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• Advisory newsletter
(Fall 2009)

• Examining Consequences of Inmate Releases

• Summary of Issues in the Debate on the Death Penalty

JUDGMENT OF COURT OF APPEALS REVERSED IN CHILD RAPIST CONVICTION
The United States Supreme Court has overturned a 2008 Federal District Court ruling which had voided the conviction of Troy Brown for the brutal rape of a 9-year-old child. The Supreme Court has concluded that the lower courts misapplied the Jackson v. Virginia standard, and the case should be remanded for further proceedings consistent with Court's opinion. View press release.

ENEMY COMBATANTS COULD AVOID TRIAL . . .
While most have heard of Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to try in New York Federal Court five terrorists who helped plan the 9/11 attack, most have not heard about United States v. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, involving a foreign-born enemy combatant suspected of the U.S. Embassy bombing in East Africa. Ghailani is also being tried in New York Federal Court. Key issues to be raised in the 9/11 Terrorist Trials will be first raised in Ghailani's case. Continue reading.

CJLF NEWS

SUPREME COURT REJECTS MURDERER’S LAWYER COMPETENCY CLAIM
January 20, 2010:"[A] state court factual determination is not unreasonable merely because the federal habeas court would have reached a different conclusion in the first instance," says the Court in Wood v. Allen. This decision finds that state court final judgments should not be overturned solely because a federal court disagrees with a case which has been properly reviewed.

MURDERER CHALLENGES RACIAL MAKEUP OF JURY PANEL
January 15, 2010: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument on January 20 regarding the racial makeup of jury pools. In Berghuis v. Smith, a murder conviction was overturned because the racial makeup of the pool varied from that of the community where the trial was held. The U.S. Supreme Court will decide if the “fair-cross-section” requirement (in Taylor v. Louisiana) forces this result.

NINTH CIRCUIT RULING VOIDING RAPE CONVICTION OVERTURNED
January 11, 2010: The United States Supreme Court has overturned a 2008 federal appeals court ruling which had improperly voided the conviction of a child rapist. “The federal court of appeals’ decision was so obviously wrong that not a single Justice thought it was right . . . . Yet without the Supreme Court’s intervention that decision would have freed the perpetrator of a horrible crime,”said the Foundation’s Legal Director Kent Scheidegger.

HEARING IN EMBASSY BOMBING CASE ON JANUARY 11
January 6, 2010: On January 11, a hearing will be held in New York Federal District Court in the case of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a foreign-born enemy combatant and Guantanamo Bay detainee, indicted for assisting in the bombings of two U. S. embassies in East Africa. This case is likely to be the first to review claims that may be considered in the case of the 9/11 conspirators.
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