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Certified Trial Specialists in TN

FOR THE DEFENSE     
April - May 2008
Vol. 23, Num. 2B


United Sates v. Alvin Vonner

By Robert C. Brooks
 

The en banc decision in Vonner casts considerable doubt as to how the Sixth Circuit will view future sentencing scenarios.

 

The dissenting opinions give insight into the meaning of the majority opinion. Judge Moore talks about that part of the opinion where the court held that the plain-error review was appropriate because the defendant did not properly object to the district court’s alleged failure to explain the sentence in sufficient detail. She said that because the court failed to address the first point of plain-error review, “Did the court err?”, it:

 

fails to provide guidance to the district courts and litigants in this circuit as to whether the district court’s cursory explanation of Vonner’s sentence is acceptable. The majority recognizes that “[n]o one would call [the district court’s] explanation ideal,” ... but district courts and litigants are left to wonder whether such a sentence and brief explanation would be reversed or affirmed on appeal in a future case in which the defendant lodges a post-sentence objection, as the majority today requires. The majority’s required reasonableness review into mere plain-error review when a defendant does not raise a separate objection to the “procedural reasonable-ness” of his sentence at the time of sentencing, the majority evades the responsibility, imposed on us by Gall, to ensure that a defendant is afforded the opportunity to have his sentencing arguments considered and is given an adequate explanation of the reasons for the deprivation of his liberty...

 

(slip opinion, page 21) (some citations omitted).


See this complete article and more in the April - May 2008  issue of For the Defense, TACDL's bi-monthly publication for members. Join today and receive your copy!

Quote of the week:
Justice is Truth in action.

TN Lawyer Assistance Programs:

A Confidential EAP Service for
the Legal Profession

 

stress management
by
 Amiram Elwork, Ph.D.

TACDL's History
Past Board Presidents
Award Recipients

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Statewide Juvenile Justice Seminar

Friday, June 27 & Saturday, June 28, 2008
(Click link above for more information)

 

Capital Defense Manual Update
 

In the Jan. – Feb. 2008 issue of NACDL's magazine, The Champion, it was stated that the State of Tennessee awarded TACDL a grant to update our 4-volume manual, "Tools for the Ultimate Trial," a lawyers guide on handling capital defense cases.

The impression that "all and any public defender or appointed private attorney living any place can receive the manual FOR FREE" is incorrect. It is ONLY TENNESSEE folks that it is for free. Other capital defense attorneys may purchase the 4-volume set; however, the manual is not scheduled for completion until next year. The actual cost is not known at this time.

If you have any questions, please click on this CONTACT US link. Thank you for your understanding.

News & Articles

  • Benjamin Hooks, Leading Jurist and Civil Rights Leader
    NEW YORK — Benjamin Hooks was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 31st, 1925. Memphis, like most cities in the racially segregated American South at the time, openly discriminated against African Americans in all areas of public life. Hooks' family exposed him early to what civil rights activists of his generation came to call the "Freedom Struggle." More...

  • Justices Uphold Lethal Injection in Kentucky Case

    WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Kentucky’s method of execution by lethal injection, rejecting the claim that officials there administered a common sequence of three drugs in a manner that posed an unconstitutional risk that a condemned inmate would suffer acute yet undetectable pain. More...

  • Court Details Opposition to Bias in Jury Selection
    WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court, ruling that a Louisiana prosecutor had used improper tactics to pick an all-white jury for a black defendant’s murder trial, on Wednesday overturned the conviction of a man who has been on death row for 12 years. More...

  • Editorial

    The Supreme Court Fine-Tunes Pain

    The Supreme Court’s regrettable ruling upholding Kentucky’s use of lethal injection is a reminder of why government should get out of the business of executing prisoners. Rather than producing a crisp decision upholding the constitutionality of lethal injection, the court broke down into warring opinions debating the ugly question of how much unnecessary pain the state may impose. Most compelling were the dissenters, which wanted to know more about whether Kentucky was torturing inmates needlessly, and Justice John Paul Stevens’ challenge to capital punishment in all forms.

  • Prosecution, Defense Attorneys Trade Charges During Closing Arguments In Nicholson Trial
     Jury To Begin Deliberations Wednesday Morning
    Marvin Nicholson should never have been a serious suspect in the murder of a 15-year-old drug dealer, much less charged with the crime, Nicholson’s attorney told a Hamilton County Criminal Court jury Tuesday evening.

  • FBI Release Annual US Crime Report
    LAWFUEL.COM - The Legal Newswire - The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of more than 17,000 city, university and college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting data on crimes brought to their attention. Since 1930, the FBI has administered the UCR Program and continued to assess and monitor the nature and type of crime in the Nation. More...

  • Brief Reviews Trauma Among Youth in Juvenile Justice System
    The National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice has published "Trauma Among Youth in the Juvenile Justice System: Critical Issues and New Directions." This research and program brief provides an overview of trauma among youth in the juvenile justice system, including its scope and impact; and reviews tools, curricula and approaches for addressing trauma among justice-involved youth. Issues related to implementing trauma services within the juvenile justice system context are also discussed. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice.

    •

Benjamin N. Cardoza School of Law, Yeshiva University

Cases of People Who Have Been Proven Innocent,
but Would Still Be In Prison if Courts
Didn't Consider New DNA Evidence

 

 


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