The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

D.C. Court: Judges Can Investigate Juror Racial Bias

Judges confronted with allegations of racial or ethnic bias among jurors are allowed to investigate the claims, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled yesterday. The opinion created a new exception to case law historically barring judges from questioning jurors about their process.

Whether judges can probe racial or ethnic bias among jurors after a verdict is an issue that's divided federal courts, according to the opinion, which was written by Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby. The three-judge panel found a juror's allegation of racist statements made by another juror wasn't evidence of "extraneous influence" on a verdict – a standard for examining juror behavior – but was still serious enough to raise constitutional concerns.

"The insidiousness of racial or ethnic bias is therefore distinguishable from other forms of juror misconduct or incompetence," Blackburne-Rigsby wrote. "[W]e are unwilling to rigidly bind the discretion of trial judges to prevent further inquiry where it may be necessary to ensure that a defendant's constitutional rights to a fair and impartial trial and jury are not jeopardized by racial or ethnic bias."

D.C. Circuit Weighs Child Pornography Restitution Case

The thorny question of how to calculate restitution to victims of child pornography came back before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last week, with the U.S. Department of Justice defending a proposed formula.

Friday's arguments marked the second time the court considered the case of Michael Monzel. Monzel pleaded guilty to one count each of distribution and possession of child pornography. A trial judge ordered Monzel to pay $5,000 to a victim known by the pseudonym "Amy," but on remand from the D.C. Circuit reduced the award to zero, finding the government didn't produce evidence on how much of Amy's losses he caused.

The government appealed, arguing U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler was wrong to reduce the award and that its proposed formula – dividing a victim's total losses by the number of individuals found criminally responsible and then adjusting based on certain factors – represented a fair solution. Monzel's lawyer, Federal Public Defender A.J. Kramer, said the formula was arbitrary and that Kessler was right to reduce the award after the government presented no evidence linking his client to specific losses.

Age Discrimination Suit Against Georgetown Law Dismissed

Former North Dakota Attorney General Nicholas Spaeth has lost his age discrimination lawsuit against Georgetown University Law Center. A Washington federal judge ruled yesterday that Georgetown presented non-discriminatory reasons – chiefly, Spaeth's lack of academic scholarship – for rejecting his application for a tenure-track teaching job.

After a long career practicing law in government and private practice, Spaeth began pursuing law school teaching posts around 2009. He sued Georgetown and five other schools in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after he failed to get an interview through the Association of American Law Schools faculty recruitment conference in 2010.

In yesterday's opinion, Huvelle found the record was clear that academic scholarship was a "primary concern" for Georgetown in weighing applicants. Spaeth failed to list any relevant publications in his application, she wrote, rebuffing Spaeth's argument that the focus on scholarship was a pretext for age-based bias. Even if Spaeth made it to the interview stage, she found, he failed to show he would have been hired over the three applicants who did get teaching jobs that year.

Judge Ketanji Jackson Sworn In to D.C. Federal Bench

Judges are a common sight at judicial swearing-in ceremonies in Washington's federal courthouse, but yesterday's investiture for U.S. District Judge Ketanji Jackson featured a special guest from several blocks away: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

Breyer administered the oath of office, calling Jackson, who served as his law clerk, part of the "court family." Sporting a sling for his right arm after suffering a recent cycling injury, Breyer joked the ceremony was truly a family affair, noting he received treatment at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, where Jackson's husband is a surgeon.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Jackson on March 22. Prior to her appointment, she served as vice chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission; she filled the seat vacated by now-retired U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy.

The Morning Wrap

More Jobs: The legal industry in April picked up 2,100 jobs, The Am Law Daily reports.

Seeking Release: Robel Phillipos, the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev friend accused of lying to authorities probing the Boston Marathon bombing, will try to secure his release from federal custody on Monday, The New York Times reports. Derege Demissie and Susan Church, Phillipo's lawyers, said in the court papers that the charges against their client were "refutable."

