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A Luigi Mangione Death Penalty Trial
FEATURED
April 15, 2025
A Luigi Mangione Death Penalty Trial
By: James Trusty
The Attorney General’s recent announcement that DOJ will seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione raises a host of interesting legal and philosophical issues, and it almost certainly reflects a dramatic about-face from the Biden administration’s approach towards federal prosecutions for death-eligible offenses. Aside from having personally prosecuted three death penalty trials while I was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Maryland and when I was Chief of the DOJ Organized Crime and Gang Section, I spent a number of years on the Attorney General’s Capital Review Committee (“CRC”). The Committee was comprised of a number of “grey heads” who had personally handled death penalty cases and who developed a solid working knowledge of the intricate field of capital litigation. Ultimately,…
Trouble in Paradise: White Lotus Character’s Legal Woes Illustrate Civil Forfeiture’s Overreach
April 14, 2025
Trouble in Paradise: White Lotus Character’s Legal Woes Illustrate Civil Forfeiture’s Overreach
By: Abbey Block
Last Sunday, millions of viewers tuned in to watch the season finale of White Lotus – a widely popular show that centers around the week-long vacation of several ultra-wealthy patrons of the fictional “White Lotus” resort in Thailand.[1] The show follows a dynamic cast of quirky characters as they navigate their opulent getaway. One of those characters in this most recent season was Timothy Ratliff…
Amending Arbitration Clauses – No Notice, Big Problem?
April 8, 2025
Amending Arbitration Clauses – No Notice, Big Problem?
By: Robert Ward
Many websites’ terms and conditions allow online service providers to make changes without providing prior notice to users. Often, the terms state that the user agrees to read the terms and conditions, and that continued use of the website constitutes acceptance of any modification. A recent Fourth Circuit decision highlights the potential risk that such unilateral change-in-terms provisions might pose to another common feature of…
No Need for Speed
December 14, 2023
No Need for Speed
By: James Trusty
In most U.S. District Courts, the trial date for a defendant who is not incarcerated is typically many months—and often easily over a year—from the time of his or her initial appearance after indictment. Many trials are resolved by plea agreements without ever having set a “real” trial date. There is lip service to the constitutional notion of a Speedy Trial, and the easily avoidable…
Human Trafficking Blindspot
November 27, 2023
Human Trafficking Blindspot
By: James Trusty
For many years now, state and federal prosecutors have become increasingly aware of the insidious nature of sexual and labor trafficking. Victimization is cultivated by strong, threatening, and cunning traffickers. Gangs have increasingly turned to sex trafficking as a source of illicit income with low visibility—a trade that does not “bring the heat” to the criminal enterprise in the same way that drug trafficking and…
Equal Justice as Another Casualty of War
November 9, 2023
Equal Justice as Another Casualty of War
By: James Trusty
While many Americans properly focus on the carnage and chaos of two wars, there is also a more subtle war being waged by progressive mayors—and others in high positions—on fundamentally important notions like Rule of Law and Equal Justice. Last weekend over 100,000 protesters descended upon Washington, D.C. to chant and vandalize as a bewildering show of support for Hamas, an entity that demonstrates its…
Reading the Plea Leaves
October 25, 2023
Reading the Plea Leaves
By: James Trusty
Are guilty pleas in Fulton County confirming the righteousness of Fani Willis’ RICO prosecution or do they reflect an inherent frailty of the case, even in a venue where jurors largely can be expected to instinctively support a prosecution of high-profile Republicans? A close look at the recent plea agreements suggests that prosecutorial victory laps are premature. While the indictment itself has joined the ranks…
Not a Grande Victory for DOJ
September 13, 2023
Not a Grande Victory for DOJ
By: James Trusty
Frustrated with the massive influx of aliens into Texas, Texas Governor Greg Abbott came up with a plan that was physically simple, but legally complex: drop a 1000-foot-long buoy barrier into the middle of the Rio Grande. The four-foot spherical orange buoys were chained together and anchored to the riverbed near the town of Eagle Pass—a sector that reported 270,000 encounters with migrants during the…
