Puerto Rico Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

Is the First Circuit Recognizing Greater Deference Due District Court's Sentencing Decisions?

In United States v. Milo, No. 06-2185 (1st Cir., Oct. 30, 2007), the First vacates and remands a sentence of time served (about 15 days) imposed by Judge Gertner on a defendant who cooperated and was contrite. But the First leaves open to the District Court to either explain more her sentence or to resentence Milo to a higher term. Throughout the opinion one gets the feeling that Chief Judge Boudin is recognizing a greater deference due to the district court's choice of sentence, and that is very good news.

ACLU PR Lecture on Post 9/11 decisions by the Supreme Court, fundamental rights and the writ of habeas corpus

The Puerto Rico Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has extended an Invitation for all PRACDL members to attend a lecture on Nov. 15, 2007 at 3:00 p.m. on Post 9/11 decisions by the Supreme Court, fundamental rights and the writ of habeas corpus . This will be held at the Interamerican University Law School amphiteatre. The guest speaker will be Steven R. Shapiro, ACLU Legal Director.

Federal Criminal Appellate Practice Writing Seminar

The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the members of the court's CJA Education Committee will be holding a court-sponsored one-day writing seminar for both experienced brief writers and less seasoned criminal appellate practitioners on Friday, November 9, at the Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, PR, from 8:45 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.  Here is the program, and the registration form. The registration deadline is Friday, October 26.

Gall and Kimbrough - Briefs, Trancripts and Links to Coverage

Just to keep as a reference, here are the briefs and oral argument transcripts in Gall v. US, No. 06-7949 and Kimbrough v. US, No. 06-6330:

• Gall v. US - Petitioner's Brief
• Gall v. US - Government's Brief
• Gall v. US - Petitioner's Reply Brief
• Gall v. US - Oral Argument Transcript

• Kimbrough v. US - Petitioner's Brief
• Kimbrough v. US - Government's Brief
• Kimbrough v. US - Petitioner's Reply Brief
• Kimbrough v. US - Oral Argument Transcript

As we know, Gall was a substitute for Claiborne, which was dismissed after oral argument last term upon petitioner's death. You can listen to the oral argument in Claiborne here.

Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog has a good analysis of the oral arguments in Gall and Kimbrough in Analysis: More Trouble for the Guidelines. Doug Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy provides coverage and links at Gall and Kimbrough SCOTUS argument wrap-up.

CJA Panel's Pilot Mentoring Program in Conjunction with PRACDL

We posted here on PRACDL's proposal to the US District Court for improvement of the Court's Mentoring Program for new CJA Panel Members. The Court had approved PRACDL's Mentoring Program proposal, with a few minor changes, as a pilot program, see Memorandum, but needed to amend the CJA Plan to implement it. The Circuit Executive's Office has now given the green light to the amendment and, at a CJA Committee meeting held yesterday, Hon. Aida M. Delgado-Colón announced the Court's selection as Mentors (from a list of PRACDL volunteers submitted earlier). These are the following:

• Jorge E. Vega-Pacheco
• Rachel Brill
• Linda Backiel
• Tom Lincoln
• Mariángela Tirado-Vales
• Juan R. Acevedo-Cruz
• Epifanio Morales
• Esther Castro-Schmidt

The attorneys required to participate in the mentoring program have to participate in a number of  "events" --most mandatory, and some optional. These range from in-court events (preliminary hearings, arraignments, bail/detention hearings, suppression hearings, jury selection, trial, and sentencing hearings) to out-of-court events (client interviews, witness interviews, working on various types of motions, etc.).

The idea is that the attorneys will interact with their mentors both prior to and after the particular events, rather than simply being asked to attend events without any interaction with the attorney involved.

Attorneys may use several different mentors. It is up to them to coordinate with the mentors as to particular events/tasks.  When more than one mentor is used, which is the most likely scenario, the mentors will have to meet to make evaluations to the Court's CJA Committee.