The Ninth Circuit Court reversed an order in the district court. The Ninth Circuit held that grand jury subpoenas for documents were enforceable where they came within subpoena power through litigation initiated after the grand jury investigation became public. The...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court judgment that housing pretrial detainees in a jail where temperatures exceeded 85° F amounted to cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment as to detainees who were taking psychotropic medications that made high...
The Ninth Circuit reversed a district court judgment and sent it back for re-sentencing on Wednesday, August 18th. The court held that the district court did not undertake the proper inquiry on the defendant's motion to relieve his counsel and proceed with a...
The 9th Circuit court held that seizure of an alien by a state law enforcement officer after the alien admitted to being illegally present in the United States was not a flagrant violation of the Fourth Amendment warranting suppression of the alien's statements at an...
Evidence provided by Greg Anderson, a trainer to Barry Bonds, was affirmed as inadmissible hearsay by the 9th Circuit on Friday, June 11th. In order to successfully convict Bonds on multiple counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice, the government...
The California First Appellate District held that the brief exclusion of a defendant's family members from the courtroom during jury voire dire did not violate his constitutional right to a public trial. Mr. Bui was charged with multiple felonies, and had a jury...
The California Supreme Court has authorized arrest warrants that contain only a DNA profile of the suspect (known as "John Doe" arrest warrants). The Court last week upheld the rape conviction of Paul Robinson, who was arrested a month after the six-year statute of...
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that jury voire dire proceedings should be open to defendants and the public. The high court also said that a trial judge has a duty to seek alternatives that will preserve openness even when, for example, it appears that there...
Following a conviction for federal tax fraud, the Ninth Circuit held that the district court properly included defendant's unpaid state taxes in the tax loss computation on which his term of imprisonment and his restitution order were based. Moreover, the defendant...
In this case, a trial court's condition of probation prohibiting the use of marijuana (pursuant to a medical marijuana card) was held to be valid if it is reasonably related to future criminality and defendant has been found to consent to it. Appellant pled no contest...