Sandra L. Brown and David E. Benz have joined the Washington office of the law firm Thompson Hine LLP. Brown, a partner in the firm's Transportation practice group, focuses on representing bulk commodity shippers and other entities that use transportation services, such as electric utilities, state and local government entities and ports, as well as coal, aggregates, chemicals and plastics shippers. Her practice covers freight moving domestically and internationally. Benz is an associate who focuses on matters involving freight
railroad regulation, contracting and strategy. Both were formerly with Troutman Sanders LLP.

On joining the firm, Brown says, "I was attracted to Thompson Hine for its commitment to client service and the strength of its national Transportation practice. I look forward to sharing this commitment and strength with clients."

Brown was a member of the Washington staff of Congressman Eric D. Fingerhut (D-Ohio) from 1993 to 1994 and then worked at the Interstate Commerce Commission. Prior to entering private practice, she worked on a special investigations team at the White House Counsel's Office during the Clinton administration.

Karyn Booth, Transportation practice group leader, states, "Sandy's background adds to the depth of our Transportation practice and increases the firm's representation of utility clients and other companies that ship by rail. We're delighted that both Sandy and David are bringing their substantial railroad experience to our multimodal Transportation team."

Brown earned her J.D. from Ohio Northern University and her B.A. from Goshen College. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Ohio. Benz earned his J.D. and B.A. from the University of Virginia. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and the commonwealth of Virginia.

About Thompson Hine LLP: Established in 1911, Thompson Hine is a business law firm dedicated to providing superior client service. The firm has been recognized as one of the Best Corporate Law Firms in America (in an annual survey of corporate directors conducted by Corporate Board Member magazine). With approximately 400 lawyers, Thompson Hine serves premier businesses worldwide. The firm has offices in Atlanta, Brussels, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, New York and Washington, D.C. For more information, go to www.ThompsonHine.com.

Thompson Hine LLP
Stacy F. Weiner, Business Development Manager, 202-263-4127

Supreme Court justices are questioning whether defendants should expect their lawyers to advise them on all the possible consequences of a guilty plea before it is submitted to a court.

Jose Padilla wants his guilty plea to drug charges thrown out. The Honduras-born immigrant says he wouldn't have made the plea if his lawyer hadn't incorrectly told him it would not affect his immigration status. He now faces deportation.

Lawyer Stephen Kinnaird says bad advice on the collateral consequences of a guilty plea is a violation of the constitutional right of "effective assistance of counsel."

But prosecutor WM Robert Long Jr. said criminal attorneys' only constitutional duty is to advise defendants on guilt, innocence and sentencing when it comes to pleas.

A Florida appellate court again has rebuffed the NCAA's effort to prevent public release of documents on academic cheating at Florida State.

The 1st District Court of Appeal late Monday denied the college athletics organization's motions for a rehearing or certification of the case to the Florida Supreme Court.

The documents being sought by The Associated Press and other news media concern a proposal to take wins away from coaches and athletes.

That includes football coach Bobby Bowden who could lose 14 victories — diminishing his already dwindling chances of overtaking Penn State's Joe Paterno as major college football's winningest coach.

The Supreme Court has agreed to consider reinstating the sex trafficking and forced labor conviction of a man dubbed the "S&M Svengali."

The justices said Tuesday they will hear an appeal filed by federal prosecutors in the case of Glenn Marcus, convicted after a sensational trial that dealt with mutilation and extreme humiliation. Arguments will be held early in 2010.

Last year, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the conviction violated the Constitution because Marcus was convicted of breaking a law, the 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act, that wasn't in place when some offenses happened.

In September 2007, Marcus was sentenced to nine years in prison for abusing a woman he photographed for his Web site, which reveled in sadomasochism. She was identified only as "Jodi."

Justice Sonia Sotomayor took no part in the court's consideration of the case. She was on the appeals court panel that ruled in Marcus' favor and joined in the panel's decision. But she wrote separately to suggest that the ruling, though required by a string of 2nd Circuit cases, might not be in line with the Supreme Court's view of the case.

The ruling turned on authorities' use of the 2000 law to prosecute Marcus for incidents spanning from 1999 to 2001. Marcus' attorneys argued, and the court agreed, that the law was applied retroactively.

A court in China's far western Xinjiang region has sentenced six men to death for murder and other crimes committed during ethnic riots that killed nearly 200 people. A seventh man was given life imprisonment.

The sentences Monday were the first for any of the scores of suspects arrested in the July rioting between Muslim Uighurs and members of the Han Chinese majority in the regional capital of Urumqi. It was China's worst communal violence in decades.

The names of the convicted men seemed to identify them as Uighurs. The verdicts appeared aimed at placating Han Chinese who have rallied in Urumqi calling for swift justice. An overseas Uighur activist, however, said they were only likely to exacerbate the ethnic tensions.

Xinjiang has been under heavy security since the strife, and state TV showed paramilitary troops in riot gear surrounding the courthouse Monday.

The official Xinhua News Agency said seven people were convicted of murder, and some also convicted of arson and robbery. Six received the death penalty: Abdukerim Abduwayit, Gheni Yusup, Abdulla Mettohti, Adil Rozi, Nureli Wuxiu'er, and Alim Metyusup.

A 10-year analysis of prosecutions under a law meant to punish artifact looters shows most people convicted never go to prison.

Archaeologist and former academic Robert Palmer has found in his review of cases from 1996 to 2005 that of the 83 people found guilty, 20 went to prison and 13 of those received sentences of a year or less. Another study found only 14 percent of artifact looting cases are ever solved.

Jeanne and Jericca Redd were given probation after pleading guilty to several felonies related to a sweeping federal investigation into grave robbing and artifact trapping in the Southwest.

Read Street was a lively place for commenters last week, in the wake of President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. And "lively" is an understatement. The comments were unusually vitriolic and polarized for this blog. They put me in the unusual role of censor, so I thought I should explain my thinking on the topic.

Comments must be approved by me or Nancy before they're posted on Read Street, and I'm usually pretty light-handed, killing only those that are obscene or slanderous. And the bounds of fair comment are broad when a political figure is the target. So I posted many harsh comments, even though there was obvious irony in those that said Obama's Nobel was premature, while skewering him for a host of political sins that he could not possibly have had time to commit in less than a year in office.

I admit to censoring one comment though. It was from a Holocaust denier. That, to me, was in its own way, obscene and slanderous to the memory of all who died, and all who remember them today.