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High court overturns bribery conviction of former VA governor McDonnell AddThis Sharing Buttons


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284995-high-court-overturns-bribery-conviction-of-former-va-governorThe Hill:

The Supreme Court handed a victory to former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell ® on Monday, unanimously tossing out his conviction on corruption charges and his two-year prison sentence.

 

The court said the parties have not had an opportunity to argue whether the charges should be dismissed due to insufficient evidence, so the justices are leaving it up to a lower court to hold a retrial.

“There is no doubt that this case is distasteful. It may be worse than that,” Chief Justice John Roberts said in delivering the opinion of the court. “But our concern is not with tawdry tales of Ferraris, Rolexes and ball gowns. It instead is with the broader legal implications of the government’s boundless interpretation of the federal bribery statute.”

In appealing his conviction, McDonnell challenged the jury instructions specifically. He claimed that the district court misstated the law and the sufficiency of the evidence against him.

 

Because those errors occurred, the justices said the jury might have made a mistake.

 

“Because the jury was not correctly instructed on the meaning of an ‘official act,’ it may have convicted Gov. McDonnell for conduct that is not unlawful,” Roberts wrote in the decision. “For that reason, we cannot conclude that the errors in the jury instruction were ‘harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.’ ”Scissors-32x32.png


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SCOTUS Overturns McDonnell Bribery Conviction

Posted by Mary Chastain June 27, 2016 at 11:32am

They believe that setting up meetings or events do not qualify as an official act.

The Supreme Court unanimously overturned Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s bribery conviction.

 

They do not think the prosecutors proved “he took significant official actions in exchange for the $175,000 in gifts and loans he received from a wealthy businessman.”

Scissors-32x32.pnghttp://legalinsurrection.com/2016/06/scotus-overturns-mcdonnell-bribery-conviction/

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“Progress,” but no decisions, in former governor’s case

By Amy Howe on Aug 26, 2016 at 6:14 pm

Earlier this year, the Court threw out former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell’s conviction on federal corruption charges and sent the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Both sides then asked the court of appeals to put the case on hold for thirty days. The court of appeals agreed, instructing McDonnell and the federal government to “file a proposed briefing or a joint status report on or before August 29, 2016” – today.

 

In a filing today, the government and McDonnell’s lawyers asked the court to continue to keep the case on hold for three more weeks. They explained that the two sides “have been conferring, and that process has progressed, but has not been completed in the Department of Justice.” The filing also assured the court that the two sides would not ask to postpone proceedings in the case – suggesting that in three weeks we may know whether prosecutors intend to pursue charges against McDonnell (and his wife, Maureen) again. Scissors-32x32.png

http://www.scotusblog.com/2016/08/progress-but-no-decisions-in-former-governors-case/

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