The government has filed a Motion for an Anonymous Sequestered Jury. Anonymous here means no biographical information known to the Scruggs team pretrial. This is based on the allegations of interference with the justice system (judicial bribery). Rather than comment on it at length, I’ll just say this is a pretty intensifying move by the government.
h/t to Nancy in comments.
February 21, 2008 at 8:44 pm |
Maybe Wilson should have filed a motion for an anonymous sequestered Judge in Wilson vs. Scruggs.
February 21, 2008 at 11:56 pm |
I am glad I am not sitting in front of Judge Biggers. I bet he grants the motion for an anonymous jury. Great move by the US Attorneys office. Really turns up the heat on the Scruggs gang. If this motion is granted I would bet they all trip over themselves to cut deals. At this point the Gov may not entertain the offer. Their case seems to be solid like bedrock and with convictions they could really get others that might be involved to talk.
I have heard rumours that Judge Biggers is very TOUGH on people convicted in his court room. Has anyone here practiced in front of judge Biggers? Just curious as to how the Judge sentences after conviction. Anyone?
February 22, 2008 at 12:00 am |
I will tell you a story: I had a case before him involving an investment adviser who had stolen from several dozen victims. The defendant said at the plea hearing he’d gone to each, and all but two had given Christian forgiveness. Judge Biggers said “This will be a great comfort to you while you serve the time I am about to sentence you.”
February 22, 2008 at 12:36 am |
I didn’t even know such a thing was possible. Non-lawyer here, obviously, but this just seems to be counter to the idea of a jury of one’s peers. How does the system deal with that concern, assuming it even needs to these days?
February 22, 2008 at 5:35 am |
Cujo 4, I tried a preliminary answer but then, realizing I don’t know enough to be very helpful, took it down. Betcha somebody/ies with more experience in the genre will take this one on for us though, and I’m looking forward to that.
February 22, 2008 at 6:10 am |
Cujo, here’s how the government motion, at pages 3-4 of 6, explains the “anonymous jury” concept (I’m omitting most case citations and re-paragraphing for bloggy-readability’s sake):
February 22, 2008 at 6:29 am |
Then they throw in a paragraph saying, basically, “Or you could just sequester ‘em” (put ‘em up at government expense somewhere secret for the duration of trial and deliberations) “or choose ‘em from the whole district.”
Then they conclude:
February 22, 2008 at 6:31 am |
if this isn’t organized crime, what is?
February 22, 2008 at 7:26 am |
Not-well-enough-organized crime?
February 22, 2008 at 8:20 am |
Lotus, it’s the division that Judge Lackey’s circuit court district almost covers. There are three other divisions in the district, and a much larger area with the major population centers in the district.
February 22, 2008 at 8:26 am |
Here’s the map for the division.
http://www.msnd.uscourts.gov/images/western.png
And the entire district, here:
http://www.msnd.uscourts.gov/images/mapnms.png
February 22, 2008 at 8:46 am |
Judge Biggers is very tough. I have seen him give the maximum punishment and follow up by saying (paraphrasing): I only wish the law wouldn’t constrict me and I could send you away for a much longer period of time. His sentencing hearings don’t last very long. The lawyer and defendant usually stand before him, he says he has read the presentencing report, asks for objections, allows the defendant to “allocute” (make a statement–required by law if defendant desires to do so)—”but make it snappy”—and then the Marshals stand behind the defendant with handcuffs ready. Actually, I have always liked the man. At least he is consistent. (He doesn’t discuss court business out of the courtroom. An avid golfer, he stops by City Grocery Bar several times a week to meet with his golfing buddies and discuss golfing strategy. Never seen him drink to excess — simply social. And he is very nice outside of the courtroom. Inside, he is prone to tell you to “shut up and sit down.”) And he is just as hard on the government lawyers as he is on defense counsel.
Several years ago, I attended his “retirement ceremony.” It was very elaborate and Grady Tollison was in charge of it (at the request of Judge Davidson, not Judge Biggers). The “retirement” was actually the taking of “senior status,” which means that he is not really retired; his caseload is just not as hectic. He still works on a daily basis—I guess the “retirement” didn’t take.
February 22, 2008 at 8:49 am |
Thanks, NMC and Jane. I just dropped that observation, pending review of the maps to find out WTF I’m talking about.
February 22, 2008 at 8:56 am |
Very nice maps, Jane. Thanks. They prompt a question I’ve had for years: how far east are we on Jane’s second map when “the Delta” stops?
February 22, 2008 at 9:05 am |
Here’s where you can access all the Northern District maps.
http://www.msnd.uscourts.gov/maps.htm
but what’s with the map labeled jury divisions?
February 22, 2008 at 9:59 am |
I’m not sure what your question is lotus.
