Legal News

For Criminal Defendants, a Big Day at High Court

By Dan Slater

“Continuing its trend of being the most pro-defendant appellate court in the nation on sentencing issues, the Supreme Court issued two opinions this morning and both involve wins for defendants.”

So begins a recent blog post by the Sentencing Law & Policy blog’s Doug Berman. He’s referring to two cases. One is Chambers v. United States, in which the Supreme Court reversed the ruling below. As Scotus Blog’s Lyle Denniston explains it, the Court ruled that the crime of failure to report to jail or prison to serve a sentence is not the same as an escape, and is not a “violent felony” that can lead to a longer prison term under federal law. The decision clears up a conflict among the federal circuit courts, and rejects a Justice Department argument that an “aversion to penal custody” should always be treated as if it were an escape, writes Denniston.

In the other case, Jimenez v. Quarterman, the Court reversed the ruling below, which found for the state. It held that if a state prisoner is allowed by a state court to file an appeal that ordinarily would be too late, that will delay the start of the one-year filing period for pursuing a habeas challenge until after the state appeal is resolved. Justice Thomas, writing for the majority, said that a state conviction is not final for federal habeas purposes when a state has allowed an out-of-time, direct appeal of the conviction.

Click here for the Scotus blog report.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 13, 2009 (boomark / email).