7th appeals court

In a 2-1 ruling, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday agreed not to overturn a lower court ruling that determined Brendan Dassey‘s murder conviction should be overturned because of an involuntary confession. He is not a killer in the eyes of the law anymore. The State of Wisconsin was given 90 days to decide if they want to retry him in the 2005 death of photographer Teresa Halbach. They can also appeal to full Seventh Circuit court (as opposed to just the three judges) or to the U.S. Supreme Court.In their majority opinion, judges wrote that the investigators needled Dassey into only giving them the information they wanted: That pattern was as follows: the investigators emphasized, ad nauseum, that in order to be “okay” to “get things over with” to be “set free” Dassey had to be “honest.” Yet throughout the interrogation it became clear that “honesty” meant those things that the investigators … [Read more...] about Appeals Court Agrees With Lower Court Ruling That Yes, Brendan Dassey Confession Was Involuntary

NEW ORLEANS – Carl Stewart has every right to be angry.Growing up, he was forced to attend segregated schools, required to use “colored only” restrooms and water fountains, and made to sit at the back of the bus. At age 3, Stewart watched as white church leaders blocked his parents’ efforts to buy their first home because they didn’t want black people as neighbors. Retail stores refused to let him try on clothes. Customers at his first job in college routinely used the N-word in front of him.He quietly admits that he continues to experience racial profiling, even today.But in the eyes of many, those experiences make Stewart the perfect person to preside over the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals—one of the most controversial, rancorous, dysfunctional, staunchly conservative and important appellate courts in the country.It is also a court with three current vacancies—President Barack Obama has announced one nomination to fill one of those … [Read more...] about Meet the chief judge of the nation’s most divisive, controversial and conservative appeals court

It’s unusual for a federal appeals court not only to reject a judge’s sentence but remand the case to another jurist for re-sentencing.But it’s now happened at least twice within one week: After the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ skewering on Friday of a federal judge in Chicago, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a similar rebuke today of a federal judge in Seattle.U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour abused his discretion when he gave a too-lenient 22-year prison term to convicted would-be Los Angeles International Airport bomber Ahmed Ressam after a previous remand, the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit says in its written opinion (PDF).“We conclude that the district court committed procedural error, the majority explains, “in failing to address specific, nonfrivolous arguments raised by the government in imposing a sentence that is well below the advisory sentencing guidelines range.” The court also … [Read more...] about Twice in a Week, Federal Appeals Court Axes Sentence, Remands to New Judge

Be prepared to jump through some hoops if you would like to access older, closed court records for patent appeals or cases in federal appeals courts based in Chicago, Atlanta and New York.On Aug. 10, the federal courts announced that older court records were being deleted from Pacer for federal appeals courts for the Federal Circuit, and the 2nd, 7th and 11th Circuits, report Legal Times, the Washington Post blog the Switch and the Wall Street Journal Law Blog. Older bankruptcy cases in the Central District of California were also removed. The files were deleted Aug. 11.Spokespersons for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts told the Switch and the Law Blog that the deleted documents were no longer compatible with Pacer, which is being overhauled for the Next Generation of the Judiciary’s Case Management and Electronic Case Files System.The dates of deleted files range from cases filed before 2001 in the California bankruptcy court to cases filed before March 1, 2012, in … [Read more...] about Pacer deletes older case files for four appeals courts; compatibility issues cited

Updated: The U.S. Justice Department has told a federal appeals court that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act does not protect workers from employment bias based on sexual orientation. The department explained its position in an amicus brief (PDF) filed with the en banc 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New York, report the Washington Post and the National Law Journal (sub. req.). The position is at odds with that of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Obama administration’s Justice Department.Title VII bars employment discrimination on the basis of sex. Federal appeals courts have differed on whether the law protects workers on the basis of sexual orientation.The Justice Department brief says the law does not define “sex,” but its common ordinary usage is that it means biologically male or female. That meaning suggests the phrase only protects people who are disfavored because of their sex, the brief argues.The brief also says … [Read more...] about Job bias law doesn’t cover sexual orientation, Justice Department tells appeals court