Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Capital Defense Weekly

Criminal Law

: Capital Defense Weekly

Second Circuit win

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

Today in United States v. Ronnell Wilson the Second Circuit, on direct appeal, granted penalty phase relief, because two arguments made to the jury by the prosecution– both bearing on the critical issues of remorse, acceptance of responsibility, and future dangerousness–impaire dWilson?s constitutional rights. The government argued: [i] that Wilson put the government to its proof of guilt rather than plead guilty; and [ii] that Wilson?s allocution of remorse should be discredited because he failed to testify notwithstanding the fact that ?[t]he path for that witness stand has never been blocked for Mr. Wilson.? As to the first argument, although a guilty plea may properly be considered to support a sentence mitigation for acceptance of responsibility, the Sixth Amendment is violated when failure to plead guilty is treated as an aggravating circumstance...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on June 30, 2010 (boomark / email).