Jury selection begins tomorrow in Barry Bond's trial on charges of lying to the grand jury and obstruction of justice stemming from his testimony before a grand jury investigating steroid use.

Bonds denied using steroids and denied that his trainer, Greg Anderson, injected him with steroids. Bonds has gotten some good rulings on pre-trial motions. The judge barred the introduction of his drug tests and Anderson's doping calendars.

Anderson will not be a witness against Bonds. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, prosecutors will be able to introduce one steroid test from 2003. "When retested, it showed Bonds was using "the clear" and "the cream," prosecutors say. They have listed 52 witnesses.[More...]

It's very hard to explain to clients (and the public) that when a federal defendant goes to trial, unless he is acquitted of every count, he risks being sentenced not just for the counts he was convicted of, but also for the counts on which the jury found him not guilty.

Sentencing for acquitted conduct is expressly authorized by the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.

The absurdity of the policy is illustrated very well by a sentence handed down this week by a federal judge in the District of Columbia. Antwuan Ball was convicted on a single count of distributing 11 grams of crack cocaine for $600.00. He was acquitted of racketeering, conspiracy, and every other crime, including murder.

The judge held Ball accountable for the conduct the jury found he did not commit, and sentenced him to 18 years. The Government had asked for 40 years, even though had Ball taken a plea deal before trial, and pleaded guilty to counts he was later found innocent of, it would have asked for 25 years.

This is stuff straight out of Alice in Wonderland. As Ball's lawyer wrote in a sentencing memo (available on PACER): [More...]

Last week, when writing about the new case filed in Virginia against a group of Somali pirates who are accused of killing two American couples after hijacking their boat, I quoted at length from pleadings in a 2010 Virginia case where the defendants, young Somali men convicted of pirating a ship in the Indian Ocean, were awaiting sentencing.

Five defendants, all in their young 20's, all facing life sentences. $27,000 per year for 40 years for 5 defendants equals - $5,400,000.00. And that's just the cost of housing them. It doesn't include the cost of prosecution or defense or their medical care while in prison.

Now we have a new Norfolk case with 14 young Somali defendants, captured in the Indian Ocean, and flown to the U.S. for criminal prosecution. With the jurisdictional and venue issues already decided against them in earlier cases, with no local interpreters and no local Somali population to sit on their jury, their fate will probably be the same. $27,000 per year for 40 years for 14 defendants equals $15,120,000. $20 million just to warehouse the defendants in two cases.

Monday, the five were sentenced to life in prison. These sentences aren't going to stop piracy. They do, however, cost the U.S. a huge amount of money that could better be spent elsewhere.

Richard Hatch, who won a million dollars on Survivor and then went to jail for three years for failing to pay taxes on it, is back in prison. The judge last week revoked his supervised release because he still hasn't amended his returns and made payments. The judge imposed a new 9 month sentence.

Hatch is now a contestant on Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice. The show just aired the second episode, but wrapped up filming a while ago. He surrendered yesterday to the U.S. Marshals to start serving his new sentence.

Now along comes Donald Trump and says he may be willing to help Hatch. Does Trump really think if he pays Hatch's tax debt the judge or Bureau of Prisons will let him out of jail?

Trump says, "If he makes it to the finals – and I'm not saying he is – I'm sure we can get him time off for good behavior."

Former federal judge Jack Camp of Georgia was sentenced to 30 days in prison today, 400 hours of community service and he must pay the costs of prosecution. He was allowed to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to the designated facility at a later date. Camp pleaded guilty to offenses involving his use of drugs with his girlfriend, a former stripper with a prior drug conviction. The Government had asked for 15 days.

The sentencing judge, Thomas Hogan of Washington, D.C., also ruled Camps' offenses were all misdemeanors:

In one ruling issued Friday, Hogan found that Camp had not committed a felony, as prosecutors believed he did had when they signed the plea agreement. Instead, Camp committed three misdemeanors, exposing him to a sentence of up to 6 months in prison. Prosecutors asked Hogan to sentence Camp to at least 15 days in prison. Camp’s lawyers asked for probation and community service.

The Government unsealed an Indictment today against 14 young Somalis. All 14 are charged with piracy and other major crimes in federal court in Norfolk, VA (Eastern District of Virginia.) If convicted on the first piracy count, the sentence is mandatory life in prison. There is no parole. They leave prison when they die. The FBI press release is here.

