~ Comment on the Issue of Capital Punishment ~

Columbia School of Law Professor James Leibman, an opponent of the death penalty, in his recent report, "A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases, 1973-1995," said the most common errors that led to reversals at the post-conviction stage were "ineffective assistance of counsel at a very egregious level" for defendants and "prosecutorial withholding evidence of innocence and keeping it from the jury." In some cases, racial discrimination in selecting a jury was cited as a reason for reversal.

BRIEF RELIEF - Matters in Progress

New York Appellate Division brief on dental malpractice.

Jurisdiction in Securities & Exchange matter.

Federal action on information of insurance contract.

Issues as to accounting and dissolution of law practice.

Certificate of Incorporation of non-profit corporation and IRS requirements.

Sale of cable boxes state and federal restrictions.

Massachusetts criminal suppression appeal.

Ear piercing and regulations.

PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST

How Good is Good Enough? Expert Evidence Under Daubert and Kumbo. Willamette Law Review: Fall 1999, vol. 35, no. 4.

Morawetz, Nancy. Understanding the Impact of the 1996 Deportation Laws and the Limited Scope of Proposed Reforms. Harvard Law Review: June 2000, vol. 113, no. 8.

Clergy Malpractice: Protecting Consumers from Unconstitutional Secular Intrusion? Federation of Insurance & Corporate Counsel Quarterly: Winter 2000, vol. 50, no. 2.

Hallenborg, Mary Ann. The New York Landlord’s Law Book. Written by a New York attorney specializing in landlord-tenant law, the book comes with a CD-ROM which contains over 30 forms and notices.

Gallo, Jon J. The Use of Life Insurance in Estate Planning: A Guide to Planning and Drafting - Part I. Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Journal: Winter 1999, vol. 33, iss. 4. This is the first part of a two-part Article that provides a general guide to using life insurance in estate planning.

Supreme Court

Drye v. United States, U.S. , 120 S.Ct. 474, 145 L.Ed.2d 466, 1999 WL 1100445 (U.S.Ark. 1999), held that a taxpayer’s disclaimer of his right to an inheritance does not preclude a federal tax lien from attaching to the inheritance. Federal law that determines whether any given interest constitutes property within the meaning of the Code.

Dickerson v. United States (June 26, 2000). Congress cannot overturn through legislation a constitutional holding of the court. The standard for admissibility is whether the suspect received Miranda warnings before being interrogated, not the standard set forth in 18 U.S.C. sec. 3501 where the admissibility of such statements turns only on whether or not they were voluntarily made.

Santa Fe School District v. Doe (June 19, 2000). A high school student occupying the office of student counsel chaplain delivered a prayer of the intercom before every varsity football game. The Court held that this practice violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.

The Court unanimously held that an HMO cannot be sued under ERISA for breach of fiduciary duty where it delayed sending a patient for treatment. The Court said that "[t]he kinds of decisions....claimed to be fiduciary in nature are...mixed eligibility and treatment decisions...[W]e think Congress did not intend...any...HMO to be treated as a fiduciary to the extent that it makes mixed eligibility decisions acting through its physicians." Petitioner was required to wait eight days for an ultrasound of her inflamed abdomen. Pegram v. Herdrich (June 12, 2000).

Kansas Supreme Court

A minor’s marriage does not automatically allow a parent to stop paying child support. Instead, the parent "should return to court and have the trial court determine the issues on the record." In the Matter of the Marriage of Donna H. Schoby and David Scott Schoby, No. 82074 (April 21, 2000).

Fifth Circuit

The court held that a credit card company that mailed a Chapter 7 debtor a pre-approved credit card with a pre-approved credit limit did not actually or justifiably rely on false representations by the debtor and thus the debtor’s credit card debt would be expected from discharge on the basis of false pretenses, false representation, or actual fraud under Code sec. 523(a)(2)(A). In re Mercer (AT&T Universal Card Services v. Mercer, 2000 WL 489446 (5th Cir. Miss. 2000).

The Speedy Trial Act is not implicated when a defendant is detained on civil charges by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. U.S. v. Pena-Juarez (June 13, 2000).

New York State Supreme Court

In a divorce case, the value of a medical license at the outset of a doctor’s career should be determined by means of an annual calculation in each of the following 15 years based on a sliding percentage o the doctor’s income, a judge has ruled. R.R. v. P.R., No. 300984.