questioned - In Apr. 2022, juries in TX and CO acquitted healthcare companies charged by the DOJ’s Antitrust Division. In the CO...more
On February 3, 2023, in the matter In re Tesla Inc. Securities Litigation, Case No. 3:18-cv-04865, a California federal jury cleared Tesla, Inc. (Tesla), and CEO Elon Musk of claims that they committed securities fraud,...more
The Onion recently filed a headline-grabbing amicus brief intended to defend the rights of Ohio amateur satirist Anthony Novak. Novak created the “City of Parma Police Department” Facebook account, admittedly to exercise his...more
On August 9, 2022, in CFTC v. EOX Holdings LLC, the first insider trading trial in a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) enforcement action, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas found...more
On August 12, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in a 2-1 decision affirmed the decision of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut to partly overturn the conviction of Lawrence Hoskins...more
Takeaway: Attempt crimes can be proven only where a defendant’s objective is in fact illegal. If the government cannot prove that the defendant sought to do something which is, in fact, legal, then it has not sustained its...more
Last month, the first two trials arising from the DOJ’s recent push to criminally prosecute wage-fixing and employee non-solicitation agreements both ended in acquittals on the antitrust charges. In United States v. Jindal,...more
Juries Acquit Criminal Antitrust Defendants of All Charges - This month, federal juries acquitted defendants facing criminal antitrust convictions in two trials against employers accused of improperly restraining trade in...more
The Department of Justice criminal prosecution of Mark Forkner, chief technical pilot at Boeing responsible for the 737 Max, ended in quick acquittal. DOJ prosecutors suffered an embarrassing loss in an attempt to hold...more
Takeaway: Despite this acquittal, the Department of Justice has demonstrated that it can and will prosecute individuals for corporate malfeasance. A settlement by a corporation does not necessarily protect individual...more
Welcome to our blog! I had something completely different in mind for my inaugural blog post - but sometimes the best laid plans must give way to the times. I was raised being told that there are three things you never...more
In United States v. Rosemond, 18-3561-cr (May 1, 2020) (Sack, Chin, Bianco), the Second Circuit held principally that Defendant-Appellant James R. Rosemond’s Sixth Amendment “Right to Autonomy” was not violated when his...more