Eastern District of California Blog

Ninth Circuit Upholds EDCA Habeas Order To Retry Murder Defendant

A federal appellate court has frustrated the efforts of prosecutors to avoid a retrial of Richard Alex Williams, doing life without parole on a first-degree murder conviction 17 years ago in Sacramento.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton last year ordered Williams, now 37, released or retried within 60 days. The now-retired judge found the guilty verdict unconstitutional because Supervising Deputy District Attorney Rob Gold was guided by race when he kept an African American woman off the jury. The judge further found that some of the reasons Gold gave for his action were pretexts.

The judge halted implementation of the order while the state pursued an appeal, but a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld Karlton’s decision.

Sac Bee, 6/29/15

Ninth Circuit Revives Mom's Suit In Son's 2006 Prison Death

A federal court of appeals has revived a Placer County mother's lawsuit claiming California prison authorities are responsible for the suicide of her mentally ill son while he was an inmate.

U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. tossed the case out 2 1/2 years ago, finding that the evidence presented by Sherie Lemire's attorney did not sustain her claims of constitutional violations and wrongful death.

But a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week reversed Burrell and sent the case back to him for trial.

"I am thrilled," Lemire said Friday of the [Lemire v. CDCR, 11-15475] opinion. "I have tried so long to be heard."

Sacramento Bee, 8/10/13

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/08/10/5638771/moms-suit-revived-in-2006-prison.html#storylink=cpy

Wow, what a day for Sacramento defense attorney Michael Bigelow

While Mike was arguing this morning before the U.S. Supreme Court, Transcript of Oral Argument, Walker v. Martin, 09-996, the Ninth Circuit reversed the Sacramento district court's denial of habeas corpus in another of his appeals, finding that state court trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to ask that evidence of the victim's DNA be tested before trial.  See Diaz v. Clark, 08-15808.  It's an unpublished, 2-1, decision.  

[1/28/12 Update:  The Supreme Court reversed in Walker v Martin and the Diaz decision did not last as the Ninth Circuit reversed course on remand from the Supreme Court.  See my 1/28/12 post ].

SK Foods Magnate Salyer Indicted On Racketeering Charges

California agribusiness magnate Frederick Scott Salyer was charged Thursday with running his company as a massive racketeering enterprise that routinely bribed food company executives, rigged bids and slapped false labels on old and moldy tomato products that families nationwide consumed.

A federal grand jury in Sacramento indicted Salyer on Thursday after a nearly four-year probe of his Monterey-based SK Foods LP, which controlled up to 20 percent of the Central Valley's tomato crop.

The highly unusual move to characterize SK Foods as a racketeering enterprise stems in part from federal agents' belief that as many as two dozen of the company's executives knew about the criminal nature of its business.

Sacramento Bee, 2/19/10; see also LA Times, 2/19/10

New York Times Calls for Ninth Circuit Judge Bybee's Impeachment

In an editorial in yesterday's New York Times, the New York Times forcibly calls for the impeachment of Ninth Circuit Judge Jay Bybee for his role in authoring the Bush Administration's torture memos:

In one of the more nauseating passages, Jay Bybee, then an assistant attorney general and now a federal judge, wrote admiringly about a contraption for waterboarding that would lurch a prisoner upright if he stopped breathing while water was poured over his face. He praised the Central Intelligence Agency for having doctors ready to perform an emergency tracheotomy if necessary.

These memos are not an honest attempt to set the legal limits on interrogations, which was the authors’ statutory obligation. They were written to provide legal immunity for acts that are clearly illegal, immoral and a violation of this country’s most basic values.

* * *

These memos make it clear that Mr. Bybee is unfit for a job that requires legal judgment and a respect for the Constitution. Congress should impeach him. And if the administration will not conduct a thorough investigation of these issues, then Congress has a constitutional duty to hold the executive branch accountable. If that means putting Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales on the stand, even Dick Cheney, we are sure Americans can handle it.

The recently released Bush Administration Torture Memos can be read on the NYT's website.  Doesn't this provide grounds to move to recuse Judge Bybee in any appeal he hears where the voluntariness of a defendant's statements are at  issue?