All 14 men were charged with piracy, which carries a mandatory penalty of life in prison. In addition, the indictment also charges them with conspiracy to commit kidnapping, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, and the use of a destructive device during a crime of violence. The latter charge carries a mandatory minimum of 30 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison, which would run consecutive to all other charges.

Lindsay Lohan went to court today. She didn't accept the confidential plea deal the Judge suggested to lawyers yesterday during an in chambers secret meeting. At the short hearing today, the Judge gave Lindsay two more weeks to decide whether to accept it.

The Daily Beast reports the Judge also complained about the media leaks, particularly to TMZ and RadarOnline. He said he didn't suspect the attorneys.

Thankfully, this case doesn't involve military secrets where people's lives are at stake, because I can't believe how these things leak out, how TMZ, RadarOnline, all of these, I don't know how,” said [Judge]Schwartz.

Jared Loughner, accused of murder, attempted murder and other crimes in the Arizona shooting case of Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords, Chief Judge John Roll and others, pleaded not guilty in federal court today.

Over the objections of both the prosecution and defense, the Judge granted media requests for release of the search warrant documents in the case, with a few redactions. He said that because the investigation phase of the case was now over, the public had a right to see them. The defense, correctly in my view, argued among other things that the release of the documents could prejudice Loughner's right to an impartial jury. It asked that the documents not be released, at the earliest, before motions addressing the legality of the searches are determined. [More..]

In what is being called the largest insider trading trial in a generation, opening arguments in the trial of Galleon Group's Raj Rajartnam begin today.

Since arresting 53-year-old U.S. citizen Rajaratnam in October 2009 and announcing criminal charges against 26 former traders, executives and lawyers, the U.S. government has pressed ahead with what it calls the biggest probe of insider trading in the $1.9 trillion hedge fund industry. Nineteen people have pleaded guilty in the Galleon case.

There are wiretaps and cooperators galore. There will be a feast of corporate-leaked secrets. It will expose the hedge-fund industry.

Former Goldman Sachs Group director Rajat Gupta, who has not been criminally charged but had civil SEC charges brought against him last week, may play a prominent role. The feds have phone calls in which he allegedly provided Rajaratnam with confidential information from Goldman Sachs. [More...]

Joran Van der Sloot's attorney was interviewed this weekend and said that three weeks ago he told prosecutors Joran would plead guilty to killing Stephany Flores but argue the killing was spontaneous and unplanned, falling within Peru's "murder by violent emotion" statute, which allows for a sentence of between three and five years. This would mean Joran could be released in about 20 months.

The prosecutor is asking for 30 years. Flores' family wants at least 25. (I don't care what Beth Holloway wants -- she isn't part of this case and her opinion should be irrelevant.)

So how would this work if the prosecution doesn't agree? There are three separate homicide offenses in Peru with three separate penalties: Homicide Aggravated, Homicide Violent Emotion and Homicide Simple. [More...]

Jack Camp, the former federal judge in the Northern District of Georgia, who pleaded guilty to three charges resulting from illegal drug use (involving guns and his stripper girlfriend whom he knew had a prior drug conviction) will be sentenced on March 11. The AP reports the Government is seeking a 15 day sentence.

Under federal law, use of a controlled substance is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison. But if the offender has a prior drug conviction, the crime becomes a felony and is punishable by a minimum of 15 days and maximum of 2 years. The feds filed a recidivist notice, alleging that Camp should be sentenced as a prior offender because he aided and abetted his girlfriend whom he knew had a prior conviction.

Camp pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the possession of Roxycodone and marijuana by a prior offender; possession of controlled substances and conversion of government property (a computer he has since returned.) In the plea agreement, Camp acknowledged that the first charge carries a minimum 15 day sentence, but reserved the right to argue for a lesser sentence. [More...]

The Government has obtained a 49 count superseding Indictment against Jared Loughner, accused of attempting to kill Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. He's now also charged with killing Chief Judge John Roll, whom the Indictment says was a federal employee engaged in the performance of his duties. He's also charged with causing the death of the young girl. The Superseding Indictment is available here.

At the end of the Indictment there's a special findings section, that reads like a list of aggravating factors for the death penalty.

I assume from this that the feds intend to seek the death penalty (although they haven't yet filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty) and that Loughner will not face prosecution in state court for the murders.

If Loughner is only going to be prosecuted in federal court, I think his lawyers are breathing a little easier today. [More...]