Update on Paul Minor’s case

This week the 5th Circuit denied Paul Minor’s Motion for rehearing on Honest Services Fraud charges.  Minor now takes his case to the Supreme Court where in a December hearing, the Honest Services Fraud Statute was castigated (see below).  In 2007, Paul Minor’s case was one of four cases flagged by the House Judiciary Committee as an example of selective/political prosecution.  Paul Minor has been in prison since 2007.

February 25, 2010, Biloxi Sun Herald Link

December 9, 2009, LA Times Link

[Justice Antonin Scalia called the law "mush." He said it was like a law that said every "bad act" was a crime and let prosecutors and judges decide what constitutes a crime without warning ordinary citizens.   Most of the other justices sounded the same theme. Justice Stephen G. Breyer and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. suggested several times that the law might be unconstitutional because it was so vague.]

December 8, 2009, New York Times Link

[A federal law that is a favorite tool of prosecutors in corruption cases met with almost universal hostility from the justices in Supreme Court arguments on Tuesday. Š.In quick succession, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Scalia and Breyer recited what they called a fundamental principle: that the public must be able to understand what a criminal law means. "If it can't," Chief Justice Roberts said, "then the law is invalid."]