The Nevada Supreme Court will hold oral arguments tomorrow on O.J. Simpson's request for bail pending appeal of his 2008 armed robbery conviction. He was sentenced to 9 to 33 years in prison and bail pending appeal was denied. His lawyers appealed.

The Court spokesperson says no national networks have requested parking space for satellite trucks at the hearing. O.J. will not be there.

If you are interested, the court will be live-casting the argument at 10:00 a.m. PT. It won't be archiving the hearing so you can only watch at that time.

The link to watch live will be here.

Robert Luskin, best known on the blogs for his representation of Karl Rove, is taking over the defense of financier Allen Stanford in his criminal case in Houston. Dick DeGuerin has moved to withdraw, citing lack of assurances the court or receivers will authorize the release of necessary funds for his representation.

Stanford is being held in what DeGuerin called "oppressive conditons" in a private jail (The Joe Corley Detention Facility in Conroe, Texas). His motion to have Stanford moved said Stanford is in a single cell with 8 to 10 other inmates, the temperature is over 100 degrees, and sometimes they have been held for hours in total darkness due to electricity going out. He asked that Stanford be moved to a BOP facility but the Judge denied the request.

Update 8/1: I'm glad to see that Law Prof Ellen Podgor, who specializes in White Collar Crime and really knows her stuff, agrees with me that this is a very technical opinion. She also comments:

What concerns me is the level of economic and mathematical skills needed by counsel and the courts to handle these cases. Clearly experts exist who understand the figures being presented, and have the ability to offer their schooled explanations to the court. But counsel and the court still need more than a basic understanding of economics to properly represent and sentence someone accused of insider trading.

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Original Post 7/31

The Tenth Circuit today reversed the 72 month sentence imposed on former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio for his insider trading conviction, holding the trial court had improperly calculated his sentencing guidelines. The matter will now go back to the trial court for re-sentencing. The opinion is here.

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Scott Roeder, accused of murdering Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller, has entered pleas of not guilty following a preliminary hearing today.

The New York Times has more details of the witness testimony at the hearing.

Via Rolling Stone: Phil Spector ended up at Cocaran, in its Substance Abuse and Treatment Facility. Charles Manson is at the prison in Cocaran.

Apparently the proximity generated a creative spark: According to the New York Post’s Page Six, Manson reached out to the “Wall of Sound” producer seeking a behind-bars musical meet-up.

“A guard brought Philip a note from Manson, who said he wanted him to come over to his [lockup]. He said he considers Philip the greatest producer who ever lived,” Spector’s wife Rachelle — a colorful personality who often bickered with the judge during Phil’s murder trials — told Page Six. “It was creepy. Philip didn’t respond.” [More...]

Jon Entine writes this about federal prosecutors:

We rarely think about the sheer magnitude of power in the hands of government attorneys. They have a fundamental responsibility not to win cases but to ensure justice. It is as much their duty to refrain from improper methods to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means possible to bring about a just one. But that's not always what happens. Often, government prosecutors have no intention of going to trial. They have perfected a more powerful tactic: exploiting the threat of business losses and manipulating the media to force capitulation.

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President Obama telephoned both his pal Professor Henry Louis Gates and the cop who arrested him and all are going to share a beer at the White House and make nice.

The New York jury deliberating the case of DeWight Lee, charged with killing of Lateisha Green (legal name Moses Cannon), a transgender person, rejected the prosecution's argument for Second Degree Murder (with or without the hate crime attached) and returned a guilty verdict of First Degree Manslaughter (with the hate crime enhancement.)

The manslaughter finding was a determination that DeLee was only intending to seriously injure -- not kill -- someone when he fired one shot from a .22-caliber rifle into the car in which the victim was sitting with two others.

The difference:

The murder charge accuses DeLee of intentionally killing Cannon. First-degree manslaughter would require a finding he only acted intentionally to cause serious physical injury but caused the victim's death instead. Second-degree manslaughter would mean the jury found DeLee acted recklessly by consciously disregarding the risk posed by his conduct [More...]

Bump and Update: Former state prosecutor Robert Eddleman was sentenced in Montana federal court to 30 months and Terri Jabs Kurth got 8 months in prison and 4 on home detention for making cocaine available to friends at parties at their homes. Yesterday, the same Judge sentenced former NFL player Travis Henry to 36 months for trafficking in six kilograms.

Eddleman has been in protective custody in Glendive and under 23-hour lockdown since pleading guilty. He has two children....Kurth also has two children.

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Original Post: 7/15/09

Ex-NFL Player Sentenced to 3 Yrs, for Trafficking, Local Prosecutor Faces a Year or More For Use

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Ms. Hepatitis C, Kristen Parker, may face more charges. Turns out she worked at a hospital in New York before coming to Colorado. As a precaution, Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, NY is notifying 3,000 patients they should be tested.

No patient at Northern Westchester has been linked yet, but the health department is recommending that anyone who had surgery at the hospital between Oct. 8, 2007 and Feb. 28, 2008 to be tested for the disease.

Parker is being held without bond in Denver.

Bernard Madoff has left MCC Manhattan for Butner, N.C. where he will spend the rest of his life. Butner has medium security and low security facilities as well as a camp and medical facility.

Adelphia Communications founder John Rigas, 84 and his son Timothy are both at the low security facility there. Jonathan Pollard, serving a sentence for spying, is at the medium security prison. And blind sheik Omar Ahmad Rahmad, now 71, is serving his life sentence at the Butner medical facility.

His lawyers had asked for him to be sent to Otisville in NY. Bottom line: Madoff could have done much worse.

Bernie Madoff's lawyer has confirmed that Bernie won't appeal his 150 year sentence. He thinks any sentence Bernie would get, even under the guidelines, would be a life sentence.

Can someone remind me what Bernie Madoff's lawyers' accomplished for him? He could have stayed with his wife in his apartment on bond for another year or two while fighting the case. He got no agreement that his family and friends wouldn't be investigated or charged. He and his wife gave up all his assets (except $2.5 million his wife gets to keep), including those that would have been difficult for the Government to prove were forfeitable, he got no sentence concession, no agreement on place of incarceration. And now they won't appeal the sentence.

What's left for Bernie? Any bets on whether he'll file a 2255 to overturn his guilty plea and sentence based on ineffective assistance of counsel? It wouldn't have a snowball's chance in h*ll but he's got a lot of time on his hands and a year to file it. As I've said a few times, what more could the Government have done to him --we don't have life plus cancer as a penalty (yet.)