February 22, 2008 at 10:04 am |
Aha- Jane– this answers a mystery. I’ve long had the sense that juries followed the division lines in a somewhat fuzzy way– that I’d get jurors from just outside what I knew the division lines to be. The district has a “Jury Selection Plan” found here under which juries are selected from three divisions (the Clarksdale Division is essentially nonexistent any longer).
February 22, 2008 at 10:07 am |
My understanding is that from the Oxford perspective, the delta starts just west of Batesville which is in Panola County. Wikipedia says the delta consists of the following counties; Washington, DeSoto, Humphreys, Carroll, Issaquena, Panola, Quitman, Bolivar, Coahoma, Leflore, Sunflower, Sharkey, Tunica, Tallahatchie, Holmes, Yazoo, and Warren.
February 22, 2008 at 10:12 am |
What’s the question about the Delta?
February 22, 2008 at 10:39 am |
Let this non-lawyer try to understand: in requesting an anonymous jury, the gov’t is essentially asking to treat Dickie like a mob boss. So what will the defense argue? Our client has never hired a hit on anyone?
February 22, 2008 at 10:42 am |
DN and NMC, basically my question was “How far east does ‘the Delta’ run?” And I think scanjun-and-the-map just answered it for me, so thanks.
February 22, 2008 at 10:52 am |
Nevermind, link didn’t work.
February 22, 2008 at 10:56 am |
Shucks, DN, no green outlining on my screen, but thanks for trying.
ONE of the problems with these things is that you can never know what someone else’s computer is showing them of the page you’re both looking at (a real challenge in blog design, among other things).
February 22, 2008 at 11:01 am |
I asked the question about an anonymous jury to NMC sometime back. It was used by Judge Frank Polozola in the case of former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards. The issue was taken up to the 5th Circuit and upheld.
Like Scruggs, Edwards had the ability to reach out and “influence” people. That was the primary basis for having unidentified jurors.
The prospective jurors completed a jury quentionnaire, but instead of using their names, a number was assigned to each.
February 22, 2008 at 11:02 am |
Do we believe Keker will ask for more extentions, and if he does, whats the odds of him getting them. As a pour ole Misssisssipun just watching this group Scruggs/Lott/Langston have so many tenticiles that I’m expecting any day for the Mississippi Media to tell us we have been sapped by something from outterspace and we have just dreamed these boys got caught.
February 22, 2008 at 12:23 pm |
now officially out of the “presumed innocent” camp, i had been thinking that his last chance at beating this thing was a serious jury pre-selection/voir dire effort and imagined that they were getting the jury pool lists and cross referencing them with magazine subscriptions and google search caches
but this motion really kills all hope of that, doesn’t it? maybe he’ll dig in though, hoping that the next administration’s justice department will fix this for him. sorry, just can’t see Obama coming through for him.
February 22, 2008 at 1:11 pm |
From the “Amen” corner regarding Biggers… that’s the first thing I hear from every lawyer I ask… T-O-U-G-H.
February 22, 2008 at 1:19 pm |
I still want to know how Keker argues against this anonymous jury. Anybody?
February 22, 2008 at 1:44 pm |
One of my favorite Judge Biggers stories involves a well known and well loved local criminal defense attorney. His client was up for sentencing. This was before the guidelines became advisory rather than mandatory. The lawyer began his speech with “Judge, I know this argument needs to be made before the United States Congress. . .” and Judge Biggers dryly (and without looking up) said “Yeah, well, they aren’t here today.” So much for that line of argument.
In my experience Judge Biggers is a devoted scholar of the law. He is senior status but works quite a bit more than one might expect – certainly more than the requisite 25%. He demands preparation from all litigants. He is a stickler for the rules and the rules apply to everyone in his court. No favortism whatsoever. I have heard other attorneys claim judges (particularly former prosecutors) are partial to the government. Not in this district. Not from any judge and especially not from Judge Biggers!
February 22, 2008 at 2:13 pm |
That’s oh so good to know. I’ve been looking for a little redemption among the legal set!
February 22, 2008 at 4:45 pm |
Folo, the “Delta” is actually an alluvial flood plain. The actual delta of the Mississippi River is many miles south of New Orleans. That said, the Mississippi Delta of musical and literary lore is often said to run “from Front Street in Vicksburg to the lobby of the Peabody Hotel (in Memphis).”
It is a somewhat misshapen half-moon whose more-or-less “straight” side is the river and whose eastward curve bulges out to a little past Greenwood and goes through Yazoo City before returning to the river near Vicksburg.
February 22, 2008 at 5:33 pm |
Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee District map
http://www.leveeboard.org/
The levee guys know where the Delta begins and ends.
February 22, 2008 at 6:32 pm |
Much thanks for all this info on the Delta, y’all — amazing that I got to be this old without knowing it better, huh? (Of course, all you see from I-55 is pines, and that’s been almost my whole experience of that countryside to date.)