Tag Archives: malicious prosecution

Supremes Will Review Four More Criminal Cases – Update for December 19, 2023

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

SUPREME COURT ENDS YEAR WITH CRIMINAL-CASE CERTIORARI BLOWOUT

In what was probably its last certiorari grant order for 2023, the Supreme Court issued probably added four criminal cases last week.

blowout231219The highest profile case is Fischer v. United States, which arises from a defendant convicted of obstruction of Congress for the January 6th Capitol riot. He was convicted of an 18 USC § 1512(c) offense, which prohibits corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding “any official proceeding.” The district court dismissed the § 1512(c) charge, holding that Congress only intended it to apply to evidence tampering that obstructs an official proceeding. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision in a 2-1 opinion, ruling that “[u]nder the most natural reading of the statute,” the law “applies to all forms of corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding, other than the conduct that is already covered by” the evidence-tampering language of § 1512(b). One judge dissented that the government’s interpretation of the statute would render it “both improbably broad and unconstitutional in many of its applications.”

SCOTUS also will review a 9th Circuit ruling in favor of Danny Lee Jones, sentenced to death for two murders. A federal district court in Arizona rejected Jones’s claims that his lawyer had provided inadequate assistance, but the 9th reversed that decision, upholding its position in an order denying an en banc rehearing with ten judges dissenting.

The issue is how evidence not presented by a defense attorney because of failure to investigate should be weighed in determining Strickland v. Washington prejudice in a post-conviction proceeding. Although the issue relates to an Arizona death penalty case, the outcome could provide the first new ruling on Strickland prejudice in well over a decade.

goodpros170330In Chiaverini v. City of Napoleon, the high court will consider whether a claim for malicious prosecution can proceed for a baseless criminal charge, even if there was probable cause for prosecutors to bring other criminal charges. In Snyder v. United States, the Supremes will consider whether the federal bribery statute – 18 USC § 666(a)(1)(B) – makes it a crime to accept “gratuities” — that is, payment for something a government official has already done, without any prior agreement to take those actions in exchange for payment.

The Court will rule on the cases by the end of its current term on June 30, 2024.

Sentencing Law and Policy, Four criminal cases of note in latest SCOTUS cert grants (December 13, 2023)

Fischer v. United States, Case No. 23-5572 (certiorari granted December 13, 2023)

Thornell v. Jones, Case No. 22-982 (certiorari granted December 13, 2023)

Chiaverini v. Napoleon, Case No. 23-50 (certiorari granted December 13, 2023)

Snyder v. United States, Case No. 23-108 (certiorari granted December 13, 2023)

– Thomas L. Root

Vitamins Not Healthy For Illinois Man – Update for March 22, 2017

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
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SUPREMES BRING 7TH CIRCUIT INTO LINE WITH EVERYONE ELSE; LEGAL COMMUNITY YAWNS

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled that a man who spent 48 days in jail on charges fabricated by the police could sue under the 4th Amendment for an unreasonable seizure, that being the seven weeks he spent in stir.

Dangerous controlled substance?
       Dangerous controlled substance?

Elijah Manuel was riding in a car pulled over for a turn-signal violation. He complained that the Joliet, Illinois, police beat him and called his racial epithets. The police found a vitamin bottle containing pills (amazing thing, that). When field tested, the pills were found to be negative for illegal drugs, but that didn’t stop the officers from claiming the pills were Ecstasy and arresting Elijah anyway.

The pills tested negative again at the station, but the police report falsely said otherwise. A magistrate found probable cause, and kept Elijah locked up. A short while later, a grand jury – relying on the false police reports and testimony – indicted him.

Eventually, the state crime lab report came back reporting the pills were vitamins. Even then, it took a few weeks for the district attorney to dismiss charges and set Elijah free.

The issue before the Supreme Court was whether a claim for malicious prosecution could be brought under the 4th Amendment even after “legal process” – that being the magistrate’s finding of probable cause – issued. The 7th Circuit said it could not be: once legal process issued, such a complaint had to be brought under the 5th Amendment.

false170322In the event readers wonder why we don’t always report on Supreme Court cases like this one, the reason is this: Ten out of 12 federal circuits already held that Elijah’s 4th Amendment claim worked even after legal process issued, and in fact, even after a grand jury indictment, because legal process, like the initial seizure at the time of arrest, is unreasonable if it is based on fabricated evidence. The 8th Circuit had never ruled on the issue, and the 7th Circuit – ruling in Elijah’s case – got it wrong. As far as significance, this case is a yawner.

The decision includes dissents by Alito and Thomas, as well as a number of subsidiary issues orbiting the majority opinion like a legal planetary system. The case only got to where it is today because Elijah waited to the very last minute to file the case, and in fact missed the deadline to sue for false arrest, but not to sue for continued detention. The Justices debate the proper starting point for calculating the statute of limitations, a debate that has a kind of number-of-angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin quality to it.

At most, Manuel v. Joliet provides a clear basis for an additional constitutional claim – the 4th Amendment – when someone is locked up on bogus charges. It does not, however, really plow much new ground.

Manuel v. Joliet, Case No. 14-9496 (Supreme Court, Mar. 21, 2017)

– Thomas L. Root

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