In United States v. Anastasio, the Circuit (Carney, joined by Jacobs and Pooler), reversed two convictions for aiding and abetting VICAR murder, 18 U.S.C. § 1959(a)(1), for insufficient evidence. Specifically, the Circuit held that Anastasio undertook no affirmative act that facilitated the murders; he had merely been in the company of the murderers, without offering … Read more
In United States v. Delgado, the Circuit (Pooler, joined by Jacobs and Carney) vacated a life sentence imposed on a 17-year-old convicted of two murders, on the ground that the district court had failed to give the requisite consideration to the defendant’s age, as required by Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460 (2012), and Montgomery … Read more
In Flowers v. Mississippi, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that death-row inmate Curtis Flowers’ criminal trial was affected by racial discrimination. You can read more about the case here. Georgetown Professors Abbe Smith and Vida Johnson of Georgetown Law’s Criminal Defense & Prisoner Advocacy Clinic, two career criminal defense attorneys, have recorded a video exploring the … Read more
In Flowers v. Mississippi, No. 17-9572, __U.S.__ , 2019 WL 2552489 (June 21, 2019), the Court reversed a death sentence because of a violation of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), which prohibits the racially discriminatory use of peremptory challenges. Curtis Flowers was tried in six separate trials, by the “same lead prosecutor” for … Read more
United States v. Paris, No. 08-5071-cr (2d Cir. September 17, 2010) (Jacobs, Wesley, Chin, CJJ) This interesting Batson decision deals with gender-based peremptory challenges, a subject that the circuit has not previously discussed. Background For about five years, Dennis Paris ran a multi-state prostitution ring centered in the Hartford, Connecticut, area and recruited teenage girls … Read more
Dolphy v Mantello, No. 03-2738-pr (2d Cir. January 9, 2009) (Jacobs, Hall, CJJ, Arcara, DJ) At Seth Dolphy’s state-court criminal trial, the prosecutor exercised a peremptory challenge against the only African-American member of the jury panel, and Dolphy raised a Batson challenge. The prosecutor’s supposedly race-neutral explanation for striking the juror was that she was … Read more
United States v. Todd, No. 05-5525-cr (2d Cir. June 5, 2008) (per curiam) In this “reverse-Batson” decision, the court upheld the district court’s decision to re-seat a white juror against whom the defendants, all members of minority groups, had exercised a peremptory challenge. The court found no clear error in the district court’s conclusion that … Read more