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The Rule of Lenity

I considered various topics for my initial blog post and settled on the rule of lenity. The spirit of the rule of lenity – fundamental fairness – lies at the heart of a respectable criminal justice...

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Conrad Black and Special Verdicts

The Conrad Black case, now in the Supreme Court, has received a great deal of recent attention largely because the Court has agreed to revisit the scope of 18 U.S.C. § 1346 (which states that “the term...

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Venue, Prejudice, and Science in Criminal Trials

Any time a federal court of appeals states that a district court is not required to consider evidence, without any qualifying statement concerning the reliability of that evidence, one tends to take...

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The Problem of “Willfulness”

The use of the term “willful” in connection with federal criminal statutes remains needlessly confusing and harmful to the fair administration of justice. A recent Fifth Circuit case offers yet another...

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Sentencing in Fraud Cases Involving Shareholder Loss

Eventually, the Supreme Court probably will need to decide whether sentences in criminal fraud cases involving publicly traded stock may be based on relatively crude estimates of shareholder loss. In...

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What is the Purpose of Restitution in a Federal Criminal Case?

A recent Tenth Circuit case, United States v. Speakman, No. 08-1332 (Feb. 2, 2010), presents an interesting question in federal criminal practice: May a district court order a defendant to pay...

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The Ex Post Facto Clause and the United States Sentencing Guidelines

The Second Circuit recently decided a case, United States v. Kumar, Nos. 06-5654-cr, 06-5482-cr (August 12, 2010), that implicates a basic principle of punishment: May a defendant’s sentence in a...

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The Responsible Corporate Officer Doctrine

I’ve written a paper entitled “The Responsible Corporate Officer Doctrine: Defending Individuals in FDCA Cases” (available here). The paper will be included in the materials available at the ABA’s 21st...

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About This Blog

Note: After July 1, 2011, no new posts will appear on this blog.  The existing posts will remain accessible for anyone who finds them useful.  I greatly appreciate the positive reaction that I received...

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