Tax Bill: Internet sales tax legislation is expected to go up for a vote in the U.S. Senate on Monday, CNNMoney reports. "We think this will help level the playing field," said Stephen Schatz, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation, one of the bill's biggest backers.

Court Strikes 1892 Case Law on Contracts with Mentally Ill

Replacing precedent dating back to 1892, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled today that contracts entered into with mentally incapacitated individuals will no longer be considered automatically void.

Under the new standard, those contracts will be voidable, as opposed to inherently void. According to the ruling, a contract will be binding unless the incapacitated person or someone approved to act on his or her behalf takes steps to cancel it. If an incapacitated person or the representative does want to cancel a contract, they can only do so if it would be fair to the parties involved.

Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby, writing for the court, said the new standard, which is used in the majority of jurisdictions in the United States, "better comports with modern contract law and modern understandings of mental illness."

Salvage Company Presses Second Suit Over Treasure

Updated 4:11 p.m.

The salvage company that has been locked in a lengthy court battle with the Republic of Colombia over billions of dollars worth of sunken treasure has filed another suit in Washington federal district court.

The suit is the latest legal maneuvering by the Bellevue, Wash. company to assert its ownership interest in the undersea bounty. This month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the dismissal of an earlier lawsuit the company filed. The appeals court cited a three-year statute of limitations.

More than 300 years ago, the Spanish galleon San Jose sank off the coast of Colombia after a skirmish with British warships, taking with it a cargo of coins and bullion valued at as much as $17 billion. Sea Search contends the company is entitled to a cut of the treasure. The company has litigated on two fronts—in Colombia and in Washington, D.C.

Congressman Sues House Speaker Boehner Over Censure

U.S. Representative Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) filed a lawsuit today against House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other House Republicans seeking reversal of a censure vote in 2010 and accusing them of denying him due process.

The House voted in December 2010 to censure Rangel after an ethics committee found him guilty of violations ranging from unpaid income taxes to improper solicitation of funds. In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Rangel claimed he learned after the vote that several members of the committee received improper ex parte information.

The alleged misconduct "offends the view that the American system of justice requires persons sitting in the capacity of 'judges' in a quasi-judicial proceeding must not only avoid prejudice and bias, but must also avoid the appearance of prejudice and bias," he said in the complaint.

The Morning Wrap

Russian Warning: The FBI in early 2011 received a warning from Russian officials about suspected marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a firefight with police Friday morning, The Boston Globe reports. The Russian authorities said he may have been a follower of “radical Islam." Police captured his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, on Friday evening after a more than 20-hour manhunt.

Death Penalty: Kaufman County, Texas, special prosecutors are weighing the death penalty for a former justice of the peace and his wife, who are charged with murdering the county's district attorney, his wife and one of his assistant prosecutors, the Texas Lawyer reports. "Obviously, the case is still under investigation," said Toby Shook, one of the special prosecutors. "That decision won't be made until the investigation is complete."

USA Today: USA Today founder Allen Neuharth died Friday at 89, the newspaper reports. He died after sustaining injuries in a fall at his home.

On Gideon's 50th, Lawyers Lament Lack of Access to Justice

Updated 4/22/13 at 9:04 a.m.

The District of Columbia is home to what's widely considered the gold-standard of local public defender offices, but a panel of right-to-counsel advocates today challenged the courts and the criminal justice community not to grow complacent.

"D.C. is a place where the expectations are incredibly high, and they should be," said Jonathan Rapping, a former local public defender who founded Gideon's Promise, an Atlanta-based organization that supports public defender offices in southern states. When it came to ensuring access to justice, he urged local attorneys and judges to ask among themselves, "What else can we do?"

Rapping was part of a panel today during the annual joint session of the Judicial Conference of the District of Columbia and the D.C. Bar. The theme of this year's bench-bar conference was access to counsel, in light of the 50th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that secured the right to counsel for criminal defendants.