Today, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Thompson v. United States, No. 23-1095 (Oct. 4, 2024) (cert. granted), to resolve an issue that has divided the lower courts: whether 18 U.S.C. § 1014, which prohibits making a “false statement” for the purpose of influencing certain financial institutions and federal agencies, also prohibits making a statement that is misleading but not false.
The unanimous Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals late Wednesday removed an Idaho federal district judge from a case brought by death row prisoner Thomas Creech over her unwillingness to recuse herself based on a longstanding friendship with Ada County Prosecutor Jan Bennetts, who is named in Creech’s lawsuit (access full article).
The execution of Thomas Eugene Creech, 73, one of the nation's longest-serving death row inmates was put on hold Wednesday, the latest in a number of botched lethal injections across the country (access full article).
For nearly an hour, Thomas Eugene Creech lay strapped to a table in an Idaho execution chamber as medical team members poked and prodded at his arms and legs, hands and feet, trying to find a vein through which they could end his life.
Today, the Supreme Court granted review in Esteras v. United States, in which the justices will address a circuit split over what factors judges can consider when sentencing a person for violating conditions of supervised release and if a court may consider factors that the supervised release law, 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e), does not mention.
Robert Roberson, the Texas man whose execution was halted by the state Supreme Court(link is external), is expected to testify today before a legislative panel (
Federal law prohibits entering "a restricted building or grounds," a term that is defined to include any restricted area "where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting." January 6 protestor convicted under the law argues the gov't was required to show not only that he knew the area was restricted, but that he knew it was restricted because VP Mike Pence was there. D.C. Circuit: Everything points to knowingly trespassing being enough.
Following up on the Supreme Court's Padilla v. Kentucky holding that non-citizen criminal defendants must be advised of any risk of deportation associated with a guilty plea, En banc Second Circuit: If a guilty plea could lead to denaturalization and deportation, lawyers must advise their clients of that fact or they're giving unconstitutionally ineffective counsel.
In 2022, a district judge finds Hinds County, Miss. officials in contempt of a federal consent decree after monitors report that a portion of its jail is essentially run by gangs. About 30 cells are used as dumpsters. Lights don't work. The majority of cell doors do not lock. Inmates regularly escape through the roof and return with contraband. Disliked inmates are assaulted, not allowed to eat. (Two such inmates are discovered emaciated and covered in feces and sores.) Hinds County: The real "constitutional abomination" here is the consent decree, which is the cause of all these problems.
Does law enforcement's use of a "pole camera" to film the front of someone's home amount to a "search" under the Fourth Amendment? Seventh Circuit (2021): No. Seventh Circuit (2024): Still no. Concurrence: On a blank slate, I'd say yes.
Throughout his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump signaled he would resume federal executions if he won and make more people eligible for capital punishment, including child rapists, migrants who kill U.S. citizens and law enforcement officers, and those convicted of drug and human trafficking.