2nd U.S. Circuit Court upholds "gut feeling" sentence

In March 2005, U.S. District Court judge for the western district of New York, David Larimer found Eric Jones guilty of possession of marijuana, and the possession of a firearm by a felon, and sentenced him to 15 months, concurrently, on the two charges based on his “gut feeling” about the defendant.

Larimer at the time “candidly acknowledged part of his thinking was not explainable..”

The Government didn’t feel the sentence or Larimer’s explanation were adequate, and appealed the case the first part of this year.

Chief Judge John Walker dissented from the 2nd. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision last Wednesday, but it was held that Larimer’s oral statement of reasons for the sentence was adequate and the sentence reasonable, but that “the failure to include those reasons for sentencing in the judgment violated 18 USC § 3553 (c)(2) and requires correction..”

(Article)

North Carolina passes "innocence commission" law

North Carolina has passed a law creating a “state innocence commission,”-- modeled after that in Great Britain, but being the first of its kind in the United States – through which inmates claiming to have been wrongly convicted & being able to produce new evidence a new venue of appeal. (Article)

An eight-member commission -- comprised of a superior court judge, prosecuting attorney, a victim advocate, a criminal defense lawyer, a sheriff, a member of the public, not an attorney or officer of the judicial department, and two other individuals “the vocations of whom shall be at the discretion of the Chief Justice”-- will begin accepting claims in November, and if five or more of those commission members agree that there is enough evidence to suggest an inmate’s innocence, the case will be sent to a panel of three Superior Court judges. All three of them would have to agree in overturning a conviction.

Additional information about “innocence commissions,” including the British counterpart and efforts by the Innocence Commission of Virgina project here in the U.S., is available on a site posting by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

Woman on Ohio death row's sentence vacated

The Ohio Supreme Court yesterday vacated an initial sentence of death for 62-year old Donna Roberts, remanding the case back to its trial court for proper sentencing, finding no justification to reverse her conviction, but holding “that the trial court’s sentencing opinion supporting the death penalty was so grievously flawed that it cannot properly support the sentence imposed.” (State v. Roberts)

Roberts and Nathaniel Jackson were both found guilty of aggravated murder, robbery, and burglary in 2001. Jackson’s sentence was upheld earlier this year. (State v. Jackson)

Roberts is one of two women currently on death row in Ohio. Nicole Diar, found guilty of complicity to corrupt with drugs, murdering her four-year old son, tampering with evidence, arson, and felonious assault last year, is the other. She filed a notice of direct appeal on Dec. 2nd., which is now pending