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Court Won't Hear Young Killer's Appeal
Law Center |
2008/04/16 08:07
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The Supreme Court has refused to review a 30-year prison sentence for a teen who was 12 when he killed his grandparents in South Carolina.
Lawyers for Christopher Pittman wanted the justices to examine whether the long prison term for a child violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. With no possibility of parole, he will be 42 before he is released, they said.
Pittman is the only inmate serving such a lengthy sentence for a crime committed at such a young age, his lawyers said. The judge who sentenced him was prohibited by law from taking his age into account.
South Carolina contended the punishment is proportionate to the crime and said there is a national trend of increased punishment for young violent criminals. |
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State Bar of Arizona Selects Bogutz Gordon Attorney for CLE Award
Firm News/Arizona |
2008/04/14 13:09
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The State Bar of Arizona’s Board of Governors and Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Committee has selected Craig Hunter Wisnom, attorney for Bogutz amp; Gordon, P.C., as the 2008 recipient for the CLE Award.
The CLE award is given to the State Bar member who has made outstanding contributions to Continuing Legal Education efforts by devoting time and expertise to CLE projects, which may include authoring or editing publications or planning and delivering quality CLE seminars.
Wisnom will be congratulated at the State Bar’s Annual Luncheon on Friday, June 20, 2008, which will be held in conjunction with the Annual State Bar Convention at the Westin La Paloma at 3800 E. Sunrise Drive in Tucson.
A certified specialist in estate and trust law by the State Bar of Arizona, Wisnom has practiced law for 12 years in Arizona in the areas of estate planning, estate and gift taxation, probate and trust administration. He currently serves on the Estate and Trust Advisory Committee, Board of Directors of the Southern Arizona Estate Planners Council. Wisnom is also the past chair of the Probate and Trust Section for the State Bar of Arizona. |
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Top Law Schools Tighten Hold on NLJ 250 Firms
Law Firm News |
2008/04/14 08:04
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A bigger percentage of students graduating from top law schools in 2007 took jobs at NLJ 250 law firms than those graduating in 2006.
Columbia Law School landed in the No. 1 spot again as the school thatsent the greatest portion of graduates to NLJ 250 law firms, withnearly 75 percent of its students in 2007 taking jobs among thenation's largest law firms. The school ranked No. 1 last year, when69.6 percent of its graduates went to NLJ 250 law firms. Boston CollegeLaw School rounded at the list of the top 20 go-to law schools, with36.8 percent of its 261 juris doctor graduates in 2007 heading forfull-time jobs at NLJ 250 law firms. pAll together, the top 20 law schools that NLJ 250 law firms relied onmost to fill their first-year associate ranks sent 54.9 percent oftheir graduates to those firms, compared with 51.6 percent in 2006. /ppThis year's list of go-to schools was compiled from recruiting information that law firms provided on the 2007 NLJ 250, emThe National Law Journal/em's annual survey of the nation's largest law firms. /ppIn 2007, the top 20 schools sent 3,511 of their graduates to work asfirst-year associates at NLJ 250 law firms. Total graduates among thoseschools in 2007 equaled 6,395. In 2006, the 20 go-to law schools sent3,561 to NLJ 250 law firms out of 6,902 graduates. /ppMaking a big jump in its percentage of graduates accepting positions atNLJ 250 firms was Northwestern University School of Law. It took theNo. 2 spot, compared with No. 11 the year before. Some 73.5 percent ofits 2007 graduates went to NLJ 250 firms, or 172 graduates out of atotal of 234. The year before, 143 graduates out of 265 went to NLJ 250firms, which equaled 54 percent. /p |
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Class Says Lifelock Has Troubling Bosses
Headline News |
2008/04/11 07:41
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Lifelock misrepresents and deceptively advertises its identity theft protection service, for which it charges $110 a year, a class action claims in Middlesex County Court.
Plaintiffs claim Lifelong does not actually provide the services it offers, that its president Richard Davis dreamed up the idea while sitting in a jail cell after having been arrested for failing to repay a $16,000 casino marker, and that Lifelock's Chief Marketing Officer and co-founder Robert Maynard is under a lifelong FTC injunction because of misleading infomercials he ran for his own credit improvement company.
nbsp; nbsp; The complaint adds, Finally, and perhaps most disturbing ... Maynard himself had engaged in the very type of identity theft his company had set out to eliminate, but stealing his own father's identity.
nbsp; nbsp; Plaintiffs say that whatever services Lifelock does provide its 900,000 subscribers are available elsewhere for free |
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Class Says Blockbuster Invades Privacy
Topics |
2008/04/10 08:06
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nbsp; nbsp;nbsp; Blockbuster invaded customers' privacy by sending information about their movie rentals to the Facebook Web site, according to a federal class action. Plaintiffs say Blockbuster's cooperation with Facebook's Beacon system violates the Videotape Privacy Protection Act, which Congress passed after a newspaper obtained a list of 146 movies Robert Bork or his family had rented, and publicized it during Bork's failed nomination to the Supreme Court.
nbsp; nbsp; Facebook launched Beacon in November 2007, in cooperation with 44 other Web sites, that automatically fed information to Facebook, plaintiffs say. This was not just for social purposes, but was a core element in the Facebook Ads system for connecting businesses with users, plaintiffs say.
