Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

Notable tussle between federal judge and federal defenders in Pittsburgh

By Douglas A. Berman

This new story from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, which is headlined "Federal judge may remove himself from public defender cases," reports on an interesting federal criminal justice brouhaha. Here are the basics: A federal judge today issued an opinion saying that he would disqualify himself from all cases in which the federal public defender's office represents a client before him provided the office shows that it sought permission from each of the 21 defendants involved before it sought that relief from the court. U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab issued the three-page opinion a day after the public defender's office filed motions asking the judge to disqualify himself from every case it had pending before him. The motions accuse the judge of being biased against the office, citing as an example his rulings in a case involving Youa Vue, charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 01, 2010 (boomark / email).