How Appealing



Thursday, December 9, 2010

“Senate, for Just the 8th Time, Votes to Oust a Federal Judge”: This article appears today in The New York Times.

Today’s edition of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans contains an article headlined “Thomas Porteous is the eighth federal judge to be convicted and removed from office by the Senate” and an editorial entitled “Removal of Judge Thomas Porteous helps repair the damage to the federal judiciary.”

And The Los Angeles Times reports that “Senate convicts Louisiana federal judge in impeachment trial; Thomas Porteous is removed from office after being found guilty on corruption and perjury charges brought by the House; The vote on one count is unanimous.”

Posted at 8:54 PM by Howard Bashman



“DNA alone enough for new charges in old crimes, SJC says”: John R. Ellement of The Boston Globe has a news update that begins, “The state’s high court ruled today that genetic science is now so accurate that criminal charges can be based solely on ‘John Doe’ DNA profiles, and that charges can remain active even if takes years for the suspect to be fully identified.”

And The Associated Press reports that “Mass. court affirms ‘John Doe’ rape indictments.”

You can access today’s ruling of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts at this link.

Posted at 2:12 PM by Howard Bashman



“As jurors go online, U.S. trials go off track”: Brian Grow of Reuters has a report that begins, “The explosion of blogging, tweeting and other online diversions has reached into U.S. jury boxes, raising serious questions about juror impartiality and the ability of judges to control courtrooms.”

And in somewhat related news, yesterday the Public Information Office of the Supreme Court of Ohio issued a news release headlined “Advisory Opinion: Judges May ‘Friend’ ‘Tweet’ if Proper Caution Exercised.” You can access the advisory opinion from that court’s Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline by clicking here.

Posted at 1:58 PM by Howard Bashman



“Three Federal Appeals Judges Urged to Resign from Board of FREE”: Tony Mauro has this post at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.”

Posted at 1:47 PM by Howard Bashman