nbsp; nbsp; Blockbuster sent information about movie rentals to Facebook, which added it to members' Facebook profile, something like this: 'Preston added Lord of the Rings to his queue on Blockbuster.com,' the complaint states.
nbsp; nbsp; This was an opt-out system, in which users had to check a box to prevent the information from being distributed, plaintiffs say.
nbsp; nbsp; Faced with furious criticism about privacy invasion, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was forced to issue an apology, in December, which is quoted, apparently in full, in this filing. To this day, however, Facebook still receives personal identifiable information from participating Web site with the Beacon javascript, whether the Facebook member has chosen to distribute their information or not, it claims.
nbsp; nbsp; Plaintiffs say that if users did not check the opt-out box quickly enough, their information would be sent to Facebook, and that along with a picture of the individual who purchased the movie and a Blockbuster ad. They say that Blockbuster did not notify online customers that this information was being sent to Facebook until sometime in December 2007. However, the summary is immediately sent to a user's Facebook profile even before the user has a chance to decline the distribution of he/her personal identifiable information - as long as you have not marked the privacy feature telling Blockbuster never to send summaries. To this day, Blockbuster online victims remain unsuspecting victims, the complaint states.
nbsp; nbsp; Blockbuster, which has 64 million active users, is the 7th most popular site on the Web, the complaint states.
nbsp; nbsp; Represented by lead counsel Jeremy Wilson with The Corea Firm of Dallas, plaintiffs demand $2,500 for each violation of the Videotape Privacy Protection Act, and punitive damages. |
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Two Attorneys Emerge in Detroit Mayor Case
Topics |
2008/04/09 08:53
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pLawyers Kym Worthy and Dan Webb are a pair of ferocious competitors in the courtroom. That's both good news and bad news for the mayor./ppWorthy, a prosecutor, and Webb, a defense attorney, have emerged as the legal faces of a text-messaging sex scandal that has embroiled Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former top aide./ppWorthy, the first black attorney and first woman to head the Wayne County prosecutor's office, is seeking to prove Kilpatrick lied under oath. Webb is a high-priced litigation gunslinger aiming to keep the mayor out of prison./ppSlight of build, the 62-year-old Webb is considered a legal heavyweight in the courtroom, ranked among the nation's top trial lawyers by several publications./ppI hate failing. That's more of my driving force, why I work as hard as I do, he said last week while preparing other cases in San Francisco, Las Vegas and St. Louis./ppA big part of Worthy's success is her focus. That's what she preaches to the team of assistant prosecutors preparing for Kilpatrick's next court hearing./ppI spent most of my weekends and holidays here in the library, said Worthy, 52, looking back at her career. I tried to cross every 'T' and dot every 'I.' Too many things can go wrong in a trial./ppKilpatrick has been besieged since late January, when the Detroit Free Press published excerpts of sexually explicit and embarrassing text messages left on the city-issued pager of his then-Chief of Staff Christine Beatty./ppThe messages contradict testimony both gave last summer during a whistle-blowers' lawsuit when Kilpatrick and Beatty denied having a romantic relationship in 2002 and 2003. Kilpatrick also is accused of lying under oath about his role in the firing of a top police official./ppThe text messages also were referenced in a confidential agreement that led to the city settling that lawsuit and a second whistle-blowers' suit for $8.4 million./ppAfter a two-month investigation, Worthy filed multiple felony perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice charges against Kilpatrick and Beatty. Convictions could send each to prison, and force Kilpatrick from his perch as Detroit mayor./ppThe embattled mayor is the latest of Webb's high-profile clients. He's represented tobacco giant Philip Morris on racketeering charges and computer giant Microsoft in an antitrust trial./ppFormer U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins crossed swords with Webb in a six-month corruption trial of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, who is serving a prison sentence on a fraud and racketeering conviction./ppDan is a tenacious competitor, said Collins, now a defense attorney. He's a competition junkie, and I think he loves the action and he's very good at his craft./ppWorthy, who moved often while growing up with her military father and earned her law degree from the University of Notre Dame, pursued a law career because of what she didn't see./ppI can only say my father told me I could do anything I wanted, she said. There were no lawyers in my family. When I watched TV, I didn't see any African American lawyers. They didn't even have black police officers on TV back then./ppAfter two years as a contract worker for the Wayne County prosecutor's office, she was hired on as an assistant prosecutor in 1986. In 1992, an unemployed black steel worker named Malice Green was beaten to death during a confrontation with several white Detroit police officers./ppThe case put the young, black, female assistant prosecutor on the nation's stage and in the daily glare of cable television. She won second-degree murder convictions against two of the officers./ppShe is highly skilled and she could work the courtroom. She prepares as well, if not better, than anybody, Detroit defense attorney Carole Stanyar said./ppWebb also is no stranger to the spotlight. He's cross-examined former President Ronald Reagan and won a conviction against U.S. Navy Admiral John Poindexter in the Iran-Contra affair./ppAlthough he would have preferred playing second base for the St. Louis Cardinals, Webb said he discovered his love for law growing up in the small farming community of Bushnell, Ill., about 170 miles southwest of Chicago./ppSomewhere before I got out of high school, I decided I was going to be a trial lawyer come hell or high water, said Webb, who took law classes at night at Loyola University while holding full-time banking jobs./ppI didn't have any money. I was broke, Webb joked. That's why I worked my way through law school. I knew I didn't want to do banking work.
/p |
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