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United States v. Hardin,
No. 05-50312 (5th Cir., December 29, 2005): Instructive case if you handle federal criminal cases under the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) where the Circuit held the District Court erred in denying the Defendant's ex parte request for an expert to assist in the preparation of the defense. It is a meth case and a guilty plea case where the issue centered around whether a by-product of the process called "bones" should be included in the quantity (which makes a difference in punishment for Hardin under the Guidelines).
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Hain v. Mullin,
No. 05-5039 (10th Cir., January 23, 2006) (en banc) (Published): Do lawyers appointed under the Criminal Justice Act (a federal statute) to represent state death row inmates in federal habeas corpus proceedings get paid to represent them in state clemency proceedings? Well, the Tenth Circuit initially said, "no" in a panel opinion that was subsequently vacated, and a few other circuits have said "no" as well. However, in this case, the en banc Court does the condemned and counsel a favor by holding that payment is authorized under the statute. Very pleasant surprise for those of us who do this kind of work. I do not know if the Government will pursue this issue in the Supreme Court but I hope it does not (the Court denied cert. a couple of years ago on the issue when there was a circuit split so I hope they are still uninterested in resolving it now).
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