United States Supreme Court Issues Decision in Shaw v. U.S.

Posted by on December 12, 2016 in Press & Internal News

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Shaw v. United States.  Deputy Federal Public Defender Koren Bell argued this case before the Supreme Court on October 4, 2016.  The Supreme Court vacated the Ninth Circuit’s judgment which had upheld Shaw’s conviction and sent the case back to the Ninth Circuit to consider whether the jury instructions were lawful. The Court agreed with our argument that the bank fraud requires the intent to deprive the bank of something of value. It is not enough–as the government had argued in the Ninth Circuit and at trial–to just deceive the bank. Congratulations to Koren Bell and James Locklin on their great work in a hard-fought case and preserving the possibility of relief for our client.